Polishing tins

[Diggin Jiggin]

I'm working on some tins and wondering if any of you guys have suggestions on polishing them? I've been using steel wool and its pretty good but even the 0000 stuff leaves very fine scratches. I was wondering if theres something better or a last step to polishing them after the steel wool...

[J_T_R]

Buffing wheel? I have no idea, I'm just throwing that out there.

[Tagger]

I saw a buffing wheel with different compounds ,,like a kit .. think there was 3 or 4 rouges and a soft buffing wheel (drill press?) at sears in the drill bit department/grinding wheels and brushes.. It was about a month ago but believe it was fairly inexspensive ,, bet it works the nuts on that ,,

[Pete F.]

try silver polish

[gregorjim]

Are you talking about Chrome lures..If so I use a buffing wheel 1"thick & compond from sears...Gets a little hot , but good results..Jim

[NJTackle]

Old timers would clean or shine their tins "on location" by rubbing them into the sand, and this was quite effective. We have evolved since then and have a plethora of effective polishes and cleaners at our disposal. Any jewelry polish or Flitz will work quite well. But my favorite is WENOL(tm). This is without a doubt the easiest most effective metal polish I have ever used. It removes all oxidation and brings back the natural shine of tin beautifully. Be sure to use a fine polishing cloth, and please stay away from paper towels as they contain paper pulp. Whatever you do, PLEASE DO NOT USE STEEL WOOL. I cringe when I see this. We have taken a lot of effort to "hammer finish" the surface to get the luster you see. Steel wool deeply scratches this surface allowing dirt and contaminants in.

[Diggin Jiggin]

Thanks guys, I picked up a little polishing kit today that fits in thedrill press. It works nice.

Here's a before and after. I made the molds for these by turning some off center stuf on the lathe and then making a bondo mold from that. They're rough but at this stage I'm still trying to gt them to do what I want and to get the weights right. They come out pretty rough from the mold, it takes me 20 min or so to get them from the way they come out (on the left, to the way the middle one looks. Thats using sandpaper & steel wool. Then I hit it with the buffer and it puts a pretty good shine on it, like the one on the right. Now I just need to make them 1/2 an ounce lighter.. Once I get them the way I want, I'll try & find that wenol stuff to keep em shiny.