"polishing your keg" is more than a clever euphemism

[mrallison83]

Sorry to keep hashing this thread up, but I am working on polishing a couple kegs and I am burning through polishing pads like no one's business. I am three stepping: Med, Fine, Polish.

I thought it was because I was using the new pads (by new I mean not gator grip) that lowes carries. I went through 4 3packs to get relatively poor results from on one 7.75 gal keg. So I ordered gator grip polishing pads. I got my technique down ( use lots of compound ) and got a true mirror shine on a section about 12" long by 3" high. This section cost me 5 pads. When the last one "popped" if I had not been wearing pretty heavy gloves it would have wrecked my hand. So by my calculations I will need 20ish pads per keg?

I am using the backing pad. My angle grinder is 11,000rpms the pads are rated 13,300rpms if I am remembering correctly. I have tried both bearing down as Bobby mentions and feathering a bit more. I got better results not bearing down.

Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated. I have already spent a good bit of time and money on them and would really like to see it through but it is a bit maddening at this point.

 

[RevKev]

Sorry to keep hashing this thread up, but I am working on polishing a couple kegs and I am burning through polishing pads like no one's business. I am three stepping: Med, Fine, Polish.

I thought it was because I was using the new pads (by new I mean not gator grip) that lowes carries. I went through 4 3packs to get relatively poor results from on one 7.75 gal keg. So I ordered gator grip polishing pads. I got my technique down ( use lots of compound ) and got a true mirror shine on a section about 12" long by 3" high. This section cost me 5 pads. When the last one "popped" if I had not been wearing pretty heavy gloves it would have wrecked my hand. So by my calculations I will need 20ish pads per keg?

I am using the backing pad. My angle grinder is 11,000rpms the pads are rated 13,300rpms if I am remembering correctly. I have tried both bearing down as Bobby mentions and feathering a bit more. I got better results not bearing down.

Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated. I have already spent a good bit of time and money on them and would really like to see it through but it is a bit maddening at this point.

Not too sure if you have finished or not but I just did this last night (picked up 1/4 lb sticks of green and grey from Harbor Freight) .. what I had done was use only fine pads and polishing pads (got two uses out of these as they are reversible.. kinda) but I would apply my compound heavily and work around in a large area.

For the sixtel I did the top then bottom and both sections of the middle separately and then all together with fine before moving on.

All very, very heavy just to get grey all purpose compound on the metal with no focus on blending, then I concentrated on trouble spots with extreme pressure and more compound. After I was satisfied with the level of scratching left with less compound I rounded it off blending and feathering my touch with a new pad from top to bottom all the way around the keg to get it more uniform.

What I noticed is that two passes over each area is sufficient enough finishing if keg is not heavily scratched to produce a nice finish.. used 1 1/2 fine pads for the sixtel. One to heavily apply compound and a fresh one to remove (hence my half) also seemed to last a bit longer this way.

Then switched to polish with green compound working from top to bottom and then all over once again. Using an used pad to broadly apply compound and pressure and a fresh side to take compound off and round the finish.

I'm not saying that these are the best methods ... just I got results from doing this and I'll be doing another 1/4 leg tonight (pictured right)

View attachment 1475165567111.jpg

 

[jcav]

Nice job!

John

 

[RevKev]

Nice job!

John

Thanks! Just started the 1/4 keg and ran out of pads, this one is going to be a PITA. Tons of knicks going to be hard to get a similar muted mirror finish

View attachment 1475174430985.jpg