Has anyone polished the stainless panels on their machine? I have just got a Linea 2AV and some of the panels have been cleaned with either an abrasive cleaner or a scouring pad. It is not deep scratching, just some of the shine is gone.

If anyone has; can they advise what is good paste to use, and what sort of buff would be appropriate. Would something like a Makita buffer with a sheepskin pad be suitable?

Any help would be appreciated.

Find a company in your area that does electropolishing. The process is fast and easy if you have the right equipment (a tank of acid solition and a way to dunk the item while passing a current through it)

Results are spectacular and generally very inexpensive. If there is an electropolish business near you it might be worthwhile to ring them up for a conversation. If you take the item to them they might even polish it while you wait.

IF there is nothing like that available to you, Ive use "Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish" to remove a few light scratches. Ive also used a product called "Flitz". But none of the scratches I was trying to get out were very deep at all.. Mostly surface scratches and spider-webs. I did it all by hand, but if the scratches are more serious.. You might want to start with something more abrasive first.

OrphanEspresso Sells the Mothers paste.. As well as most CarCare stores.. Like AutoZone, Advance Auto, PepBoys(maybe). I had it for my car, and after I saw it on the Orphan website, i tried it out.

JonR10 wrote:Find a company in your area that does electropolishing.

That's what Steve did for his Restoration of an Olympia Cremina; the results were quite dramatic. Also see related topic from the FAQ: Scratch Removal from Stainless Steel.

From my T1 rebuild, I used a 6" bench grinder with cloth wheels, one per polishing compound. WAY TOO SLOW on the large panels, but it does work. (Now that I own a Festool Rotex 150, it would make this go a LOT quicker...)
Polishing front panel's scratches

Shiny big panels



Cannonfodder KNOWS his stuff on polishing.

cannonfodder wrote:You could always use my secret weapon. A high speed car buffer, a dozen buffer bonnets, some heavy cutting compound, white rouge and metal polish like MAAS or Flitz. Use the car buffer as a giant buffing wheel, just keep it moving or your will overheat the steel and burn it. I did that on my Faema two group rebuild.

Best of luck
Mark

You can mirror polish about anything if you put the time in it. This guy got a sanding progression that ran from 400 to 12000 grit micromesh. Then 4 compounds on a buffing wheel to bring it to a mirror polish. Shaves wonderfully as well.

AHHH.. A Harry Potter fan I see! I can recognize that font a mile away.

JmanEspresso wrote:AHHH.. A Harry Potter fan I see! I can recognize that font a mile away.

Garamond for the main text, I think, and Able for the chapter titles.

JmanEspresso wrote:AHHH.. A Harry Potter fan I see! I can recognize that font a mile away.

Not really, my kids are. It was the only book handy for a reflection photo. My reading is limited to service bulletins, Microsoft security updates, avert labs virus updates, VM ware and other exciting tech documentation.

If you have some bad scratching or oxidation, you can use cloth wheels on a bench buffer. Hit it with tripoli to clean it up, then white rouge, red rogue, and then 0.5 micron chromium oxide. If the scratches are very deep than sanding them is the only way to remove them, then the polishing compounds to buff it back out. Not all sandpaper is created equal, for stainless you need aluminium oxide paper or harder. Cheap wood sandpaper will do nothing, the grit is not hard enough to cut steel. You have to go very high in the grits as well. 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 minimum. if you want a real mirror polish you will end up having to go into micromesh and run up to at least 8000 grit. I usually go to 12000 then the compounds. You can also purchase greesless grits to apply to buffing wheels for sanding as well.

Hi Dave,

I did a test last night with 220, 400, and 1000 grit water paper, and then white and red rouge. it took quite a bit of time and has yielded pretty good results. Obviously if I spent more time I could get really good results. I'll have to do a mental cost/benefit analysis on that in my head to work out the best balance. Bearinf in mind I want to use the machine to make coffee; it's not a show piece, and it will get dinged again, I think it's all doable.