You mentioned milling? With the head dialed in perfectly square to
the table and using a fly cutter with a large tip radius HS tool bit,
shallow cut, and slow feed you should be able to get a mirror finish.
I have done this many times on many different materials. Naturally
some materials will finish up better than others. I wouldn't use this
technique on hot rolled steel or some types of copper that give
stringy chips. The large radius and slow feed will overlap the cuts
and the shallow depth cut takes the strain off the cutter and prevents
chatter.
Of course this only applies to a flat surface.
73 Gary



On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 03:50:24 GMT, arrya deefmon wrote:

I've made a faceplate of navy bronze and now I'd like it to shine
without having any scratches. I drilled and milled and removed the
surface scratches and then used progressively finer grits of sandpaper
to 1500, then steel wool to 0000, then used automotive rubbing
compound with cotton wadding but I still have a haze and many fine
sanding swirls. I did most of this by hand but I tried a drill press
with a woolen pad and I tried a bench grinder with a cotton wheel in
the rubbing compound stage. Can someone describe the correct
technique? Thank you.
Gary Pewitt N9ZSV
Sturgeon's Law "Ninety per cent of everything is crap"