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"

On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 07:13:53 GMT, arrya deefmon wrote:

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:00:56 -0600, Gary Pewitt wrote:

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

I'm not really up on most of that jargon. I took a 6" square of 1/8"
navy bronze, drilled a hole in the center and chucked it in a 3 point
lathe. I cut a circle out and beveled the edges then smoothed it with
a file and progressive sandpaper grits. There were some pits and
scratches in the flat surface so I sanded there too. Tonight I tried
some Dico No. SCR stainless buffing composition on a bench grinder
mounted cotton wheel. It gouged up the whole surface so I will have to
go back to sandpaper and the drawing board I suppose. Maybe a grinder
is too fast. Thank you.


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"
After you once again get the scratches out finish sanding with 600 wet
or dry paper. Use water as a cutting lubricant on the paper. Kerosene
works too but water is cleaner. Then get a few cotton buffs. One will
be for rouge. Keep it super clean. The other two buffs will be for
tripoli. One tripoli buff needs to be spiral sewn, the other should be
fairly loose. The rouge buff should be loose too. If the buffs are
over 6 inches in diameter use at 1725 rpm. Start with the spiral sewn
buff and tripoli. When it will no longer get the metal any shinier
switch to the loose buff with tripoli. Finish with the rouge buff.
Clean the piece of all buffing compound before starting with the rouge
buff. Keep all the buffing wheels free of anything except the buffing
compound. Even one tiny grain of dirt will scratch the hell out of the
part. If you put tripoli on the rouge buff then the buff is now a
tripoli buff and you will need to go out and but another buff for
rouge. Finally, keep the buffs clean. Don't lay them on a dirty bench.
Put 'em a ziplock bag if you need to. Oh, I almost forgot: keep the
buffs clean.
Cheers,
Eric
P.S. Clean

While you had it in the lathe you should have faced it off with a
large radius bit, shallow cut, and slow feed. Once again a mirror
finish can be obtained. If your bronze is a casting it may be that it
has hard and soft spots which will make it very hard to get a good
finish.
73 Gary



On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 07:13:53 GMT, arrya deefmon wrote:

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:00:56 -0600, Gary Pewitt wrote:

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

I'm not really up on most of that jargon. I took a 6" square of 1/8"
navy bronze, drilled a hole in the center and chucked it in a 3 point
lathe. I cut a circle out and beveled the edges then smoothed it with
a file and progressive sandpaper grits. There were some pits and
scratches in the flat surface so I sanded there too. Tonight I tried
some Dico No. SCR stainless buffing composition on a bench grinder
mounted cotton wheel. It gouged up the whole surface so I will have to
go back to sandpaper and the drawing board I suppose. Maybe a grinder
is too fast. Thank you.


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"
Gary Pewitt N9ZSV
Sturgeon's Law "Ninety per cent of everything is crap"