How to polish pedals and knee levers?

Terry Sneed · From: Arkansas,

Have any of ya'll polished pedals and knees before? How do you go about it? I'd like to polish my pedals and knees on my Mullen.But if it's a BIG expensive project, I'll leave em black.

I have a bench grinder with a buffer wheel. Would that get the black off, or would I need to soak em in some kind of de-greaser?
What do you put on them to make em shine?

Terry

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Mullen D10 /8x5 / session 500rd/ American Strat Highway 1 model
steelin for my Lord

David Doggett · Posted 24 Aug 2005 10:53 am

Yeah, I have the same question. I've read about the different things, like SimiChrome. But what I'm not sure about is the mechanics of polishing. Do you do it with a grinder and buffer, or with a handheld drill and buffer? Is a Drummel big enough? Or is it better to do it all completely manually? I've got a nice Walnut Lacquer Sho-Bud Pro III with dull aluminum necks and endplates just aching for polishing.

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

The REAL answer is to disassemble everything and polish on the wheel BUT there are people who do this for a living. It's easy to get a wavy pattern from not knowing what you're doing. Small nicks and scratches can be touched up in place with a Dremel and some polishing compound, but anytime I have an endplate or pedal bar (or maybe all the knee levers), I'd pay to have someone do it, and pay someone to disassemble and reassemble it. It's A LOT OF WORK.

Naturally, you can do it all yourself, but it's a DIRTY JOB.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Terry,
Seems to me if your stuff is coated with some sort of black paint, you will probably have to use some sort of remover. The bare finished aluminum may not be smooth enough to just buff out. You might have to smooth out the finish with varying grades of abrasives. I had to do this when I made knee levers for an old Shobud (long gone). I used 220 sand-paper and worked my way up to about 6oo. Then I was able to polish the levers using a buffing wheel. Get the biggest wheel that you can for things like endplates, I would think. Never done endplates myself. Something like a Dremil might be okay for very small areas, but it sounds like the road to insanity for anything of any size.

Farris Currie · From: Ona, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

YEP,I'll get booooo for this one!!!but have used a #7 silica sand with sandblaster on black paint parts before.being very careful and keeping pressure as low as possible!!!
some places use peanuts and pecan hulls ect.don't know about that.

Beware about chemicals!!Have a friend who took V W heads to a motor shop,put them in a cleaner tank for part of a day.went back and all they found was the steel studs.alum was ate up and gone!!!
Also buffing wheels will grab and throw you parts across the house, and might damage a picking finger tooo. been there done that.
farris

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Curries Cautions
All true!

Sonny Priddy · From: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA, R.I.P.

You Will Need 4 or 5 Buffing Wheels Togather For End Plates.And Aluminum Buffing Compound . I Was A Buffer For American Standard And Also Fields Mif. Co, In LA Calif. SONNY.

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Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

You should contact Mike Mantey, at Mullen, and see what he says.

Or, just leave 'em black.

Lee, from South Texas
(A fellow Mullen picker)

Mike Mantey · From: Eastern Colorado, USA

Good idea Lee. Terry I will save you a bunch of time. You will never get that black off of those pedals. That stuff is not paint and it is extremely hard, you would have to use some sort of grinder or sander and after that it would not look much like a pedal I am sure. So in answer to your question, you would have to buy new pedals from us or look for some old polished pedals that someone else might have, or maybe someone would want to trade, I don't know.

Brian Henry · Posted 24 Aug 2005 3:23 pm

Terry,

Another possibility is to have them powder coated whatever color you want. They do have an aluminum powder coating. Check your yellow pages and look under coatings or powder coatings. We use powder coating on motorcycle frames. It is very hard and looks professional.

Farris Currie · From: Ona, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

AS TB says,we just built almost 40ft of alum fancy fence for a porch,and the man is having it powder coated.I build 32ft 5 yrs ago for the same man,sandblasted it,primed it with zinc oxide,and painted,a pain in the rump!!now powder coat is the thing!!
farris

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

If the coating is the result of anodizing it can be removed with oven cleaner (carefully)and then polished after being sanded- depending on how rough it is end up with 400 grit then use red compound on a buffer at about 3750 rpm- then going to white compund on different wheel at about 1800 rpm.

richard burton · From: Britain

What's the point?
Ears detect sound, not light.
My steel has never been polished for the ten years that I've owned it, but you would never know that from listening to it.

Pictures at: http://usera.imagecave.com/steelie/Ormston/

[This message was edited by richard burton on 29 October 2005 at 03:43 AM.]

Ken Byng · From: Southampton, England

Richard
I had an Ormston twin 8 many years ago. However, it never had a ShoBud fret board, a Gibson logo, knee levers or rollers at the tuning head. Funny that.

richard burton · From: Britain

Ken,
Yes, I have modified it extensively, but I've never polished it !!

The reason that I changed it from a twin 8 to a SD 10 was it's outstanding tone.

I've added some pictures of my ZB to the site, there are some quite interesting mods on that as well !!

Terry Sneed · From: Arkansas,

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. The black pedals and knees don't bother me that much. I'll leave em black.

I know about the buffer wheels, I use to be a welder. Ever got your finger caught in the grinder wheel? Now that's what hurts!

Mike, I sent you an Email.

Terry

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Mullen D10 /8x5 / session 500rd/ American Strat Highway 1 model
steelin for my Lord

[This message was edited by Terry Sneed on 25 August 2005 at 07:31 AM.]

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Never put aluminum anywhere near caustic cleaner solutions, it may explode when immersed.

I once took the risk. When I pulled my 403 block's aluminum pistons out of the caustic tank at work, after only 15 seconds of dunk, they were frothing & foaming like a beer tap.

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