Minimal material removal through the use of the finest abrasives leads to a flawlessly shiny surface.
Polishing is the continuation of grinding with finer means, from the grain 1200. Abrasives are no longer used in this area, consisting of a carrier and glued grain, but with wax, in which the grain is bound. With the help of a polishing wheel (Schwabbelscheibe) this wax mass is applied: You press the wax bar against the running polishing wheel, the wax softens due to the frictional heat and transfers – including the included polish – on the disc. Now the workpiece is pressed against the polishing agent-saturated lateral surface of the wheel; The heat generated during this process liquefies the wax and releases the polishing grains.
The buffing wheel is punched out of a cotton fabric, sewn from many individual layers. With the help of a threaded mandrel, the disc can be clamped in the chuck of a transversely clamped drill.
As with grinding, polishing is done in stages. It is recommended, proceed in three steps, each with a finer polishing wax.
All closed surfaces on metals and hard plastics can be polished. If they have been treated with 2K paints and the pores have been closed, hardwood surfaces can also be polished. Metals can be polished with pressure, with plastics, most of which are thermoplastics, you have to be more careful, so that the frictional heat does not destroy anything. If you work with acrylic with too high pressure, the workpiece gets small bubbles in the overheated areas, which can only be ground out again with great difficulty. Then it has to be polished again.
Polishing tools and accessories
Prerequisite for machine polishing is a horizontally fixed drill (Category) and a buffing wheel (B1). Buffing wheels are inexpensive, so you should have one for each wax (B2). A soft foam disc is required to remove polishing paste or car polish (C), a cord brush for cleaning textured surfaces (D). The finest polishing wax is used for the final step (E) and a dense felt disc (F).