Burnishing pictures

[sam bennett]

It's not really burnishing, but those same Series 24 halves from above got some extra love. With 8 hrs of free time and some basic equipment, you can get these same results. Too bad these aren't mine! 

I burnished the halves first. Not really necessary, but I like the unseen side of the rim to look nice too. The tough part about these Margays is obviously curb damage and the tool marks from the die. Here are the tool marks.



I don't have a lathe, but a home made turning machine using a kart axle. 

I start with 220, 320, and finally 400. 


I think this is 400.


Then the scary part. There is a lot of risk in polishing the Margay rims because they open ended on have those little tabs which could grab on the wheel. The VanK rims aren't as bad.

I do the same process I've mentioned other places here. Emery/Sisal, Tripoli/Denim, white/loose cotton.










Sterling asked me a good question about how to attack the wheels on a stationary buffer, and what size wheels.
I usually buy 10" diameter wheels and wear them down to nubs. When they get around 4" - 6" I can use them for rims. 
I stack them so the wheel I'm polishing with is furthest out. All the others are acting as spacers. The extra wheels keep the main wheel from flexing under load, and you want to keep the nut far from your piece. Not pictured here, but I tape the nut with electrical, duct, or PET tape.
And I'll never polish indoors again. I buried a tote full of rocks and concrete in the backyard and anchored the buffer stand and tube bender to the pad. 



Don't attack the buffing wheel head on like this. When you're done sanding, your next step is "cutting" with the Emery/Sisal wheel here. The purpose of cutting is remove the groves from sanding by going across them.


Attack the buffing wheel at a 45* angle like this. Why? When you were sanding the wheel down on the turning machine you made groves in the direction of rotation which need to be cut down. Since you really can't work at 90* relative to the groves, 45* works best. 
You'll want to wear heat resistant gloves. You'll slowly spin the wheel in your hand keeping part of the rim at a 45* to the wheel. 


Hope this helps.