0000 Steel Wool - Doesn't help ?

[The Soph Gent]

I just restored a WE 202 which has a metal base. I stripped it completely of old paint, sanded and then painted with black lacquer. Obviously there is orange peel which I used 0000 steel wool (wet) to eliminate...which it did. HOWEVER, the scratches that the wool leaves will not go away. I have tried Novus, Turtle Wax polish compound, etc. The scratches (although very fine) does not go away.

I read how almost everyone uses 0000, then polishes to get the desired look. But my scratches remain. Any reason?

[LarryInMichigan]

I also get scratches with 0000 steel wool.  The stuff to use is Micro-mesh sanding pads or something similar.

Larry

[Witty]

Larry makes a very good suggestion. 

Steel wool is great when used on very hard, solid, and consistent flat surface materials, but can easily be overused when trying to achieve a smooth flat finish on softer metal materials and especially wood.  When overused on a surface, it actually enhances and brings out the most minute surface defects and especially exposes inconsistencies in the surface material of softer metals.  That's one reason it works so good on bringing out the grain in soft woods while at the same time leaving a nice sheen.  If you use a primer on metal, you want to sand it smooth with a fine grit. I wouldn't use steel wool on the primer.  Of course there's always the option of applying enough finish coats and buffing it down to get a smooth flat finish.

On old phone metal surfaces, I've found it's usually best to go with wet sanding with finer grits to get the smoothest possible surface shine.  A rule of thumb I always use; as you work your way down with the finer sanding grits, you let off on the rubbing pressure a little for each.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Ken

[cihensley@aol.com]

Did you let the new paint cure about two weeks?

Chuck

[The Soph Gent]

Did you let the new paint cure about two weeks?

Chuck

No, not sure if that mattered since I also tried 0000 on a bakelite phone (not painted) and got the fine scratches. I then used Novus and that did absolutely nothing. I had to use my bench buffer to smooth it out and then polish.

In fact, a member here (Doug Rose) swears by the 0000 and Skin So Soft method on bakelite. As I mentioned, the 0000 scratched the hell out of it and had to use a buffer. The skin so soft works great.

[paul-f]

Abrasives are coded by the fineness of their grit.  All work by basically scratching the surfact of the material.  To get more shine, simply move to an abrasive with a finer grit until you get the finish you want.

If you try to start with the finest grit for the desired finish, it will take almost forever to scratch off enough material to smooth the surface.  Start with a grit that's somewhat smaller than the largest scratch you're working on and progress to finer grits in steps until you decide you're done.

After 0000 steel wool, I usually progress to polishing compounds.  There are lots of alternatives and many of us approach this in different manners.  Experiment and have fun.

[Doug Rose]

I saw this thread and found my parts box and took out the worst contestant I had for refurb. E1 handset used as a test set. No shine at all, dull and rough to the touch. Chip out of top, small but there. Amazingly enough, a real good spit cup.

Total time in refurb 47 minutes,,,,including getting the little bastard apart and adding a handset cord. You can still see what's left of the chip. Handset was used so much you can barely read WE on the handgrip. It's raining here, so I took these pics outside under an umbrella.

I usually leave the SSS on for a few days, but for this I wiped and on and wiped it off just so a little got on the surface. The pics aren't the best but still, NO SCRATHES and a real nice shine in my humble opinion. Fine 0 steel wool.

Doug