In a message dated 10/15/00 11:58:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Hi Tony: > > I now polish the engraved brass compass rosettes that I often inlay into my > dials. I have been using an electric palm sander with 1500 grit sandpaper > wetted with water and a tiny bit of detergent. I want the surface to be as > shiny as possible. > > This procedure works fairly well but the gloss isn't quite as bright as it > could be. Even using this fine grit, I can still see very small scratch > lines from the abrasive. Do you think emery sandpaper would give a higher > gloss than 1500 grit? Also, do you prefer electric or hand sanding? 3M makes polishing paper (Don't use lapping film), as fine as 1 micron. I used this to get a near perfect mirror finish on my bronze focusing mirrors (before rhodium plating them). It is about $2.00/sheet from Precision Surfaces International (www.psidragon.com) in Houston, Texas. You can also buy diamond paste in a finer grit from Grainger or a host of other sources. This is applied by a cloth, and a little goes a long way. Lastly, there are some wonderful lapping compounds available from PSI above, and from United States Products Co. in Pittsburgh (412-621-2130). I recommend USP's "38-1200" aluminum oxide applied by felt (billiard table) cloth, followed by "Linde-C" (1 micron) then "Linde-A" (0.3 micron) for a beautiful mirror finish. Bill Gottesman Burlington, VT 44.4674 N, 73.2027 W
