[Jewelry making - Article 00130] - Re: [Orchid] Tutorial: Polishing Metals

[John Donivan]

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>     My main problem with the large polishing wheel (apart from it
>     being scary!) is that on the type of small pieces I've been making,
>     how can you possibly polish the nooks and crannies with a big
>     polishing wheel? It's simply not possible. And it would be too easy
>     to remove too much from the high spots 

    Helen, and all...There are many factors involved in polishing, and it
    seems simple to pinpoint something as being important, when they all
    are. What compound, operator skill, on and on. The main difference
    between flex shaft polishing and lathe polishing is power and RPM.
    Most novice polishers don't do the first steps well, and get a bad
    polish because they are relying on rouge of whatever type. When I
    polish with tripoli (white diamond, too), I do battle with the motor.
    It's 1/2 hp, and I'll be pushing as hard as I can, often (don't try
    this at home, until you get skilled). That's power and there's no
    substitute for it. On the other hand, I also will use brushes on the
    flex shaft with rouge on platinum especially to get a final high
    shine, or for detailing. That's RPMs, and it's best for the finishing
    stages. We have probably 20 wheels for the polishing machine, from
    large to tiny, and use them as needed for the job, and then the whole
    gamut of things for the flex shaft, down to toothpicks and BBQ
    skewers, and use whatever suits. The main problem with relying on the
    flex shaft, though, is power or the lack of it. Bobbing compound,
    grey star and the tripolis work best with power behind them, and if
    you study polishing you'll find that it actually deforms the surface
    - speed alone doesn't do that very well. If your pieces aren't
    getting hot you're probably not working them hard enough. Again, it's
    an art, and everybody has their own ways beyond the basics - I'm not
    trying to pigeonhole anything. But the relationship between power and
    speed is most important to understand, and it takes much experience
    to be able to push a polisher to it's optimum capacity without having
    problems. Just take it easy till you get there. I'd suggest maybe
    polishing a piece of silver, brass or bronze, either a real piece or
    just a scrap, and look at it with magnification. If you see anything
    but shine, you're doing something wrong or incompletely. 

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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