Subject: Polishing bronze

From: "Greg Major" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 21:55:09 -0500

Greetings all!  I've got a quick question.  How can I go about
polishing/buffing a bronze piece?  The item in question is a snare drum
shell.  It's approximately 14 inches in diameter and 6.5 inches tall with
a fairly consistent thickness of about a tenth of an inch or so.  There
are a couple of factors to keep in mind:

1) The piece must not be subjected to temperatures high enough to warp the
metal.  In other words, the thing's gotta stay nice and round.  I don't
know if achieving these temperatures are possible using a buffing wheel,
but I thought I'd mention it.

2) There is an existing laquer sprayed over the metal, however, time and
neglect have taken their toll and eaten through in spots.  This is the
whole reason I'm doing this in the first place.  What is the safest way to
remove the laquer without damaging the metal?

I took the item to a local plating/polishing shop and they wanted $95 US
to put it through some acid bath, polish it, and laquer it.  This seemed
like an outrageous amount of money, but I could be wrong.  I also have 20
pot metal items (the drum lug casings) which are small enough to fit in
the palm of my hand.  They have an existing chrome which is in fair
condition.  The same plating shop wanted about $15 US to re-plate EACH
item.  This also seemed like highway robbery as I am somewhat familiar
with the chrome plating process and, unless the material cost is high,
couldn't see how they justified that much money.  Lucky me... I think I
can salvage the chrome with a can of wadding polish and some elbow
grease.

TIA!
Greg Major
-- 
...and I've got the pistol so I'll keep the pesos... yeah, and that seems
fair!
- The Refreshments

---

From: [email-masked] (Richard Turner)
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 1996 22:46:43 GMT

"Greg Major" <[email-masked]> wrote:

:>Greetings all!  I've got a quick question.  How can I go about
:>polishing/buffing a bronze piece?  The item in question is a snare drum
:>shell.  It's approximately 14 inches in diameter and 6.5 inches tall with
:>a fairly consistent thickness of about a tenth of an inch or so.  There
:>are a couple of factors to keep in mind:

:>1) The piece must not be subjected to temperatures high enough to warp the
:>metal.  In other words, the thing's gotta stay nice and round.  I don't
:>know if achieving these temperatures are possible using a buffing wheel,
:>but I thought I'd mention it.

If it's actually bronze (to me, that's a big if) I don't think you
could heat it enough to damage it on a buffing wheel.   It seems to me
I would worry more about dents, dropping it, getting the right size
buffing wheel, etc.  Also, snare drums have all kinds of raised and
lowered areas, difficult to get into without a flexible shaft, which
just means it takes more time.

:>2) There is an existing laquer sprayed over the metal, however, time and
:>neglect have taken their toll and eaten through in spots.  This is the
:>whole reason I'm doing this in the first place.  What is the safest way to
:>remove the laquer without damaging the metal?

There are a lot of different industrial lacquers out there.
Sometimes, lacquer thinner takes it off, which won't hurt bronze.
Other times, I've had pieces where I couldn't figure out *how* to get
the lacquer off.  Being nonferrous, it's pretty hard to hurt bronze.
:>
:>I took the item to a local plating/polishing shop and they wanted $95 US
:>to put it through some acid bath, polish it, and laquer it.  This seemed
:>like an outrageous amount of money, but I could be wrong.  I also have 20
:>pot metal items (the drum lug casings) which are small enough to fit in
:>the palm of my hand.  They have an existing chrome which is in fair
:>condition.  The same plating shop wanted about $15 US to re-plate EACH
:>item.  This also seemed like highway robbery as I am somewhat familiar
:>with the chrome plating process and, unless the material cost is high,
:>couldn't see how they justified that much money.  Lucky me... I think I
:>can salvage the chrome with a can of wadding polish and some elbow
:>grease.

>From  your description, your job sounds like it would involve a lot of
labor, not materials.   Since it would be custom work, I would
probably charge similar prices.  But I don't do custom work.  There's
always some unknown factor that comes into play.  Replating pieces
that may be pot metal is also custom.  You don't know what you need to
strip the old stuff off, etc.  It has to be preplated with copper,
etc.  It's just labor.  My plater charges me from .50 to 3.00/pc. to
plate jewelry and larger buckle items as long as they are new pure
castings and I send up 50 or more pieces.  They have to be racked.  He
won't touch anything that was previously plated elsewhere or is
custom.  Polishing is about the same, but we do that in house.

Richard