Hey everyone, my first stainless steel parts will arive very soon and one of them is a present. I only have a few days from arrival till presentation and thus want to get everything I need for post production beforehand. I searched through this forum and found various topics, but you people use so many technical terms that I have trouble translating Basically my Stainless Steel part will have a few flat surfaces that I would like to polish. Consider I have nothing and no experience in this matter. What do I essentially need and is relatively cheap to get? I figured some different Sandpapers and maybe a magic liquid could be a good start? I read there are different sizes of sandpaper, which should I get? Thanks for your time and I'll reward you with some pictures once done
Sandpaper polishing is the easiest and cheapest way to go. You can start with a coarse sheet of 300 and move up to a 1000. If the item is small and partly polished by Shapeways then just do the 1000 for a few minutes and you are done.
Look for sanding sheets known as wet/dry types. Aluminum oxide abrasives are cheap and work well. These are intended for metal , not for woodwork. Auto body supply stores sell it. You can glue small pieces to a flat block for lapping broad flat areas. Or you can glue strips to narrow flat sticks to make make your work easier. Spray adhesives work well for this. And some abrasive discs come pre treated with sticky backs. -G