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Polishing a metal 302

Started by FABphones, November 06, 2018, 09:29:35 AM

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FABphones

This is one of my recent purchases from the U.S. which arrived safely thanks to 5* packing.  :)

My first stripped metal 302, I was interested to see how it would come up using my favourite chrome and metal polish. I wanted to see how close I could get to achieving a chrome like finish.

First application of Autosol was done by hand, then I used a Dremel type mini-tool with a felt mop head for the second application, buffing up with a *cotton mop head. The handset was polished with Polishing Paste #5.

( *a teleplay tip  :) ).

Am very pleased with the result.   :D
A collector of  'Monochrome Phones with Sepia Tones'   ...and a Duck!
***********
Vintage Phones - 10% man made, 90% Tribble
*************

Jim Stettler

You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

twocvbloke

I find Peek polish produces a better shine than Autosol, dunno if it's just a finer polish or not, but it seems to make metal shine nicely for me... :)

Stinks though...  ;D

FABphones

Quote from: twocvbloke on November 06, 2018, 12:34:03 PM
I find Peek polish produces a better shine than Autosol, dunno if it's just a finer polish or not, but it seems to make metal shine nicely for me... :)

Stinks though...  ;D

Thanks for the tip. I'll look some up.  :)
A collector of  'Monochrome Phones with Sepia Tones'   ...and a Duck!
***********
Vintage Phones - 10% man made, 90% Tribble
*************

TelePlay

Quote from: twocvbloke on November 06, 2018, 12:34:03 PM
I find Peek polish produces a better shine than Autosol, dunno if it's just a finer polish or not, but it seems to make metal shine nicely for me... :)

     Regular Member Post

In my quest to find the best polish to make pot metal shine best, I tried some 5 or 6 different polishes including Noxon, Simichrome, Brasso and a few others I found on store shelves.

Starting with a stripped 302 that was first polished with Brasso on 0000 steel wool and then wet sanded with 1000 and then 2000 grit sandpaper to get it ready for polishing.

I don't think there is one metal polish that will work on all phones and all metals. Pot metal is a mixture of metals (melted together) and no 2 batches are the same. In addition, incomplete mixing in the pot can result in some areas of a metal housing having a different composition that other areas and will react to polishing differently.

What I did after the 2000 grit sanding was to use a polish on a flat area of the phone to see what it did. I then applied a different polish to that area to see if it got better or worse. Brasso on cotton made it worse all of the time probably due to the larger grit within the Brasso. If a polish made the shine worse, I went back to the previous polish used to get it back to a "best" state and then tried another polish. If it got better, it became my bench mark to test the rest of the polishes.

The polish that I found produced the best results on the 3 or 4 housings I worked on was Turtle Wax Chrome Polish, which has since be re-branded as Turtle Wax All Metal Polish (same container, same mixture, different name).

But, this Turtle Wax product was only best for pot metal. It is not the best metal polish for other metals, say copper or brass. The polishes are made using different chemicals and solvents and some of those solvents have an adverse affect on the metal. Noxon and Simichrome made the Turtle Wax polished surface shine less, made it duller. So, depending on what products are available in someone's area and the metal being worked on, the only way to find out which polish works best is that trial and error testing method until the best polish is found for that specific metal. In my case it was Turtle Wax All Metal Polish.

One thing I can say for certain is the best "wax" ever to protect bare metal is Renaissance Wax, a microcrystaline wax designed by a British museum long ago. It is not a polish, just a protective wax. A very small amount on a piece of cotton covers the metal in one coat and when immediately wiped off with a microfiber cloth leaves the shine unchanged but keeps environmental conditions from affecting the bare metal. The 302 I did about 2 1/2 years ago has been sitting on my desk ever since and has not dulled or developed a patina. Still looks like this



The wax also works great on freshly painted metal items (takes away that fresh paint tacky feeling and prevents finger prints) and Bakelite (protects the Bakelite and prevents finger prints).

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Ref:  "Pot metal—also known as monkey metal, white metal, or die-cast zinc—is a colloquial term that refers to alloys of low-melting point metals that manufacturers use to make fast, inexpensive castings. The term "pot metal" came about due to the practice at automobile factories in the early 20th century of gathering up non-ferrous metal scraps from the manufacturing processes and melting them in one pot to form into cast products. A small amount of iron usually made it into the castings, but too much iron raised the melting point, so it was minimized. -- There is no metallurgical standard for pot metal. Common metals in pot metal include zinc, lead, copper, tin, magnesium, aluminum, iron, and cadmium."[/color]

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