Alloy polishing guide

Hi,
So I've got some 70's Campy hubs and a 50's Harden hub I will be getting laced soon. I wanted to make these and few other pieces shiny before I put them in the wheels.
Has anyone got experience of using the drill mounted aluminium polishing kits you can get from hardware stores.
They are a few mop heads, a cutting compound and a polishing compound.
I wanted to use these on the hubs, an old GB stem and old GB brakes. Does anyone know how to tell if they're raw metal and can be polished?
ta
Alex
I'll put some photo's up of the pieces soon

http://www.lfgss.com/search.php?searchid=3405847

Old Campag hubs are not anodized.

You can achieve a high polish by hand.

this has been covered before on here numerous times
anyways here is a good guide

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?259766-Do-It-Yourself-(DIY)&p=3677840&viewfull=1#post3677840

i used autosol cause it was cheaper then peek

if it's anodised you need to get that off to polish it. Costic Soda in spray form does it (oven cleaner) anyway, there is a thread about it....

Cheers for the threads about that, I forgot to look.....

My Harden Hub came up real good this morning. Got some bits that aren't so good, I'll put up some before and afters when they're all good.

Might actually be able to put up 1 of the 3 builds I've had on the Burner for a while..

Amazing Green '73 Raleigh LTD-SC, wish is going to be standard, simple and a bit stripped down.

The Brown '73 Brown Grand Prix, period high end bits...The bike I rode round Tasmania (just now minus the gears)

And my dream bike....The '50 Holdsworth Tornado undrilled track frame.....This one is going to take a long time to build right...

ta

Alex

Going on renovation overhaul. Got nasty scratches on my alluminium cinelli stem/bars.
Anyone know the best way to get rid of these scratches? Iv heard about the oven cleaner method to get rid of the anodization, tips? do you have to re-anodize after sanding /polishing/buffing? anyone got ny experience?

http://www.lfgss.com/search.php?searchid=4075714

Too slow Murts.

Been doing a little light Googling as I am interested in getting a mirror finish and a satin finish on the same frame:

I used to use a satin finish quite regularly in silversmithing as it was ubercool inthe early 00s. You don't need a mirror finish first, you can do it from a far lower-grade level of polish, like after you've used cutting compound on it. The satinizing mop was essentially an expensive disk of pan scritcher. you know, the green rough think you used to use for washing up before those textured sponges were commonplace. I should think you could do it by hand, but it would take a long time of careful rubbing to get a satin effect that looked even and non-directional.

Looking for a new wheel set and have my eye on open pro to dura ace.

I was wondering tho, has any one here polished open pros? Is it tough work with the breaking surface and removing the anodising etc?

If anyone has some photos of polished open pros that would be rad to. The google machine isn't coming up with much.

Thanks

I didn't realise the silver one were anodised. Not sure how they would polish up. Try a buffer in a drill with some cutting fluid like t-cut? or if you want high bling what about Velo Orange rims. They do one which is box and one that is similar profile to the open pro.

Good luck

Found this a very informative thread. My task is to 'convert' the centre section of some black drop bars to polished alloy to match my stem ( 1990s Italian classic rebuild, modern ergo bars ( sorry must have ) are all black! ). Not sure what the existing finish is. It is textured, not obviously anodised, black. Bars are Ambrossio Lite II. Informed advice appreciated.

Probably anodized methinks, but that's just a guess, stick it in oven cleaner anyway, can't do it much harm.

chances are the surface will be pitted when you get the black off, so the only way will be to sand them with quite course paper, you may end up taking too much material off and havving a bar that doesnt fit the stem very well....

Hmmm... You could do some intricate taping of the section that the stem will clamp and leaving that black to the keep the original diameter... Excessive but possibly effective.

I'm about to set to polishing some bits and bobs and have been reading through the relevant threads (incidentally this one also contains some good info: http://www.lfgss.com/thread8526.html ).

Anyway the thing I'm struggling to understand is why the need to remove the anodising coat. Presumably even anodised parts are shiny when they first arrive so why won't buffing them up with some autosol/peek work? I'm reluctant to charge into stripping the anodised layer if I'm going to have to continually polish and buff the parts to stop them going dull again.

I can't find anything either way but my guess is that this is something to do with the mirror finish - it's possible to make anodised parts shiny but the mirror finish requires the anodising to be removed?

So I've been wanting to polish some bits for a while, and I bit the bullet and bought a bench grinder with a polishing kit from these guys....
http://www.thepolishingshop.co.uk/

This arrived yesterday....

And this was in it...

Anyway, I had some old shitty bits knocking about in the man cave and decided to experiment......on an old beater thing I had, was a mismatched set of cranks...solida non drive side, and a stronglight on the drive side.....

After half an hour testing, this was the result....

I also did an old sr laprade seat pin, but need to use some more wet and dry on the scratching before showing it.......

For a first attempt, I'm happy.

^ fancy polishing some bits for me (for cash monies obs!) PM if so.(stem, bars, seatpost)

B

I've pm's ya ,Benjam ...... No problem.

Replied and repped

really good article on cleaning the throttle body, - much inspiration now! :)

Had no luck selling these sturmey archer cranks.....

But with the use of heavy duty oven cleaner, fine wet/dry paper, autosol and a little elbow grease, I turned my frown upside down! Happy with the initial result.

Looks good... I had a gold Headset Dust Cover on my BMX and wasnted a chrome/polished/silver one so I did the same thing. Came out awesome, though there are still some races of gold in there. I have gone overkill with the oven cleaner before so was very careful!

Hi guys, great thread but coudn't find my query's answer...

Sanded down a black 'alloy' stem with 1200 paper yesterday because wife wants a silver one and this is lighter than her steel one.

Can't get at the paint in pits, I'm assuming I can get a nice shine with Brasso but the surface marks easily. Do I need to lacquer it or something to resist corrosion and the weather and keep shine?

Would it take to chroming or something? I expect that that would add the weight again that I'm trying to save!

Thanks in advance for your advice. I can try to post pics if you need.