Okay, this is a question, not a statement. I have a new rotary tool kit with polishing attachments... How do I use this to restore a mirror shine to my watches?
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How to get a mirror shine
- Thread starter doctorron
- Start date
Use the buffing wheel and some white rouge to polish. Finish it with some moters mag and aluminum polish or cape cod cloth.
GO EASY With the wheel you can easily remove some material if not careful.
GO EASY With the wheel you can easily remove some material if not careful.
[youtube:27bylplh]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S58a8z7i4Vs[/youtube:27bylplh]
The polish is rouge. various colors for various applications with different abrasive properties.
The polish is rouge. various colors for various applications with different abrasive properties.
Mother's isa good finishing polish. Bule coral makes ablue paste that is really easy to work with, applies like cream.
I found in my new polishing kit a small jar of redish "polishing compound". Its hard as a rock. Do I drill the cloth polishing bit into the compound? Do I add water? Do I put the hard compound on the watch?
Correct me if wrong but it sounds like a deburring wheel that guy is using? I used one once on some old brass piano pedals, then buffed them with rouge on a big buffing wheel and they looked brand new afterword...make rusted screws and hardware look new again too....I think I'd be afraid to try it on a rep. :?
That is most likely a typical jeweler's rouge. You run the buffing wheel against the compound to get it on the wheel, then gently buff the surface to be polished. It is actually the rouge itself that does the polishing not the buffing wheel. Mild soap, warm water and a soft toothbrush can be used to remove the residue of the buffing compound that finds itself into small cracks and crevices.
Practice on something of no value first, like a stainless steel spoon, etc. Be careful to hold the object you are polishing firmly. It is easy to have the buffing wheel grab the edge being polished with enough force to cause you to drop it.
Go easy until you have a feel for the tool and how much polishing it takes. Frequently reload the wheel from the supply of jeweler's rouge.
Practice on something of no value first, like a stainless steel spoon, etc. Be careful to hold the object you are polishing firmly. It is easy to have the buffing wheel grab the edge being polished with enough force to cause you to drop it.
Go easy until you have a feel for the tool and how much polishing it takes. Frequently reload the wheel from the supply of jeweler's rouge.
Thanks again guys. I've trying many of these suggestions. Seems like its harder than it looks. Maybe I just need practice.
Damn, now it looks kind of foggy after using the compound. I don't know what I'm doing. Any suggestions?
Rouge will make the surface appear foggy because it is a fairly rough abrasive intended to remove enough metal to take out the bigger scratches. This is why there is at least one more step in the polishing process, which is to use a much finer abrasive, like the mother's polish or cape cod cloth to smooth out the surface.
If scratches are very superficial, you don't even need to use rouge, as cape cod will do fine. Especially on soft metal like gold. About 30 seconds to a minute of hard scrubbing with a cape cod cloth will remove highly superficial scratches. Rouge is used to take off a bit more surface material, such that the new surface of the metal is more even with the bottom surface of the deeper scratches. The only way to take off enough metal to accomplish deep scratch removal is to use a relatively rough abrasive. You would spend all day with a cape cod cloth and not remove as much metal as 30 seconds with a dremel and rouge (there are various levels of rouge abrasiveness, coded by color).
Hope this helps a bit.
If scratches are very superficial, you don't even need to use rouge, as cape cod will do fine. Especially on soft metal like gold. About 30 seconds to a minute of hard scrubbing with a cape cod cloth will remove highly superficial scratches. Rouge is used to take off a bit more surface material, such that the new surface of the metal is more even with the bottom surface of the deeper scratches. The only way to take off enough metal to accomplish deep scratch removal is to use a relatively rough abrasive. You would spend all day with a cape cod cloth and not remove as much metal as 30 seconds with a dremel and rouge (there are various levels of rouge abrasiveness, coded by color).
Hope this helps a bit.
Damn Jnkay, that's a pretty helpful first post. Good info. That's exactly my problem. You were using esp while I was watching espn.
