PART1: Polish metal on a bench grinder / buffer

16 Responses to “PART1: Polish metal on a bench grinder / buffer”

1. Comment by GadgetsNGear

   @FisterPD

   Hey Fister,
   I’m glad I was able to help you! Now go do your knives, watches, spoons and all the other crap in your life that is made out of solid metal. =)

   I’ll try to get the trigger mod vid done soon, the camera I use is crap, so I’m not sure how much definiton I can get, Maybe I will get a magnifying glass.

2. Comment by FisterPD

   I just want to say thank you i just finished polishing my sigma .40 with the help from your video. i know shit watched it in the aisle of home depot to see what compounds you used and my sigma is the first thing i have ever polished in my life and it turned out fanastic the only thiing is the little crevises are a bitch to get the black shit out of thanks alot blake looking foward to your trigger mod video

3. Comment by GadgetsNGear

   @MrMeanderthal

   You are correct, however a few larger particles here and there don’t make a huge difference. Can’t argue with results.

4. Comment by MrMeanderthal

   it doesn’t matter if it’s wood, metal, stone, or glass. all polishing is done using abrasive particles of successively finer grits. it doesn’t make any difference if the abrasive is stuck to paper with glue, imbedded in wax and applied to a wheel. what you are doing is putting scratches in the material of progressively smaller size. scratches are small enough become invisible to the naked eye. moving to a smaller grit on a surface that still has large particles in it defeats the purpose.

5. Comment by GadgetsNGear

   Thank you for your kind words, I’m glad that my vid was helpful to you!

   If you don’t already have a grinder I suggest buying a 6″ not an 8″ like I have here. I forgot to mention that In the video. you can get em new for like $40 bucks!

6. Comment by GadgetsNGear

   I assure you its quite sane, and its nice having things polished, I feel like it takes things closer to the way designers had imagined they should have been.

7. Comment by TwiceVicodin

   thanks a lot for this vid
   its very helpful without any “errr,, ummm. yeahh” filler words

8. Comment by GadgetsNGear

   I’m sure that your right about using more wheels, that being said i usually with one grit until I notice that there is very little compound depositing on the piece, then I go up to the next grit. I have had good results with this method, and the investment cost is lower. (I am poor)

   Thanks for your comment! =)

9. Comment by GadgetsNGear

   I’m sorry but I really don’t understand how applying a blade to the top of a buffer that is rotating AWAY from you is dangerous? If it catches (which it will every once and a while) it will want to go into the drywall. Maybe you think it is rotating towards me? I have seen many professional knife makers and sharpeners do it this way.

   Thank you for your concern.
   -Blake

10. Comment by ElectricZombie

    I’ll preface my comments by stating that I make knives, and do full mirror finishes on occasion. Buffers are dangerous.

    1. Ideally your buffer/grinder should run around 1725-1800 RPMs. Yours appears to be a 3600 RPM model. I’ve used both, and the lower RPM model is less likely to snatch your work and kill you.

    2. You should set your wheel up so that it rotates downward, and buff edge down only. If the buff does snatch the blade, it will likely hit the floor instead of you.

11. Comment by x65535x

    Few things, the big one, don’t video tape yourself doing something that you need to use two hands for.

    Mount your power tools, they can move too.

    You’re wasting your time with 1 wheel. Every time you go up in grit on a buffer you need to clean the part of all compound, get a new wheel with the next grit, and buff. If you leave the larger grit on it will negate the finer grit.

12. Comment by LeuCustomKnives

    Looks a weeeeeeeeee bit insane!

13. Comment by GadgetsNGear

    How so?

14. Comment by ElectricZombie

    Major accident waiting to happen.

15. Comment by josemo1

    Thanks for this video, I didn’t know much about polishing and it has clarified many doubts, I’m interested in polishing watches, do you have a special advice when polishing them?

16. Comment by Yashimura1

    The word of the month… Chinsey!!!! Great presentation, makes me wanna polish the chrome off my trailer hitch. Awesome speaking voice