Always a pleasure listening to your tips Evan. I’m finally past the beginner level and now been polishing for 3 years. Tips here and there are what make the difference! Thank you!
Just started informing myself of your techniques, this is my second vid...I would like to know more of the compounds to buy and the different orbital attachments that you need for the buffer....thanks for the time thatvyou take to make these vids....peace
great video that’s for explaining this . i have seen the the buffing wheels say max 3000 rpm is that still safe to use in a 6000rpm grinder or do you have to use buffing wheels that say 6000rpm ?
No buffing wheels are made to run at 6,000. It isn't safe but we risk it based on the speed we can accomplish shine and the quality we can achieve in a hurry.
I just started at a metal shop that has been around for sixty years. None of these guys wear respirators.. either using hand wheels like the ones in this video.. or on a larger stand-up polishing machine.. Should I definitely be wearing one or what? Thanks guys
Evan, a question: These airway buffs you and the industry uses to polish metal; can they be attached to either an angle grinder or a rotary polishing machine? What kind of adapters are needed depending on which machine if both are doable? If those buffs are made in 8, 9, 10 & 12 inch diameters, what's the minimum size angle grinder one can buy? Because if the shroud can be removed, I'm not sure where the limit lies. Most angle grinders are 4 1/2", then 6", and 7/9". But I believe that's all about that half-circle shroud.
4-6" grinders spin way too fast and can become deadly. I use all 7" or 9" grinders. I recommend beginners start with 7" variable speed 3500 rpm buffers. Then if you get comfortable or want to upgrade go with the 7" or 9" 6000 rpm grinder. I use all 9" buffing pads as it is the least amount of wear and tear on my grinders but that is a preference issue. Many polishers use 10" buffs because they last longer and better bang for your buck but I don't like how bulky they are. My own personal preference really. Up to you which way you are comfortable going.
Love the videos, makes me want to get a 6000rpm grinder. Why do you recommend 3000 rpm for beginners. Is it a personal safety thing or do you run a risk of damaging the workpiece with the 6000?
It is definitely a safety concern. At 6,000 rpm things happen very fast and if you aren't ready you can get hurt very badly. I've seen far too many very nasty accidents from people running 6,000 rpm and not ready for the possible consequences. On top of that you can do damage to the metal if you aren't careful. Airway buffs are only made to spin 3500 rpm or less.
Hey bro is a Milwaukee 2780-20 too fast for polishing? It says 8500 rpm but I’m sure it slows down when applying pressure. It’s a cordless grinder that I had already and wanted to see if I could use this to do some polishing.
goshineon.com/shop has the safety flanges we use. They are custom insertable flanges. I don't use safety flanges on 6,000 rpm grinders. Only on variable speed buffers.
Those whiskers are called hash marks. Very few things I've polished in my career have gone without hashmarks. Hashmarks are very time consuming to get rid of and take a bunch of steps to get rid of. We do use the 40 ply white wheels from goshineon.com on a lot of the things we polish. Thanks for asking and watching. Truly appreciate you.
Hey Evan I appreciate all your videos, great content. I went to go buy the GA7021 but notice it isn’t flat belly the stud there’s a nudge coming up making it hard to put the zephyrs kit on? Which one do you have?
Good video with plenty of info. In a matter of saving time in my opinion the 6,000 rpm grinder works faster. I have the makita 6,000 rpm grinder. But seeing it in action doing what I'll be doing on my wheels shows me how it should look afterwards
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing thx for the videos man! This will be my first time ever polishing it using a grinder I’m going to polish my dump bed on my dump truck on somthing like dump bed should I go right into 6000 rpm grinder or 3500 variable?
@@aspavingllc8302 I would sincerely recommend starting with the 3500 rpm variable as a beginner until you have a solid understanding of technique, when and how to apply/reapply your compounds, and how to approach different surfaces/corners/edges. Even with the 3500 rpm grinder you can really mess yourself, your work piece, or your equipment up if you catch an edge wrong and aren't prepared for it. Plus you're taking more material off quicker so mistakes are amplified. Not to mention you can't really do a full start to finish polish with multiple stages on the 6k grinder. You need lower rpms for your finishing stages. You can cut with the variable, but you can't use a softer airway/buff at 6k lol it'll tear itself to bits. not sure if you're still looking for this answer but 👍🏽👍🏽
Can you polish the tank with out removing it? Does it have to be empty? I am a novice just trying to learn. Obviously you won’t get everything. I’m just doing my old farm truck. Trying to give it some love. Does not need to be great.
