Anyone Experience this while polishing aluminum

[rodknock95]

I polished this with Flitz and you can see see swirls of imperfections or something. Like the aluminum has something mixed in it. What have our expert polishers done about this?

Blaze

 

[lesinutah]

Wash

You used too much polish. Either use thick paper towel or micro fiber cloth and it will come off.
Sanding will get those cuts off. The black is excess polish from buffer pad.
Les

 

[rodknock95]

The slightly darker metal

At the bottom of it is polish on there, But Im talking about the swirl of metal that is darker than the rest. I have sanded with a sander and 400 grit paper and its just now surfacing. Someone told me its the cheaper aluminum they use on the G series compared to that of earlier ones and I believe it because I have not run into this on any Heritage II or earlier.

Blaze

 

[rodknock95]

Look in the circle

 

[lesinutah]

Sand

You sanded too deep burning a layer of metal. You have to resand the area go to 2000 grit and wet sand. If you have ever blended paint that is the same process of sanding. You sand non burnt part then once you hit 800 blend both together.
Les

 

[rodknock95]

That was without sanding

That was just using flitz with a buffer wheel

 

[huskyvacs]

Yes, a buffer wheel can still create friction and burn into the metal. Were you pressing too hard perhaps? To my knowledge Flitz is not a polishing wax that you use with a buffing wheel, it's very viscous (watery) and should only be done with a microfiber rag.

For metal polishing you want to use polishing sticks/bars, and preferably a hand or bench buffer (after grinding the damage from the metal if need be). I always liked this video, its nice and slow paced and easy to follow:



Before I started polishing I bought a junky old 1960's Royal hand vac to practice metal polishing on and get a feel for the tools, before I work on the real serious stuff. That way if I mess up, no big deal.

Like Les said, you can fix this buy re-sanding the metal out and starting over it again, and it can be cleaned out.

Good luck!

 

[rodknock95]

Awesome

Ill do one and it turns out great and the next----so so. I was using buffing wheels made of cotton on a Dewalt drill. Possibly its going too fast and im grinding down on it too hard

 

[madman]

From the picture, it kinda looks like it was clear coated, and the polishing took some of the clear coat off.

The second picture, though, really just look like normal wavy imperfections from the factory. Either way, I'll second Les here, you need to sand with many grits going up to 2000 or 3000. Your starting grit really depends on the depth of the imperfections. I would start with maybe 600, then go up in steps, by the time you get to 1k or 2k, you should see whether or not you got it right. If not, start all over with lower than 600.

You might try just buffing it with a cotton wheel rouge first, though. It's really hard to tell from the pictures.

 

[bnsd60m9200]

polishing rouge comes in solid sticks. flitz is a polishing compound to be used manually, not with a wheel. its like clay bar for cars. i dont use any of those compounds anymore and havent for many years.

i dry sand at 220 grit with a palm sander. then 320,400,600,800,1000 and 2000 wetsand with automatic transmission fluid as the wet agent. i sand it opposing directions every other grit (left right, up down) after that i use 000 steel wool for a mirrory luster then turtle wax polishing compound. then i wax it with mequiars ultimate paste wax. wax it every year (once) and youll never have to re polish.

i used wheels early on and just dont anymore, its far too uncontrollable and messy compared to by hand.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

If you are referring to a mottled, almost 'woodgrained' look, then I know exactly what you are talking about - I have seen that on most all my machines. Did not matter if I polished by hand, whether I had sanded or not, or polished with a wheel on a drill, I usually saw those. I coughed it up to imperfections in the aluminum alloy, as I could never rid them. Afterall, these were vacuums, not jewelry or art forms.