hey guys lately I've been doing a lot of sanding and grinding on aluminum as you
can tell but this time around I came across a secret weapon that I'm gonna
bust out and this should make a world of difference so what I'm referring to is a
rubber sanding drum that goes on a bench grinder I've had this around the shop
for a few years but never really have the right sandpaper nor a reason to use
it I've got a few aluminum parts here that
I'm gonna try out with that sanding drum a lot of this stuff has casting marks on
it such as this triple clamp I've got a casting line and all the casting texture
see what I can do with that the linkage has casting line on as well I think
they'll look pretty cool if that was smoothed out and then I've got the
smooth arm this one is gonna be a ton of fun to stand out all right the drum just
slips onto the shaft like so so kind of how this works is the sandpaper belt the
slips onto here and you can see it's kind of a loose fit but as soon as the
wheel is spinning the rubber expands and holds that sandpaper into place I didn't
mention this in the previous sanding videos but it should be pretty obvious
you'll definitely want to use a good respirator and goggles whenever you're
sanding any type of metal especially aluminum all right let's get to work
one last thing before I get started with sanding I'm gonna try using this grease
thick on the belt and I'm hoping that helps with the cutting action and also
prevents the material from building up on the sandpaper
what the fuck is up so far the sanding drum is working amazing on these more
open areas but in the tighter spots can't really get in there so I'm gonna
swap out the drum for the coarse scotch-brite wheel so I was able to get
the rest of the casting line out with a scotch-brite wheel now I've got the drum
back on and I'm gonna finish her off all right
so I've got most of the linkage sanded down so far and it is looking super
smooth really impressed with how well that sanding drum is working but it's
easy to go over the top and remove too much material as you can see right here
I kind of made some gouges but I'm gonna clean that up with a cartridge roll and
then getting these tighter areas as well
we don't gotta be on the road maybe that's super super happy with the finish
I ended up with here on the outside looks incredible now for the inside I'm
gonna touch that up with a little wire wheel on a drill
man this piece turned out prime and I should be able to get the connecting arm
looking just as good that's what we'll be working on next
all I can say is holy crap looks like these parts just rolled off
of a CNC machine absolutely stunning now my hope is to get the swingarm
looking just as good that is going to be a
one thing to keep in mind if you're gonna be standing the sides of a
swinging arm they are anodized and sanding that
anodizing off could be really dangerous if you're not wearing a respirator so
the reason I'm standing down on the sides and the top is to remove the
anodizing and also just to get it to a clean
smooth finish again as you can see on this side I haven't touched it yet and
there's some scratches here and all that will come out with sanding so basically
what I'm gonna do here is knock down what I can with the sanding drum and
then attack the rest of the swingarm with the coarse scotch brite wheel
at this stage I've done everything I can do with the sanding drum and now with
the cartridge rolls I'm gonna knock down some of these other markings and then
finish it off with the scotch brite wheel
this thing is starting to take shape let's see what the coarse scotch brite
wheel can do now
all right here is what she's looking like right now scotch-brite wheel
definitely did some work on the bottom side here wasn't too picky about it but
got looking pretty good so now I've just got the inside right here and back here
as well so I'm gonna knock down these casting lines with a sandpaper roll
since I can't get into the inside of the swingarm with the buffing machine I've
got a scotch-brite wheel on a drill see what kind of damage I can do with this
I've got the swing I'm looking pretty good but it still got that rough finish
to it so far most of the work has been done
with a rough scotch-brite wheel and now I'm gonna put the finishing touches on
the swing arm with a finer grade scotch-brite wheel both of these wheels
are available over on my website by the way and they are absolutely necessary if
you're going to be doing any type of finishing work on aluminum I'll put the
links down in the description
so she is looking sweet after that last buff but as you can see the finish is
somewhat inconsistent and that's usually how it is buffing such a large part on a
machine I'm gonna finish it off by hand with the scotch brite pad and that
should give it a lot more consistent look the key here is gonna be the buff
in the same direction the whole time on this part I'll be buffing in the
length of the swingarm so I'll be moving in this direction here and that'll give
it a really consistent feel if I go across the grain like that it'll have
crosshatch marks and that won't turn out very good
well guys here is the finished product I am pretty stoked with the outcome but I
have way too much time into this thing though
so my favorite thing about this type of finish especially on a swing arm is when
it gets dirty stained scuffed up all only to do is grab the scotch brite pad
give a little buff and she'll be looking as good as ever with the swing arm
finished up let's take a little halftime break and pick the winner from the
giveaway a few videos back once again I'll be using a random comment picker so
this is gonna pick a complete random comment from a few videos back as soon
as I click start here it is gonna pick the random comment who will it be all
right we've got hunter green up and he says prime so hunter green up shoot me a
message here on YouTube and this prime MX hat will be yours for the rest of you
you could pick up your own prime of X hat at prime and XCOM and now for the
rest of the parts pretty much gonna be the same exact process starting with a
sanding drum and then moving on to the two different grades of scotch-brite
wheels
these top triple clamps are always a ton of fun to sand since they look super
cool all smoothed out so I'm done with the sanding drum I'm gonna move on to
the scotch brite wheel and that will take care of all these tighter areas
alright guys these parts are now finally done what a fun project this was I
learned a ton throughout the process of refinishing this stuff
well that is it for today if you guys enjoyed the video give it a big thumbs
up and don't forget to go grab yourself a scotch-brite wheel over on prime MX
comm if you're going to be doing any sort of metal refinishing these come in
super handy and as far as the sanding drum goes if you're gonna buy one of
those use the link down in the description alright guys I will see you
around take care