"Dan_Musicant" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:45:14 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
:
:"Dan_Musicant" wrote in message
.. .
: On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:16:28 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
: wrote:
:
: :
: :"Dan_Musicant" wrote in message
: .. .
: :I have a couple of stainless steel pots that have had long usage and
: : don't look so hot.
: :
: : One is an 18/10 16 oz Italian "espresso" coffee maker (that you put
on
: a
: : stove burner) that's been used something like 20,000 times! I just
: spent
: : almost an hour buffing it with a wheel with polishing compound. It
: : proved to me that it IS possible to bring back that mirror like
lustre
: : but it's just too much work to warrant the effort. I figure there
must
: : be ways to speed up the process. I have 4 different grades of
polishing
: : compound and I could theoretically start coarse and go finer with 4
: : different wheels. However, I'd have to go out and get at least 3
more
: : wheels. My grinder is homemade (from a dryer motor), and so is
slower
: : than a regular store-bought grinder (about 1/2 the speed).
: :
: : The tarnish on the coffee maker is kind of copper colored, some sort
of
: : baked-on coating, maybe oxidation. Once in a while I wash off a
coating
: : with metal cleaner or Bon Ami, but this harder/tougher copper
colored
: : coating remains, which only seems removable (so far) by hard-nosed
: : buffing with polishing compound.
: :
: : I also have a stainless steel boiler (18/8), which is one of those
: : coffee servers you see (or saw?) in coffee shops. Makes a nice
boiler
: : (that's what I use it for), but is now so tarnished that on the
bottom
: : in places it's is downright black. I'd like to shine it up too, at
: least
: : occasionally, if it can be done without too much effort.
: :
: : Thanks for any tips.
: :
: :It sounds like you're using traditional cutting and buffing compounds.
: For
: :stainless, or for any steel, for that matter, I use Dico stainless
steel
: 
olish and it's probably three times faster than any general purpose
: :compounds I've ever used. It leaves a great finish, too.
:
: Thanks. Where do you get that stuff? B&M, online?
:
:I got mine from a mill supply in Union, NJ, but I see it's available from
:many places online. Search on Dico buffing rather than Dico polish,
because
:there apparently is some translation software called Dico that translates
:from Polish. d8-)
Thanks. A mill supply... I bet I could find such a thing here (Berkeley,
CA) if I'm industrious.
A mill supply is an old name for a machine-shop supply store. Try a big, old
hardware store if you have such a thing. I used to get Dico compounds at an
old hardware store in downtown Princeton, NJ, but that store, and most like
it, are gone the way of the dodo. They may even have it at Home Depot. I've
never looked. If you don't find it easily it's probably easier to order it
online. Machine-shop supply stores are pretty rare except in industrial
areas.
I presume you use this stuff with a buffing
wheel?
Yes. It's a waxy-type compound made for use on buffing wheels. I use it on
regular muslin wheels on my bench grinder and on little bobs on my die
grinder and my Dremel. I also use it for stropping knife blades and plane
irons, but that's another story.
I should probably get another and not try to reuse the one I used
today. It was virgin this morning, but is now impregnated with brown
polishing compound.
In general, you can charge a wheel with a coarser compound, or with a
more-aggressive compound of equal coarseness. Just not the other way around,
because the coarser or more-aggressive compound will remain on the wheel. If
the brown polishing compound was rouge, no problem, just don't use it for
rouge again. If it was brown tripoli, you're probably still OK to use it
with Dico stainless polish.
There is a way to strip almost all of the old compound off a wheel but I
don't discuss it in public, for the same reason I don't discuss lighting
charcoal fires with gasoline. d8-) It's a good way to put an eye out if you
aren't good at it.
Otherwise, yes, get a new wheel and reserve the old one for the compound you
were using. I have five or six buffing wheels that I reserve for one type of
compound each. I keep them in Ziploc bags between uses.
--
Ed Huntress