Need to polish some small aluminum tubing, preferably to chrome like shine. What tools do I need? Thinking about buying 6 bench grinder, buffing? wheels and polish compound... Does it sound about right?
I've done all sorts of tests on this topic and am using a polishing kit that was meant for plastic, but on aluminum, but after all the pads coarse to fine (wet) I found that it's better to use the last pad again but dry, rather than using the while liquid paste they propose. Polishing dry or wet makes a difference, and polishing Al is not the same as polishing a plastic. It's a tricky recipe, you can dull your Al easily, and I never got it shiny like a mirror so I want to see other answrs
Aluminum oxidizes almost instantly, so it is never going to keep a good shine. You can send it to a plating shop and they will anodize it, which means a permanent oxidized layer and that may or may not retain some shine but at least it won't ever change much. (But it is easily stained.) Consider plating some other metal on the surface. You will need advice from a plating shop about that. Maybe you could use chrome plated water pipe? That would be cheaper than a custom job.
