Polishing stainless

[gtflash]

Has anyone had any luck mirror polishing stainless?

I tried jumping through the grits on my electric sander then swapping to a mop. Used toothpaste, brasso and g3. Purely cause that’s all I can find local. Still heavy dotting on stainless. So started again from 40g to 80, 120, 240, 320 and still not happy so haven’t gone any further.

[breezeblock]

got a kit of ebay and its ok got quite good results with it

[Tim2Mar]

Great article in this months Practical Boat Owner (No. 644 October 2019) on exactly this subject.

The final mirror polish achieved with "hard sisal wheel and black polishing compound", then "soft wheel and white compound".

Removal of residual polishing compound with "Solvol metal polish" and finally a woollen buffing pad.

[Maximus]

Sounds like you've gone in too Heavy with that grit to me ...
Best done by the Pro's with all the tools and materials (and know how) in house if you want a top job I'm afraid...shop around for best price is my advice...a very labour intensive process (even when you're used to doing it) to get 100% mirror if you've ever seen it done
If all fails (i.e you mess up) another option is to powder coat...then you DO want a rough surface to adhere the coating to

[gtflash]

Thanks guys. I found my local tool hire place sold angle grinder, stainless polishing discs and he found some old stainless soap outback. They only had a medium and a fine in stock. I gave the, a whirl and they really improved things. Haven’t gone onto buffing yet as ran out of time.

No scratches but physical texture still visible on the stainless. Like acne almost, regular dotted texture.

I’ll grab a copy of that article too.

It can’t be expensive to pay for polishing as I’ve just ordered a new mast (light and aerial) from stainless Steve for a very reasonable price.

[Pikey Dave]

You could try electro polishing, my method of choice. You need to have the item glass bead blasted & then passivated & electro polished. You will get an extremely resistant satin finish that will keep it’s appearance with minimal effort.
https://www.bssa.org.uk/topics.php?article=131

[breezeblock]

heres a bit of tube I dug out of a customers stainless pile this is scrap 316 unpolished and reasonably good surface finish took 5 mins to do

[gtflash]

Thanks breezeblock. Not got back to the project yet. Turns out neighbour does some polishing. He said I was not course enough as the stainless in question has heavy grain.