Polish Aluminum
Do you have a piece of aluminum dish- or dinnerware that you want to polish perfectly? Maybe you're trying to polish a piece of sheet metal on a car, truck, or semi? If you want to know the best methods for turning that tarnished piece of aluminum into a glittering specimen of shininess, look no further.
Contents
Steps
Polishing Small Pieces of Aluminum
- Clean the piece of aluminum with dish soap and water. Clean off any grime, dirt, food, or waste products that have attached themselves to the aluminum over the years since it was last polished.
- Clean aluminum with a soft-bristled toothbrush or scrubber to get into the cracks of the aluminum.
- Rinse off any remaining soap and debris with clean water.
- Mix together equal parts cream of tartar and water to form a paste. Cream of tartar, also known as potassium bitartrate, is a by-product of wine-making and has many household applications as a cleaner.
- If cleaning an aluminum pot or pan, simply boil water and 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar in the pot or pan. Do this for 10 minutes, dump out the cream of tartar mixture, rinse well after cool, and repeat if necessary.
- Use circular motions to clean the aluminum with the cream of tartar paste. Use a cloth to buff the cream of tartar paste onto the surface of the aluminum.
- Rinse with water and dry with a cloth.
- Apply aluminum polish to select areas of the aluminum. Work the aluminum polish onto the aluminum using a soft cloth and small circular motions. Remove the polish with another soft cloth. Buff to finish.
- Do not polish the inside of aluminum pots or pans with metallic polish. Metallic or aluminum polish can be hazardous to human health and should never be ingested, even if you intend on cleaning the aluminum after polishing.
- Do not polish any area of an aluminum pot or pan that comes into contact with the burner or gas flame
Polishing Aluminum Sheet Metal
- Clean the sheet metal with detergent and water to remove grit and dirt. You want the aluminum to be clean when you sand it.
- Wash off any remaining soap with clean water and dry with a towel.
- Apply protective eye-wear and masks in case of emergency. Especially before sanding and applying the compound, it's a good idea to protect your eyes and the rest of your face from the machines you're using.
- Sand the sheet metal, starting with a medium grit sandpaper and working your way up to finer sandpaper. In order to get a mirror finish on your car, boat, or aluminum panels, you're going to need to do some sanding. While it's technically possible to use sandpaper by hand, employing a sanding machine will make your job incredibly easier.
- For a quick polish, start with 400-grit sandpaper and give the entire area a good sanding. Then use an 800-grit sandpaper and give the area another good once-over.
- For a thorough polish, start with 120 grit and move up to 240, 320, 400, and finally, 600-grit. For very fine polishing, you can go all the way up to a 1600 grit paper and wet sand the final sanding.
- Each finer grit should remove the traces of the previous grit. If it doesn't, you're not using the sanding machine correctly.
- Use a rotating cotton buffing tool to begin buffing the aluminum. Before buffing, apply a rouge or brown cutting compound to the buffing tool. Use circular motions to buff the sheet metal, or depending on your buffing tool, straight lines.
- Wipe off any traces of compound using a soft, clean cloth. Wipe until a mirror finish is achieved.
Tips
- If there is oxidation, you can remove this by using wire cotton rub fairly hard over the affected area.
