I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my tail.

On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 13:29:20 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my tail.

Perhaps not want you want but I might mention that hand engraving,
guns for example, are polished surfaces with hand cut depressions. The
actual engraved portions are not polished or smoothed in any way.

--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 08:59:37 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 13:29:20 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my tail.

Perhaps not want you want but I might mention that hand engraving,
guns for example, are polished surfaces with hand cut depressions. The
actual engraved portions are not polished or smoothed in any way.

If you really *do* need a polish, the traditional way to do it is with
slips (shaped hand stones) and die grinders equipped with points
(cylindrical buffs, longer than they are wide, made of felt and
available in a variety of end shapes) The last handwork I saw of that
type, over 30 years ago, was being done with die grinders and
rubberized abrasive Cratex points, and polished with felt points.

A lot has to do with how fine and complex the details are. But a
complex coining die might require 30 hours or more of handwork. Often,
depending on the machine finish, it starts with jeweler's files and
diemaker's rifflers, which are like woodworker's rifflers but with
very fine teeth.

These are traditional moldmakers' and diemakers' skills. They've been
largely replaced with advanced ram-type EDMs. It's a lot easier to get
that finish on a piece of graphite or tellurium-copper electrode than
on steel, and the finish you can achieve with today's EDMs, using
copper or copper-alloy electrodes, amounts to a medium-high polish.

--
Ed Huntress

On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 13:29:20 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my tail.

I got a set of mounted felt bobs and wheels from Brownell's long ago.
https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...t-prod610.aspx
Might be just the thing.

Pete Keillor

On Fri, 09 Feb 2018 22:42:59 -0500, Ed Huntress
wrote:
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing
my tail.

Don't mention your tail in this newsgroup lest you want the **** in a
dress to show up.


If you really *do* need your knob polished

Oops, too late.

the traditional way to do it is with slips

You wear slips under your **** dress? I thought you went commando.

--
Ed ****dress

On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 07:13:41 -0600, Pete Keillor
wrote:
I got a set of mounted felt bobs

**** in a dress mounted and felt Bob long before you ever did. He's
been trolling old men in alt.survival for gay sex.

On Friday, February 9, 2018 at 3:29:23 PM UTC-5, Bob La Londe wrote:

I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.



I have a Harbor Freight 4 inch nylon polishing wheel either item number 91372 or 60325 that I use a lot in a drill press. The drill press is a 16 speed and needs to be set to a fairly high speed. I would recommend you get one or essentially the same from MSC or another vendor.

I think it will do what you want or at least be a great start before using your smaller polishing wheel.

Even if it does not solve this problem , you will find it useful and it is not expensive.

" Works good , lasts a long time "

Dan

On 2/9/2018 8:42 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 08:59:37 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 13:29:20 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it
look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a
pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine
details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my
tail.

Perhaps not want you want but I might mention that hand engraving,
guns for example, are polished surfaces with hand cut depressions. The
actual engraved portions are not polished or smoothed in any way.

If you really *do* need a polish, the traditional way to do it is with
slips (shaped hand stones) and die grinders equipped with points
(cylindrical buffs, longer than they are wide, made of felt and
available in a variety of end shapes) The last handwork I saw of that
type, over 30 years ago, was being done with die grinders and
rubberized abrasive Cratex points, and polished with felt points.

A lot has to do with how fine and complex the details are. But a
complex coining die might require 30 hours or more of handwork. Often,
depending on the machine finish, it starts with jeweler's files and
diemaker's rifflers, which are like woodworker's rifflers but with
very fine teeth.

These are traditional moldmakers' and diemakers' skills. They've been
largely replaced with advanced ram-type EDMs. It's a lot easier to get
that finish on a piece of graphite or tellurium-copper electrode than
on steel, and the finish you can achieve with today's EDMs, using
copper or copper-alloy electrodes, amounts to a medium-high polish.



Thanks Ed. I am not quite ready to step into EDM, so polishing tricks
may be the ticket. I didn't pickup the graphite mold job, so I have not
dedicated a machine to being destroyed by cutting graphite just yet.

I probably have a "good enough" finish, but I'd like to do better.

On 2/10/2018 6:13 AM, Pete Keillor wrote:
On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 13:29:20 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my tail.

I got a set of mounted felt bobs and wheels from Brownell's long ago.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...t-prod610.aspx
Might be just the thing.

Pete Keillor



THAT might be just what I was thinking of. Like you said its cheap enough.

On 2/10/2018 6:13 AM, Pete Keillor wrote:
On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 13:29:20 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I'm finishing up some details embossing press dies in steel, and I'd
like to do a little bit nicer job. They flat part of the plate is
pretty easy. I go over it with a diamond hone, then some fine grit
paper, and finally hit it with the buffing wheel and some polishing
compound. Comes out looking fairly decent.

The embossing part looks looks pretty good, but I'd like to make it look
better. The finish pass with the smallest ball end mill leaves a pretty
good looking finish, but there are fine tool marks if you look close.
The big old buffing wheel just won't fit down in all the fine details so
I was thinking of maybe making a tiny soft cloth wheel to fit a rotary
hand piece mandrel and having a go at it some polishing compound.

I have a few failures from the project on my bits and pieces shelf I
could test it out on, but I'd like to know if I am just chasing my tail.

I got a set of mounted felt bobs and wheels from Brownell's long ago.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...t-prod610.aspx
Might be just the thing.

Pete Keillor



THAT might be just what I was thinking of. Like you said its cheap enough.