Max Q Aerospace 54mm fin cans!

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"Polishing aluminum is an art that takes a lot of practice and patience."

No kidding. I have done some aluminum polishing in the past and it's very time consuming to do. I would love to hear more about your technics for polishing as I have a polishing job coming up soon on a pretty large piece which is hard as heat tends to build up and distort the finish.

Dale P.
 
ibuildstuff4u said:
"Polishing aluminum is an art that takes a lot of practice and patience."

No kidding. I have done some aluminum polishing in the past and it's very time consuming to do. I would love to hear more about your technics for polishing as I have a polishing job coming up soon on a pretty large piece which is hard as heat tends to build up and distort the finish.

Dale P.
Click to expand...

Polishing is just the art of putting ever finer scratches in the part until the finest scratches are undetectable to the human eye. I start with 220 grit and go up to 2000 grit, each pass is done in a crosshatch pattern so I can tell when the scratches from the previous pass are gone. When I move to the black wet paper I use water with a drop or two of soap to keep the paper from sticking to the part. Make sure to wear nitrile gloves or your hands will prune up. After the parts have been worked in with 2000 grit and the finish is perfectly matte, I move to the buffing wheel. I have six different buffing wheels that I keep bagged up after every use to keep them from getting dust or cross contaminated, and six different grades of rouge. If you do it right, the part will only get barely warm. I hold each part by hand without gloves so I can feel if the part is heating up too much. You want the rouge to do the work, otherwise you are no longer polishing, you are burnishing, which pits and blues the metal. I could write a whole book on this, but this gives everybody an idea of what's involved. A 4" fin can will take a full day if everything goes right, but if you miss some scratches and have to cut it back, it can easily take two days.
 
How about I just send the part to you to polish! Thanks for the tips, it sounds like you have a good process down. Your jaw would hit the floor if you saw how I did it. I just take a wood stick and pass it on the buffing wheel to clean it out between the different grades of rouge. Guess I need to buy more buffing wheels!

Thanks again, Dale P.
 
When I machine aluminum parts and want a shine I just wet sand with WD40 and finish on a buffer. My surface starts smoother though. It isn't very time consuming.

Gerald
 
Try polishing ti and not having any pitting or sparking, oh the days when I use to do that!!!


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G_T said:
When I machine aluminum parts and want a shine I just wet sand with WD40 and finish on a buffer. My surface starts smoother though. It isn't very time consuming.

Gerald
Click to expand...

There is a huge difference in time investment between "shine" and "mirror like". "Shine" just takes a few minutes. I wish it were that easy. On the 4" fin cans it takes about an hour per surface and there are nine of them. Even if you start with the smooth milled aluminum and are lucky enough not to have any deep scratches from the mill, you have to get the grain of the metal flattened out. If you research how experts polish aluminum to a mirror like finish, you will see how many steps there are and unless you are doing small parts the time can add up. If you use eight grades of emery to get to 2000 grit and you only spend 5 minutes at each step, it is still 40 minutes before you can move to the buffer. And that is just one surface, so if you add up all nine surfaces, it is six hours of sanding before you can move parts to the buffer. Then add in six buffing stages and hope you don't find any problems during the buffing otherwise you go back to the paper. No, I'm not joking nor am I incompetent, that is what it takes. Feel free to research.
 
Just sharing a pic for those who may be considering-- 38mm sized for motor case, fins notched for airframe. Thanks again Mike for the beautiful work and for being so responsive to customer requests!

DSC_3903.jpg
 
Binder Design said:
That sounds exciting, lol.
Click to expand...

Use to come he black. Had an epic time making sparks. Suffer really bad now with white finger and I'm young. Miss the job but handy to know many aircraft are flying because of my work.


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beezwax said:
Just sharing a pic for those who may be considering-- 38mm sized for motor case, fins notched for airframe. Thanks again Mike for the beautiful work and for being so responsive to customer requests!
Click to expand...

Looks nice. Mind if I use your photo on our web site? :)

Also, I need to mention/add something to our web site stating that the custom fin notching on the motor version of the fin can is not a standard item. There is no charge for the notching, but you have to mention it in the comments when you order. I had a few people order and assumed it came with fins notched.

I may add a pull down menu in the future, but for now that's how we're doing it. If you need to add the notches, scribe your line and take a file to each fin until you like the fit. Only takes a few minutes per fin. That's how I did the first set before I programmed the CNC to do it for me.
 

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