Need help polishing Stainless Steel

I have some Stainless Steel pieces (several feet in length) that currently
have a brushed finish. I want to buff / polish these to a mirror finish. I
have a new bench grinder, but I have no experiece with buffing wheels and
compounds. Due to the amount of material, I would prefer to do as little by
hand (sandpaper) as possible, but I ultimately want a nice end result. What
products (stitched wheel, felt wheel, firmness of either, compounds, etc) do
I need to accomplish this? I have tried some buffing, but many of the
deeper original scratches remain.

Any details on procedures and products would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

GrayMatter wrote:
>
> What
> products (stitched wheel, felt wheel, firmness of either, compounds, etc) do
> I need to accomplish this? I have tried some buffing, but many of the
> deeper original scratches remain.

There are three compounds you can use; bobbin, tripoli, and rouge. You may be
able to get by with just tripoli and rouge. Despite the name, rouge polish comes
in several colors. You want green rouge for steel.

At a minimum, you want one felt wheel for each compound you use and one stitched
wheel for the rouge. I have 6" wheels. Try starting with tripoli. Wear gloves -
the metal will get hot. Hang on well - a 6" wheel can fling stuff pretty far.
Wear safety glass and a dust mask. If you have long hair, pigtail it. Touch the
stick of compound to the wheel until you can see a good layer of color. Touch
the piece to the wheel. Keep it moving - a felt wheel can dig out a hollow if
you don't. If polish builds up in a scratch, clean it with a rag and alcohol. If
it doesn't work fast enough for you, try bobbin compound on a different wheel.

Once the scratches are pretty much gone, switch to rouge on a felt wheel. Clean
the entire piece with alcohol first to remove any traces of tripoli. Use
different gloves to avoid contaminating the work with tripoli. The felt wheel
should be used just to remove the last traces of scratches. After that, change
to a stitched buffing wheel with rouge polish for that final mirror finish.

George Patterson
He who marries for money earns every penny of it.