Hand sanding confusion.

[Bob K]

Paint the louvers so carefully that they don’t need buffing. You can afford to spend a lot of time with them. Maybe consider sanding and repainting until they are flawless.

Bob K

[Len]

Paint the louvers so carefully that they don’t need buffing. You can afford to spend a lot of time with them. Maybe consider sanding and repainting until they are flawless.

Bob K

Or, if you need polishing, sand with a sponge pad ending in 3000 grit of finer then hand rub them until you're happy.

[CA. 280]

Or, if you need polishing, sand with a sponge pad ending in 3000 grit of finer then hand rub them until you're happy.

Only ones I could find are circular, do you know of any square pads?? Would you use Trizact or Abralon for hand sanding??
The 3M sponges are square but as far as I can tell only go to 800 (ultra fine).
Thanks.

[Bob K]

Round or square, doesn’t make any difference. I have several of those 3M sanding blocks that seem to be made for sanding filler. They’re 2 ½” wide and 4 ¾” long. They take adhesive backed paper but I often use that block with a round Hookit disk. I just bring the sides of the disk up and grab the block with the sanding disk edges sandwiched between the block and my fingers. I do that because I have a lot of Hookit disks around and there seems to be one everywhere I go in my shop. Works well.

Bob K

[Len]

Only ones I could find are circular, do you know of any square pads?? Would you use Trizact or Abralon for hand sanding??
The 3M sponges are square but as far as I can tell only go to 800 (ultra fine).
Thanks.

Bob is right, we use the Trizact disks by hand quite a bit when we need to get into a tight spot and they would be excellent for sanding in those louvers.

[CA. 280]

Found the answer to buffing the louvers. It is a polishing wheel designed for bench grinders to be used for
plastic. Ultra soft, I used it parallel to the louvers so it doesn't hang up on the edges or try to tear
the tape off the edge. Sleeved the 1'2" hole down to 5/16th's and put a bolt thru with nuts to hold it in place
then into a 3/8th's VS drill. Works great, the whole unit is so light that I really feel in control.

[Len]

Found the answer to buffing the louvers. It is a polishing wheel designed for bench grinders to be used for
plastic. Ultra soft, I used it parallel to the louvers so it doesn't hang up on the edges or try to tear
the tape off the edge. Sleeved the 1'2" hole down to 5/16th's and put a bolt thru with nuts to hold it in place
then into a 3/8th's VS drill. Works great, the whole unit is so light that I really feel in control.

How did you sand the surface prior to polishing?

[CA. 280]

Ended up using "micro mesh" a grit coated ultra thin fabric you can wrap around your finger.
Rated in AO, I went up to 4000, about 2000 ANSI. Got mine from MSC, a machinests catalogue, they go up to
12K AO. Also looked into gem polishing pastes you could apply with a rag on your finger but at $15.00 for
5 grams a little expensive. Glad I remembered my plastic buffer.

[another2centsworth]

Ended up using "micro mesh" a grit coated ultra thin fabric you can wrap around your finger.
Rated in AO, I went up to 4000, about 2000 ANSI. Got mine from MSC, a machinests catalogue, they go up to
12K AO. Also looked into gem polishing pastes you could apply with a rag on your finger but at $15.00 for
5 grams a little expensive. Glad I remembered my plastic buffer.

MSC is a great supplier of not only machinist supplies but so much much more.