Polishing, buffing and metalworking is our specialty.

Polishing and buffing are finishing processes for smoothing a work piece’s surface using an abrasive and a work wheel. Technically polishing refers to processes that use an abrasive that is glued to the work wheel, while buffing uses a loose abrasive applied to the work wheel. Polishing is a more aggressive process while buffing is less harsh, which leads to a smoother, brighter finish. A common misconception is that a polished surface has a mirror bright finish, however most mirror bright finishes are actually buffed.

Polishing is often used to enhance the looks of an item, remove oxidation, create a reflective surface, or prevent corrosion. In metallography and metallurgy, polishing is used to create a flat, defect-free surface for examination of a metal's microstructure under a microscope. Silicon-based polishing pads or a diamond solution can be used in the polishing process.

The removal of oxidization or the tarnish from metal objects is accomplished using a metal polish or tarnish remover; this is also called polishing. To prevent further unwanted oxidization, polished metal surfaces may be coated with wax, oil, or lacquer. This is of particular concern for copper alloy products such as brass and bronze.

Motorcycle polishing is usually a multistage process. The first stage starts with a rough abrasive and each subsequent stage uses a finer abrasive until the desired finish is achieved. The rough pass removes surface defects like pits, nicks, lines and scratches. The finer abrasives leave very thin lines that are not visible to the naked eye. Buffing may be done by hand with a stationary polisher or die grinder, or it may be automated using specialized equipment.

When buffing there are two types of buffing motions: the cut motion and the color motion. The cut motion is designed to give a uniform, smooth, semi-bright surface finish. This is achieved by moving the substrate against the rotation of the buffing wheel, while using medium to hard pressure. The color motion gives a clean, bright, shiny surface finish. This is achieved by moving the work piece with the rotation of the buffing wheel, while using medium to light pressure. When polishing aluminum, there are often minute marks in the metal caused by impurities. To overcome this, the surface is polished with a very fine (600) grit, then buffed to a mirror finish. Polishing operations for items such as frames, wheels, swingarms, forks, exhausts, casings; even the nuts and bolts, etc., are given a fine finish but not chrome plated, unless specifically requested.

Aluminum oxide abrasives are used on high tensile strength metals, such as carbon and alloy steel, tough iron, and nonferrous alloys. Silicon carbide abrasives are used on hard and brittle substances, such as grey iron and cemented carbide, and low tensile strength metals, such as brass, aluminum, and copper. Polishing wheels come in a wide variety of types to fulfill a wide range of needs. The most common materials used for polishing wheels are wood, leather, canvas, cotton cloth, plastic, felt, paper, sheepskin, impregnated rubber, canvas composition, and wool; leather and canvas are the most common. Wooden wheels have emery or other abrasives glued onto them and are used to polish flat surfaces and maintained good edges. There are many types of cloth wheels. Cloth wheels that are cemented together are very hard and used for rough work, whereas other cloth wheels that are sewn and glued together are not as aggressive. There are cloth wheels that are not glued or cemented, instead these are sewed and have metal side plates for support. Solid felt wheels are popular for fine finishes. Hard roughing wheels can be made by cementing together strawboard paper disks. Softer paper wheels are made from felt paper.  Most wheels are run at approximately 7500 surface feet per minute (SFM), however muslin, felt and leather wheels are usually run at 4000 SFM.

Buffing wheels, are either made from cotton or wool cloth and come bleached or unbleached. Specific types include: sisal, spiral sewn, loose cotton, flannel,  denim, treated spiral sewn, cushion, treated vented, untreated vented, hourglass buff, rag,  swansdown, airflow,  and bullet.

Experienced polishers may vary the materials used to suit different applications. Polishing, buffing and burnishing can all be categorized as a type of mechanical metal finishing. Mechanical finishes are applied by physical abrasion of the metal surface using a secondary media. The media can vary greatly and includes cloth, stone, metal and plastics combined with finishing compounds to aid the process. Methods of application include wheel abrasion, blasting, tumbling barrels and vibratory finishers. Mechanical type finishes can be classified into three basic categories by the way the parts to be finished are handled:

Individually handled and finished using wheel abrasion Mass finishing using tumbling barrels or vibratory finishers The highest quality mechanical metal finishes are usually obtained by individually handling the parts and using some type of wheel abrasion. Fine hardware, furniture, and motorcycle parts are typically finished using this method. These finishes include: Grinding - Used to remove large amounts of metal, grinding can be used to remove large burrs (deburring), heavy scale, rust, and major metal imperfections. The resulting finish has significant grit lines and needs additional mechanical finishing prior to electroplating.

Polishing - Very often mistaken as a mirror bright finish, polishing is similar to grinding but uses finer grits and compounds to remove significant metal imperfections and small metal burrs. It is usually used prior to buffing in order to obtain a mirror bright finish. In some cases multiple polishing steps using progressively finer grits are needed to obtain the desired finish.

Buffing - Using cloth wheels combined with compounds, buffing is a final mechanical finish that results in a mirror bright to near mirror bright finish, depending upon the base metal and/or prior mechanical finishing steps. Buffing does not remove a large amount of metal and, therefore, is sometimes applied after a plating process (for example, a dual finishing process, such as after copper plating prior to nickel plating).