Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Polishing a painted steel file cabinet
Q. I have a steel powdercoated file cabinet that I want to change to a shiny finish. I had it sandblasted down to bare metal. Using an orbital sander I have run through a number of sandpaper grits from 80 to 320. I can't seem to get the even shiny finish that I want. I am getting a dull finish with lots of metal flakes. What am I doing wrong?
Mark Wayland- Oakland, California
2003
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A. You will need to step up with finer grits, and finally go through several steps with different buffing wheels and compounds. There is plenty of info out there on polishing... just do a little searching. Justin MartinLiverpool, Pennsylvania, USA 2003 A. Base steel does not polish to high reflectivity because it doesn't have that sort of surface. Iron, the base metal, is naturally a dull grey colour. Furthermore, steel will oxidise and rust. The steel that can be reflective is stainless steel and that needs electropolishing for any longevity. One way of possibly getting a better sheen to the steel is to use the finest grit rubbing compound ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and then give the surface a good coating of wax polish or a clear lacquer  Trevor Crichton R&D practical scientist Chesham, Bucks, UK 2003 |
A. You should not have blasted it. This steel is so thin and as well as making microscopic craters, you have also hardened what metal is left. I, would have used a paint stripper ,then a thin sisal buff with steel cutting compound, followed by either a clear coat lacquer
, or get it chromed. If I were you, I would clad it in prepolished stainless steel sheeting, using contact adhesive.
Hope this helps.
- NSW, Australia
2003
A. Steel never polishes to a high shimmer. It cannot hold depth of reflectivity no matter how much you polish it. I've done this to my old road bike rims made of steel and chromed. I polished to the bare steel and it cannot be polished to look good, steel is really only for the base and structural integrity of something and is/cannot look really good. It can be smooth no doubt, but not brightness. I agree with that guy, I would have used an industrial stripper. Chromium plating on something of that area would be extremely expensive. You could copper plate it then rub Jax silver plating solution [affil links] on it. It would be a very thin layer of silver, but I don't know what level of use it will be exposed to. Have fun cheers!
Matt Fabrizio- Singhampton, Ontario, Canada
October 3, 2008
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