I am guessing this will not be the final polishing before the plates are installed. You will most likely get some scratching during the drilling process unless you tape the bars well up to prevent this. Then you motioned annealing and bending them which could cause discoloring and marring from the heating and bending operations. As a long time metal fabricator the metal finishing on our projects was always done after all the machining and forming was complete. No doubt your methods will work just fine and I can't wait to see them installed I'm sure they will be stunning.
The reason I polished them before the holes is the sharp edges of the holes will make the polishing process harder on my equipment and hands. Once they are fully fabricated, I can spot polish or hand polish any problem areas to bring them back up to luster. Trying to run the grinder and sander on a bent piece of metal could prove more challenging than cleaning up the surface after it’s all finished.
Using a chamfering tool on the drilled holes removes the sharp edges and is very easy to do. The tool is not expensive and chucks into your drill or drill-press. Also makes for a more professional looking job.
Maddie: "I didn't" Herbie straight faced with a tinge of regret: "I did" This sums up every project I have ever undertaken. My wife (Head critic and chief cheerleader - in that order) is always ready to tackle a project with full faith that we (meaning me) can do anything. She is generally correct but the disparity in blood, cuts, bruises and gallons of sweat is tremendous.
I wish I could have given you this tip… using a DA sander (more like an air tool style) locked so it spins you can get paper up to like 600 grit and it will almost fully polished before buffing process! Works really well on aluminum and stainless also.
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Sadly if they are external chainplates they will turn dull brown and then green in no time. My yacht has a ton of bronze on her and keeping up with polishing was an endless labour of love that I have given up on. My advice is to embrace the verdigris and learn to love it!
I was wondering whether shot peening them would be a benefit. I know I was pretty amazed at what it could do for metals' strength, fatigue resistance and corrosion resistance. Metallurgy is amazing. Of course they would not look this nice.
I don't know about dental polish but Jewelers Rouge worked fine on metalurgical samples. Personally I would have left the polishing until the plates were drilled and bent.
I enjoy the meditative quality of polishing metals, plastics, and paints but not so much wood. Essentially, a dark finish is acute mountain peaks with deep valleys. Light is reflecting and dispering away from the peaks and the valleys are shaded. Plateauing the peaks alows light to disperse more evenly and penetrate into the valleys. A progressively finer grit will flatten the peaks without increasing the depth of the valleys. Finally, smoth as glass like water light reaches perfect Dispersion having no peaks or valleys. That said, steel is easy, some aluminums too, copper ezpz and gold very very easy. Plastic is like the gold it reacts to grit fast and melts smooth quick and easy. Paint is a combination of the aforementioned. Wood sucks, it absorbs moisture into hair follicle and swelling is problematic. Using a sanding sealer really helps when atmospheric moisture is present. Variable speed cutting, sanding, and polishing is the cata meow. 😊
Cast instead of bar stock because I could get it cast locally for less money than bar stock from OnlineMetals.com. I don’t know where it was cast exactly, as one of my patrons setup the deal with a foundry he works with a lot. To get “his” pricing and not retail pricing, I was never involved in the process with the foundry. I really wanted to film the casting process but that would alert the foundry that it wasn’t for my patron and really for me so I was unable to do so. His price came out to be $65 per bar where online metals was closer to $200 per bar. It was a sweet deal and cast In Pennsylvania, USA!
@@RiggingDoctor great thanks for the (almost) information. I don't have any patrons .... maybe I'll have to cast my own! Not planning on changing chain plates for a year or so .....maybe I'll do more research on dyneema "chain plates".
I love using Dyneema for as much as possible and I chose to go with bronze, if that tells you anything. There are some major issues that Dyneema chainplates have which I think are fatal flaws. They might seem to work at the dock but I don’t see them doing their best job at sea.
@@RiggingDoctor yes definitely not for external chainplates like yours. Spreading the load to the hull would also be a problem with internal chainplates (and the seal as well, though a raised entry would help)....I doubt I'll do it, but I will look around.
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