What if i put a speed controller to my grinder to slow it down? It can go pretty slow now with the speed controller. About these speeds, too. I also tried buffing a steel scrap piece with a drill with buff wheel attachments. On the other side of the piece, I sanded by hand and the hit it with the airways on my grinder with a speed controller. But it looked nothing like this. I even cleaned the surface off between grits and compounds with rubbing alcohol. I stopped at 1,200 grit. On the buff wheel side, After sanding in overlapping lines with a drill pad sander attachment with foam interface pad in between, I stopped at 2,000 grit. (I read that ideal grit for steel is to stop at 1.2k to 2k grit) Looked good until I started with the compounds. I started with black, then brown, then purple, then white, and finally blue. It got shiny, but it left “smudge” marks. Looks like smudges. I even cleaned the surface with rubbing alcohol between compounds and i had a separate buff wheel for each compound. I don’t know if my rpms were too high, or what. The drill tops out at 3,000 rpms, which I read is the max ideal rpms for compounds too. Airways are a Sam Wo amazon airway kit. The kit says to hit with brown and blue wheel, purple and orange wheel, white with white wheel, and blue with flannel wheel.
I’m new to polishing, I really just want to do it on my own truck, But I can’t find a 3000 rpm grinder, the lowest is 6000 rpm any tips where I can find a 3000 rpm grinder and also do the brand of grinder matters or as long as it’s 3000 rpm for beginner. Thanks for videos I have watch almost all of them
hey great videos evan using same process on pontoons but getting little spots here and there that are cloud or sometimes look like scratch marks... what am i doing wrong?
What is the best way to polish stainless steel pans. 🤔 would this work.. my food sticks more than normal due to how long I've had it. Also best way to remove all chemicals to avoid eating poison 👌
If your food is sticking to a stainless pan more after it gets old it means you are not cleaning it properly. If you are needing less stickage, heat a high heat oil in the pan, just enough to coat the bottom entirely, till it barely smokes, then wipe it out with a paper towel. You’ll now have a stick resistant stainless steel pan. Polishing will do nothing but make it stick more.
Could I use my variable speed angle grinder that I use for sanding to cut, color and finish or do I need to get a different machine for my buff wheels? I have a 5" Bosch variable speed angle grinder
So I haven’t been able to find a size wheel in 5” or 6” I don’t know if they make them but if I cut my 10” wheels down to make them smaller would they still work properly and get the job done !
Hi Evan, great videos. I want to try and buff/polish a Apple G5 computer case, it is bead blasted and anodised aluminium, I have managed to get a small part polished as a test but it took forever(by hand). I have an orbital sander already, so do you think the grinder(Makita GA9040S01, we dont have the GA7021 in Australia) would be a better option than the Makita 9237c polisher? What grit sandpaper should I start with on the orbital or the polisher if I get that and use it for sanding and polishing? Thanks for your time.
Do you have to put an adapter or extension on your grinder for these wheels i got a zepehr one in the mail and having trouble putting it on with the saftey flanges seems like not enough threads on my grinder? Thanks
Love the videos thank you. Just a quick question on polishing regular size diamond plate tool boxes. Would you use a 3000 rpm machine or an orbital buffer. Any diamond plate suggestions would be truly appreciated. Thank you.
im scared of getting 6000 rpm will the variable speed suffice for wheels,tanks and couple of stainless boxes ? or i have to do 6000 as well its hard to control
Hello. I'm an auto detailer in Northern Michigan. I get a lot of requests for horse trailer polishing, as well as wheels and fuel tanks. I just bought a Zephyr aluminum polishing kit. Can you give me any tips for the wavy aluminum on horse trailers. Also what is a good Sealant to use after the polish
You shouldn't need sealant after polish. Rouges should have plenty of wax and sealant in them. On wavy aluminum I do it same as my fuel tanks. Check out my fuel tank video here on my channel. Should be super helpful.
Hi, I tried the 2 step process on a small piece of bull bar. But like in your video even on orange buff its already clearing up and shinning. But mine was just getting black. I tried different speeds aswell but no luck. What am i doing wrong
zephyr compounds are same as all other compounds in the fact that speed is relative to the way that you polish. You can use anything from slow speed to high speed. Just need to adjust speed and pressure in regards to how you do it.
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing I have been seeing people on some of these videos polishing aluminum with an angle grinder. The angle grinder are 11,000 rpm, is that okay?
@@chicagobearsfan5026 Absolutely not. 11,000 is way too fast. I've seen some nasty pics of polishers losing fingers and tearing tendons off from going that fast. Buffs are only rated for 3500 rpm max. Even the 6,000 rpm buffers carry a lot of risk.
Depends on if you are running safety flanges or not and if so which type of safety flanges. The cheap black plastic or metal ones yes you will need an extension but if you have the nice metal flanges you don't need them with thinner buffs.
