i have absolutely no idea what i'm doing (dremel)

[cooldan]

so i bought a dremel, and it came with some bits. and i bought some felt discs. so i thought i'd be making things shiny, but i have no idea what all the bits are for, and i'm a bit lazy. i had a go with various endpieces and it was fun, and i got to enjoy a few sparks and a few flakes of ook in my eye. but i had no clue what i was doing, and that black crap was hard to get off, and those felt rings aren't really held on properly, so they kept coming loose.

i wanna be like the King of Shiny @Nedreud, who could probably take a piece of coal that some goat had dumped on, and turn it into something that you could bounce a laser off. but look at it.



so i feel like this guy now

 

[PeteB]

Those grit wheels are for use on wood not metal.

If your piece is really junky then clean it with either scotchbrite or 2000 grit wet & dry first. Otherwise most of time you can just get straight to the buffing. Different compounds are coarse/fine. I see you have green. Got any others?

For technique, start here:

 

[cooldan]

i have a white, a black and a green block, and a baggy of white stuff. i have felt things and sandpapery things and bristles too.

 

[JT.]

Fear not @cooldan, you are not alone - my Dremel experiences have been largely similar to yours. That scratchy mess all over the metal in your pic was presumably made with something other than the felt discs (I produced similar results using some sort of grinding attachment)? I took to the grinder attachment 'cos the progress with felt discs was so painfully slow, but it became clear that the only way to get anything like shiny is using felt discs, in conjunction with various types of compound (you probably got a minuscule amount of a red compound with the Dremel?!). You can buy larger quantities and different grades of compound (from very fine to a bit coarse). You can get it shiny using just the felt discs and compounds, but, unless the thing you are polishing is tiny, it takes ages (and ages, and ages). With bigger things to polish, it also tends to leave 'streaks' where it is more or less shiny, but ultimately not a satisfying uniform shine. I was disappointed with my Dremel for this purpose (I'll use it for other stuff though). I also got a larger grinder based polishing wheel (a 6 inch polishing disc on a bench grinder) but that was almost equally unsatisfactory, in that it will polish a flat object well, but it won't get in the corners, and the end result is very much dependent on the state of the thing you are polishing when you start (e.g. if it has rust on it at the start, it will be very hard to reach a perfect shine afterwards.
In my experience, the only way this works is by expending an incredible amount of effort/time, and lowering your expectations about the end product...or not bothering in the first place.

 

[carl lawrence]

how i polish metal is use sand paper start with 800 grit /1500 / 2000 / 2500 then buff up with auto sol
the Dremel is a pass to say "can i be in the dremel club to ! "
LOL

 

[Judge Dreads]

Don't want to sound like an old fuddy duddy (old basterd is fine) but please wear a mask/3M respirator guys, had pneumonia, acid reflux, VCD and a lung infection since I started modding and it was all due to airborne 5hite in one form or another, polishing and grinding is particularly bad

 

[carl lawrence]

ok boss !!
your dead right !!

 

[Alan Syson]

Dan. Baggy of white stuff tonight. Best leave the dremmeling 'til tomorrow.