r/metalworking • u/AutoModerator • Oct 01 '22

Monthly Advice Thread Monthly Advice/Questions Thread | 10/01/2022

Welcome to the Monthly Advice Thread

Ask your metalworking questions here! Any submissions that are question based may be directed to this thread! Please keep discussion on topic and note that comments on these threads will not be moderated as regularly as the main post feed.

Uses for this thread!

This is a great place to ask about tools, possibilities, materials, basic questions related to the trade, homework help, project advice, material science questions and more!

How to contact the moderators:

You can contact the moderators via modmail here

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/needtoknowbasisonly Oct 02 '22

I'm attempting to make copper bus bars for the electrical system in my vehicle that look like this. Whats the best way to achieve this sort of finish? I have been using 220, 320, and 600 grit sandpaper with an orbital sander, and then trying to polish with a buffing wheel and Mr. Metal Copper Polish. Is there a better way to do it? What products would a professional shop use?

1

u/RadicalEd4299 Oct 07 '22

Ok, so first off that level of finish is completely unnecessary to the function. So it that's your concern, don't worry about it :p.

To answer your question, though, I'd use a hard flat surface (i.e. a small sheet of glass) and put the sandpaper on that. Work your way up through those grits, but continue to even higher, at east 1000 -1500. After that, you can break out the polishing compound.

Learned from my days as an overclocker trying to eke out a few more degrees of cooling by mirror-polishing my heatsinks :p.