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Mirror polish stainless steel

January 6, 2011

Hi, I'm looking for, or possibly to be directed to information on the process of applying a mirror finish to stainless steel. I work at a small, light duty metal shop (mostly under 5 mm thickness) in Italy, outside of Milan. We do custom, small runs for industrial clients, usually battery shelving units or heavy duty cases for electronic equipment in large freighters and cruise ships.

We also work on small stainless steel pieces (almost always AISI 304) that require various finishes. I'm looking for information on how I could proceed with the process of applying a high gloss mirror finish that my customers are sometimes looking for, but currently we are unable to provide. It's a small portion of our business, so I'm not looking to make any massive investments in new equipment. We have some hand held machines that have a fairly low RPM that we use for satin finishing, though I'm not sure if it's entirely what is needed, or if the proper attachments even exist.

I realize this is a somewhat broad reaching question that may be too complicated to answer in a simple response. If alternatively somebody could direct me to a good resource, such as a book that could help me out with more detailed information, that would also be greatly appreciated.

Colin Macdonald
Metal shop owner/operator - Busto Garolfo, MI, Italy

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I'm not a polishing expert, but the principle here is always the same: start with high grit abrasive and use progressively finer grit abrasive until the desired finish is achieved. The equipment varies mostly according to the size of the items you are polishing.

Ray Kremer
Stellar Solutions, Inc.

McHenry, Illinois

January 17, 2011

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Need to know if these are flat 2 dimensional parts; however, if you already provide a satin finish I suspect they are. Also what is the over all size. If parts are small enough, you can use mass finishing equip which isn't very expensive. Large flat parts can be processed with a wide belt system using non-woven belts.

AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
January 21, 2011

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Bring in an experienced polisher to show you what you will need and how it is done. He should be experienced in portable polishing and stationary polishing. I am sure there must be those type of craftsman in Italy or at somewhere in Europe. I know a few in the USA, but they are getting older and fewer all the time.
Metal polishing is very hard dirty work.

Frank DeGuire
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
February 16, 2011

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February 18, 2011

Here is a solution for 301 Stainless Steel from this thread: www.finishing.com/453/66.shtml

0) Start with a piece of raw 12 gage plate
1) Sand out all defects with a 90 deg hand sander using 180 grit disk pad.
2) Go over entire part with Trizact A45 using hand drum sander.
3) Go over entire part with Trizact A16 using hand drum sander. (90 deg to last cut)
4) Go over entire part with Trizact A6 using hand drum sander. (90 deg to last cut)
5) Go over entire part with Nuvite F9 polishing compound. (Make sure ALL defects are out.)
6) Finally go over entire part with Nuvite Grade A polishing compound.

Mark Pryor
- San Diego, California