PINK

Ok, another question,

Supposing you were to accidentally (ahem) leave the brass in citric acid or Cillit bang for maybe a little too long and supposing it went pink

What's the best and easiest way of rubbing it back to brass? I've searched the forum but can't find a definitive answer

I can get it nearly there (not that I have a pink stove)
But not quite, and wire wool seems to leave minute marks, so I don't want to use that, only as a last resort

I'm brasso ing and brasso ing, help

 

Buffing wheel and brown buffing soap

Just one source, loads more online

John

 

Thanks John :-)

Would a dremel buffer work as good for tiny areas do ya think?

 

Yes a buffing wheel will be by far the quickest and the easyest ray to get rid of the red copper colour, a dremmel will work but would take a age i have a buffing wheel and it realy does a great job i have three cotton mops and four grades of buffing soap for the various stsages of finish,
starting with a coarse mop with as john mentioned

 

Depends on how long you have had it soaking in Citric etc.
If it has come out as pink as a fairy, I dont think buffing would help.
Try using 600 wet and dry, finish off with 1200.
You wont be doing that again in a hurry.

 

Lol it's not as pink as a fairy :-)

But there are some patches of pink and other stains that won't budge...

I won't be doing it again in a hurry noooooo
But I am always tempted to leave it a bit longer when the black won't budge despite it going pink around it

 

Fine (0000) steel wool will remove it from the area you can reach. Heating up the burner will tint the pink to a darker, less humiliating color after a few uses. As I have mentioned previously, powdered sulfer mixed with vasoline will darken copper and brass very quickly. I have no idea where to get the powdered sulfer.

 

Intelect, have you tried good old fashioned Brasso, spend a pleasant evening with this and an old tee shirt. Sometimes a tooth brush is useful for the nooks and crannies,(use someone elses, not you own).

I haven't heard of the powdered sulphur method, but is available in the UK here

 

Brillo Pads and metal polish have always done the job for me.

 

Yes Gordon F, I am using brasso, polish after polish and it's slowly getting there

As for Brillo pads omg fine if ya like scratches

 

Yeah, I think Brillo is a bit too aggressive.

 

With regards to Brillo pads scratching, yes of course they do but no more than "wet or dry" or indeed "fine wire wool" which after all is what they are made from

 

The 0000 grade steel wool (US connotation) is very fine and may actually be finer than Brillo pads. Even Brasso or Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polishing Paste leaves scratches, you just can't see them with the naked eye. I may try to get an SEM photo of a few surfaces polished with various chemicals just for grins and comparisons. BTW, you can get Mothers in the Auto section of Walmart in the US. Good stuff.

 

Hi

Try my post on polishing i did a while back ...... http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.cl

Hope this helps

Best regards Stu

 

Thanks Stu

Excellent polishing thread there

I have a grinder like yours that at the weekend I took one of the grinding discs out and attatched a polishing mop... However no matter how hard I tried I couldn't tighten the mop enough on the spindle and when I pressed the stove against it the mop stopped spinning but the motor didnt

How did you do this conversion to a polishing wheel

I gave up in the end and put the grinder disc back on

 

Put some more washers on the spindle, Ade. Sounds like the buffing wheel's thinner than the grindstone and the mounting nut's bottoming out on the threads before the arbor disc is gripping the buffing wheel.

Intelekt said:

Whoa, Stu, missed that first time around. Excellent indeed.

John

 

Thanks for that tip John I amaze myself how thick I can be sometimes

I'll give the washers a try, it's quite difficult with these bench grinders because when you tighten one side the other disc comes undone and there isn't a space on the spindle that's flattened to get a spanner over to brace it unless I've got a cheapo one 8-[ it's a ryobi so I thought it would be good

Thanks again
Ade

 

Just make sure the packing washer holes are large enough to go over the unthreaded diameter of the shaft if it's got a smaller diameter threaded part like mine has.

Ryobi's are good.

Tightening up the securing nuts shouldn't be a problem. With it switched off at the plug (just in case), hold the circumference of the buffing wheel and tighten the nut. It doesn't need to be a huge torque. Left-hand thread on the left wheel, right-hand on the right and the rotation of the shaft has the effect of tightening the nuts down tight.

John