How to get Near-Chrome Finish on 303 Stainless?

mmcmdl said:
Passivate then electroplate . :encourage:
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I think that’s why I love polishing so much. Don’t get me wrong I have a pro street Harley and absolutely everything is chromed except the tins,seat,and tires.
You can take a dirty piece of aluminum, stainless,brass, what have you. Put aliitle time and love into it and you can get some pretty amazing results. “If you know what your doing”. And not cost a dime but time and effort.
 
Cadillac said:
I think that’s why I love polishing so much. Don’t get me wrong I have a pro street Harley and absolutely everything is chromed except the tins,seat,and tires.
You can take a dirty piece of aluminum, stainless,brass, what have you. Put aliitle time and love into it and you can get some pretty amazing results. “If you know what your doing”. And not cost a dime but time and effort.
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Liquid hand soap with that fine grit , warm water and scotch bright works for me .
 
The "unitised wheel", I spoke of, is also damned handy to deburr machine metal items.
Running a part under the wheel, makes it go from NICE to WOW. Not to polish, just to remove the micro, sharp edges that are present.
The polisher would be a nice assett. Put a Unitised wheel on one end.
Using the buffer, different wax for different metals.
 
I find the only way to get shiny, really shiny is it has to be SMOOTH. I sand to at least 1200-1500 before I even start to polish.
Made a few stainless belt buckles a few years ago. I use the unitised wheels a lot and use the 555 compound too. With a lot of sanding, polishing and elbow grease, you can get a really shiny, almost chrome finish.
Just my 2cents !
 
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Mark Needham said:
The "unitised wheel", I spoke of, is also damned handy to deburr machine metal items.
Running a part under the wheel, makes it go from NICE to WOW. Not to polish, just to remove the micro, sharp edges that are present.
The polisher would be a nice assett. Put a Unitised wheel on one end.
Using the buffer, different wax for different metals.
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Mark,
I like that idea. Empire Abrasives also makes Scotchbrite-like belts (look like the same material as the unitized wheel) I might try.
https://www.empireabrasives.com/1-x-42-surface-conditioning-sanding-belt/

Evan
 
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I forgot to mention above, the Very Best High polish outcome ive achieved I followed an old timers recommendation to change the sanding direction by trying to Cross sand the previous grit marks as close to 90 degrees across the previous sand marks as possible. Doing it this way works the corser sand marks down to a smoother finish with much greater efficiency without changing the final shape enough to be a problem.

If you already have a lathe you can bypass the polisher assuming you wouldn't mind getting your lathe a bit dirty! And those scotch brite belts for the belts grinder work great so long that you pay very strick attention to the material you remove from pass to pass or risk removing more stock then targeting!
 
I brought the parts to the current finish with wet/dry sandpaper followed by Flitz on the lathe. Cross sanding will be tough on these parts.
 
You can get up to 100,000 grit diamond paste from a good lapidary supply outfit. The key to getting a good polish is avoiding cross contamination. If your 10,000-grit buffing pad gets contaminated with 600 grit, you will never get any further than a 600-grit finish. I used to polish samples for microscopic examination, with the final step being a pass with 50nM (nano-meter) colloidal silica. That size of "grit" polished samples down to the atomic level, showing no evidence of scratches with SEM examination @50,000X and higher. At that level polishing action is closer to chemical etching than physical polishing, hence it is dubbed CMP -- chemo-mechanical polishing.
 
After thinking about it overnight, I decided against getting a buffer right now. I did order black, green, and white rouge with a selection of drill and Dremel mounted buffing wheels. Given the shape of the stand-offs I think they'd be dangerous to buff, so I like the idea of spinning the stand-offs and holding the buffing pad, or clamping the stand-offs and using a drill or Dremel.
 
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