Now that you've already used another rouge on it you need to switch to black in order to finish it off.
The red rouge and fiber wheel that comes in the kits is useless and will never give you a mirror finish. The problem is not the rouge (assuming their red rouge is a standard red rouge) it's the wheel. You need a large muslin wheel on a variable speed polisher and various grades of polishing rouges and compounds. Jewelers don't need a variable speed buffer but I find it's much easier and gives more control of the finishing process. Each rouge/compound has different cutting properties and depending on the metal, you need to find what works for you. I do my initial polish with a med amount of white polishing compound, high speed and light pressure. 316L stainless is very hard so this is a necessary step to even out the surface. You don't do a lot, just enough to get a good even starting point and remove deeper scratches. Always polish away from a sharp case edge, not towards. The only thing worse than swirls on your polished surfaces is a bunch of rounded case edges. Believe it or not, you can get a perfect mirror finish with the same compound on the same wheel if you have enough experience. Final polish is done with an almost "dry" wheel. With dry meaning very little white diamond on the wheel. Heavy pressure at low wheel speed will bog down the wheel and this is where the luster comes from. Think of a dry wheel having used polish on it, in other words it has polish with diminished particle size and therefore less cutting properties. Instead of cutting with fresh abrasive polish at high speed and light pressure, you are now burnishing with what little is left and that gives you the shine.
This is an example, I wish I had a good untouched before photo. I picked up this SA from a member on RG and it was in bad shape, lots of med to heavy scratches all over it. Here is a shot after I polished with white polishing compound, a 4" variable speed benchtop polisher, and varying pressure. If you look at the bezel, there are 4 tabs at 12, 3, 6 and 9 that I did not polish, they look BAD and they are a good indicator of the "before" condition of this watch. The case looks perfect right? It looks like liquid metal! I rebrushed the center rib on the band with a Bergeon SS refinishing pad also.
Here are some shots of the watch after I fit a gen strap and polished the tabs. I would have polished more but those tabs are super small and I didn't want to risk burning through the tape I used to tape off the brushed part of the bezel.
Anyways, take it slow and make sure you have the right tools. A dremel and fiber disk is not the right tool for a high luster finish. Liquid wheel polishes and Cape Cod cloths etc do not compare to the finish you can get with the technique above, I have tried those and went back to my polishing wheel to fix the swirls that they created.
This is an example, I wish I had a good untouched before photo. I picked up this SA from a member on RG and it was in bad shape, lots of med to heavy scratches all over it. Here is a shot after I polished with white polishing compound, a 4" variable speed benchtop polisher, and varying pressure. If you look at the bezel, there are 4 tabs at 12, 3, 6 and 9 that I did not polish, they look BAD and they are a good indicator of the "before" condition of this watch. The case looks perfect right? It looks like liquid metal! I rebrushed the center rib on the band with a Bergeon SS refinishing pad also.
Here are some shots of the watch after I fit a gen strap and polished the tabs. I would have polished more but those tabs are super small and I didn't want to risk burning through the tape I used to tape off the brushed part of the bezel.
Anyways, take it slow and make sure you have the right tools. A dremel and fiber disk is not the right tool for a high luster finish. Liquid wheel polishes and Cape Cod cloths etc do not compare to the finish you can get with the technique above, I have tried those and went back to my polishing wheel to fix the swirls that they created.
I guess I left out an important part... I'm using a dremel-like hand-held tool with a craftsman polishing kit. I really appreciate the info. You guys are real experts. I'm going to read this entire thread over and over again and practice. Also, I'm working with a Breitling Nav case. I don't think I'm fu&*(ing it up... I just think it needs work.
Dremel has a new quick release chuck and they make a cotton disk for it. The disc is only made for the QR chuck and it looks like 4-5 cotton discs sandwiched together, it's much softer than the little muslin wheels they sell and way better than the compressed fiber discs.