Polishing Brass and Copper

[suds]

My wife has a number of brass/copper pots, some very large. They are all in need of polishing and since I have the 150 FEQ I volunteered. Anybody have experience/information as to what abraisives/pads to use?

 

[ccmviking]

    I just use Mothers mag and aluminum polish.  You can use the 150 and a felt pad to get the larger area's but when I'm polishing my Copper Moscow Mule drink cups I use the small Mothers Power Ball.  It works great to get around inside the handle and inside the cups. 

Chris...

My wife has a number of brass/copper pots, some very large. They are all in need of polishing and since I have the 150 FEQ I volunteered. Anybody have experience/information as to what abraisives/pads to use?

 

[mouppe]

Use the interface pad to help with curved surfaces. I would think Granat around 400 would be good for brass. I would also use a slow speed, and end up with Brasso and a buffing cloth.

 

[tjbnwi]

Never-Dull;

http://www.nevrdull.com/index.html

Tom

 

[Eli]

Half a lemon dipped in salt.

 

[suds]

OK...once I do get it polished to the degree I want is there anything to put over it to keep it from oxidizing again?

 

[peter halle]

Lacquer in a spray can.

 

[Sparktrician]

Use the interface pad to help with curved surfaces. I would think Granat around 400 would be good for brass. I would also use a slow speed, and end up with Brasso and a buffing cloth.

I would think that Granat would be too abrasive for brass or copper, as soft as they are.  I might think that if an abrasive was required, Platin might be more suitable.  The Festool finishing abrasives in 5000 or 8000 grit and applied at low speed using a felt pad might be good for removing heavy tarnish.  Brasso is quite good (as any former military person can tell you), and NevrDull, as Tom suggested, is every bit as as good, applied manually, to get a good polish. 

[smile]

 

[mouppe]

Coincidentally, I polished up my brass mailbox this morning. I should have taken a "before" photo but I forgot. You can get the idea of how badly beaten up and tarnished it was by looking at the side of the lip near the hinge screw and the edge that runs parallel to the wall.

It took about 10 minutes to bring it to the state you can see in the photo below.

Step 1. RO125 in rotex mode with granat 500 and interface pad. (I tried starting with platin 1000 but wasn't making any headway so I stepped down to granat 500.)
Step 2. RO125 in RO mode with platin2 1000.

I'm not sure about the dust that sanding and polishing brass creates and associated safety issues, but as I didn't have my CT with me I did wear a respirator. My hands were pretty black afterwards.