I wish I could share a picture but I'm dumb lol. First time buffing with zephyr airways my tanks and wheels looked great. I sanded and did the 3 stage. Last weekend I started on my dumpbed and boy it looks horrible. It was in the 40's so kinda cold. I tried the wheels first and it wasnt cutting so I sanded 320, 400, 600 then tried to polish. My whole bed looks like it has black tiger stripes all over it. After this video I'm thinking maybe it was to cold and i was going to fast but I'm not sure. Gonna try again with a 6000rpm grinder before I spray it with acid and leave it white till I can get it to a pro lol.
My best advice is good luck. Airstreams are the most difficult thing you will ever polish or undertake. The slower variable speed is far more forgiving on these big pains.
@@gregorymarsh5742 Very thin material. Gets hot and cold fast. Risk warping and shiny/dull spots. Plus most are clearcoated and the coating comes off terribly.
I will be honest I haven't done much bronze but the bronze I have done I use my same brown and green compound from goshineon.com/shop and use soft buffs like yellow for the brown and white for the green. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the instructions, demonstration, and product links. I have to long aluminum pontoons to do, which is a lengthy job, so anything that speeds up the process and how much aluminum you can cover in a given amount of time is a huge help! Definitely going with the 6,000 rpm, and thanks for the goshineon link. They have all the supplies I’ll need!
If ypu have a pontoon. There is a product called white diamond polishing compound that is real good since you have all those square inches. It works fast. And last a while also
I actually have a bunch of videos on this topic but I never wet sand. I only ever sand dry. But that is strictly a personal preference I don't like moisture in or around my area of working as it makes the polishing process more difficult.
Bench grinders are different since you are taking the part to buffer instead of the buffer to the part. Bench buffers build more heat and usually use 12-14" buffs instead of 9" buffs. Bigger buffs create faster wheel speed. The edge of the buff is spinning faster at the edge than it is at the center. Hope this makes sense.
Hi Evan, I'm starting with polishing my aluminum boat. I'm having a issue with black compound residual being left behind. I'm starting with orange airway and brown tripoli with 3500rpm , Intent to do medium cut then final with white. And ideas to get a smooth cut first time around? Am in not heating it up enough and raking often enough? Thanks
Sounds like the aluminum might be too rough to just cut. Might need sanded if it is leaving a ton of compound behind. If you want send pics of the condition of the boat to my cell phone 9209790386 and I will try to help you out the best I can.
im a chrome plating polisher, we use 7 HP poliahing lathes, i went into a portable polishing shop for a job the owner aaid there were no experienced polishers in Washington and i polished a rim, they never seen anything like my performance. whats funny is ive been poliahing aince 1987 on machines 20 years before those clowns even knew what polishing was. i believe the owner believes washington has polishers now.
Nothing more can be done to chrome other than hand chrome polish. Chrome is just a plating on metal. If you buff it you’ll thin out the coating and eventually reveal the other metals underneath.
I appreciate that. There are many talented polisher out here. Love the crew I have and the friends that I have been blessed with through this polishing world. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing the handle is too short and if you're not careful and grab the handle incorrectly you can catch your fingers with the disk. Did my first wheel yesterday , the machine went flying a couple times. I should've sanded a lot more. I thought 180 grit was too much then at the end I realized it needed a lot more since the wheel was in really bad shape. Overall I can it a success. Might replace the Chicago , might as well give a couple times a try
@cdrom1070 ya joking , cost money yes, loads "NO", I can get one POSENPRO 125MM Corded Angle Grinder, 1100W Cut-Off/Angle Grinder Tool, Variable Speed 3000-12000RPM£33.99 reduced and 40 when it aint , they are cheap
@@essentialone1their always more expensive then the single speed tool, regardless of your cost range. people would still rather have 1 good grinder then 2 cheap grinders. bosche instead of 2 milwakee or milwakee instead of 2 bouers
might be a totally different situation if you use a liquid metal polish rather then the wax stick. i personally am super impressed by the performance of liquid aluminum polish. but it needs to be smooth enough to start
Yeah... started polishing aluminum and stainless 30 years ago. Not a professional polisher, whatsoever. I figured out the heat makes a diff. I'm 2:10 in the vid.
What you use for dat roooouge.... why dontcha say dat???? OH!..... and dat wheel??? cmon Share d'resorce or get dowwn. Alum and SS are the poor mans silver and gold. Church
Used it for the first time last weekend definitely worth buying if you're a person who likes detailing your own car recommend first time to use on lowest setting 800 so you don't burn paint don't leave in one spot keep moving it over paint easy to use ru-vid.comUgkxfzbDkCRyv3CFXnLZI4APZtRRuG2uRmP2 truck looks like new again used maguires black light battery life like all milwaukee products seem to hold up well 😀
