How to Polish Aluminum | CRATEX Abrasives

First attempts to produce aluminum date back to 1760, and the first successful attempt happened 64 years later. Between 1845, when small pieces of aluminum were successfully produced and some of its physical properties were described, and Paris World’s Fair of 1878 aluminum went from a rare metal more expensive than gold to the symbol of future. Its price continued to drop rapidly and by the early 1890s aluminum had been widely used in jewelry, optical instruments and everyday items.

Today, aluminum is the non-ferrous metal used most widely, with just some of the applications in transportation industry (cars, trucks, railway cars, bicycles, trucks, aircrafts, spacecraft and many more), food and beverage industries, construction, consumer electronics and photographic equipment, musical instruments, and so on. Just look around your home – you’ll find tons of things that are made of aluminum or some aluminum alloy: tableware, kitchenware, cans, packaging, hardware, aluminum car parts, tools, watches, baseball bats… And you know what that means? Yes, that’s a whole lot of stuff that you can polish on regular bases.

Aluminum, like any other metal, oxidizes and oxidation cause tarnishing and eventually can cause rusting. Its shine can be recovered with polishing, but keep in mind that aluminum is a soft and light metal, so excessive and aggressive use of strong abrasive materials even when the item only needs dust wiping, will cause it to lose its luster and cause damage.

Depending on the type of aluminum (i.e. alloy) you’re planning to polish you can use different sets of tools. For example, you can use cloths and various aluminum pastes, jeweler’s rouge, rotary hand tool, bench grinder, sanding wheels, polishing wheels, sand paper, sanding or polishing blocks, etc.

How to Polish Aluminum Tableware (Hand method)

You’re probably wondering how to remove tarnish without damaging your aluminum platters, trays, cookware and other tableware items that have lost their shine over the years and are looking dull. Here you’ll need to be very careful with abrasive compounds, as aggressive pastes can easily inflict deep scratches.

Actually, what is great about polishing aluminum dishware is that you’ll need only a few things to do it and most of those things can already be found lying around your house.

To conduct this project, you’ll need:

-          Water

-          Dish soap

-          Cream of tartar

-          Soft cloths (old shirts, socks or underwear)

-          Old toothbrush (or new one, just don’t use it for brushing your teeth again after this)

-          Aluminum polish

Step #1: Wash

The piece that your going to polish needs to be completely clean, so use some dish soap, sponge or a rag and water and give your dishware a nice scrub. It should be washed, thoroughly rinsed and completely dry before your start with the polish.

Step #2: Rub

The cream of tartar should be mixed with water to create a light paste. The paste should be applied to the aluminum piece with a cloth in circular motions. The toothbrush will be included in this step as well in case your piece has indentations, etchings or similar imperfections, or in case you’ll need to get to those hard-to-reach areas.

Step #3: Rinse

Now rinse the piece and dry it once again with the drying cloth. Make sure you get the paste completely of the piece, so pay attention to tight spaces. In case the tableware piece is going to be in contact with food, Step 3 is your final step.

Step #4: Rub

So, only if you’re not going to use it as an actual dinning piece, take another cloth and polish it with aluminum compound by using circular motions. Aluminum compounds are toxic and should not be indigested.

Step #5: Wipe & Buff

Remove the compound with a clean cloth and use gentle buffing wheels for the ultimate shine. You can also do the buffing with a soft cloth and using small, circular motions.

Bling, bling, it’s done!

How to Polish Aluminum Wheels (Two Methods)

Perhaps aluminum can’t reach quite the shine that stainless can, but it sure can be made to shine like chrome. Since the metal responds really well to polishing, your aluminum rims can look brand new with just a little bit of effort. What is great is that you can maintain your wheels’ shine yourself, which won’t be tiresome in case you’re a car person. And there’s no unique way to do it. Every person found polishing tools, polishing liquids and compounds that they prefer, so pay attention to roughness of the tools and try a few things out before you find what works best for you.

Bear wheel polishing can be done quite quickly by different power and air tools, such as flex shaft, rotary hand piece or dual action buffer or just by your hand.

In case of the rotary tools, the wheels that you’ll mount will depend on the condition of your wheels. For example, in case you are dealing with rust or hard-core crud, you’ll probably need some stronger abrasive wheels or sanding discs. You can treat a curb rash with a flat file and you can also use various sandpapers to eliminate indentations. You’ll start somewhere from 180 or 220-grit (never go below 180 as you risk damaging the wheel) and progressively move to finer grits, such as 400, 600, 1000, 2000, 3000. In case you’re maintaining your wheels regularly and just need a little bit of work to get the shine back, you’ll go straight for the fine denim or cotton buffing wheels.

In case you don’t own any power tools, don’t worry as you can still do the polishing in your driveway or your car garage by using your ten fingers, some cloths and some abrasive compound, such as the good old Mag & Aluminum Polish or the Bling Master Inc. . Assuming that your rims are in pretty decent shape and you don’t need to use sandpapers, of course. The process might take a while, but the good news is that you won’t need to use much force. Optional but recommended: a fine tune and a couple of beers and you’re ready to polish away! And remember: the longer you rub with that fine cloth, the shinier the wheel will become.

Regardless of your tools, always start by washing your wheels to remove loose dirt and brake dust. Brake dust is a mixture of an adhesive and carbon fibers and rotor metal particles that becomes highly corrosive when influenced by the heat and friction generated by the wheels. A good way to protect your wheels and prevent corrosion is to frequently clean them.

Now that you understand what a menace brake dust can be, make sure that you rinse your wheels thoroughly and make sure you get into every little crevice. You can use non-acidic aluminum spray cleaner or in case you don’t have one of those, an oven cleaner will do an excellent job. Just spray it, leave it for about 20 minutes and scrub with a disc scrubber that is safe for Teflon surfaces.

After the polishing work is done, you can apply an aluminum brightening cleaner that will help you restore aluminum and will remove oxidation.

NOTE: Remember to wear safety glasses in case you are using a rotary polishing tool, wear a breathing mask as some polishing compounds are toxic, and make sure you grab a pair of gloves!