[sn360046]

• Hey guys. So I know virtually nothing about polishing metals. I stripped all paint off my titanium hardtail, and just want to give it a clear near mirror finish. I'm currently at a stage of wet sanding it down with a 1000 grid. I already tried polishing it with some polish and a polishing pad but no results. Still got that hazy look with tiny scratches.
  Scratches are probably there because I'm not on high enough of a grid, so how high should I go?
  And when I try to hit it with a drill attachment that I used for stripping the paint, it goes down and makes it nice and shinny.... Literally the way I want it, other than the scratches. Is it because of the heat that it produces? How do I get it to be shiny?
• Also if you have any other finish ideas, let me know
  Thanks in advance.

 

[Hardtailparty]

I'd leave the mirror polish for aluminum but you can probably get to it working up to 3200 grit sandpaper then polish w a microfiber

 

[sn360046]

I'd leave the mirror polish for aluminum but you can probably get to it working up to 3200 grit sandpaper then polish w a microfiber

Oh, I thought titanium and qluminium are pretty much the same when it comes to polishing? Yeah I'm starting to realize it would probably look kinda weird all shiny haha. 3200 will get rid of all the scratches?

 

[VegasSingleSpeed]

Have you considered googling, "how to polish titanium"?

 

[azjonboy]

Get a 3M pad, the yellow and green ones. Use the green scrubbing side to remove small scratches. You can even use it on the entire frame to brighten the finish of the complete frame.
Was told this by a Ti frame builder almost 15 years ago and have done it ever since on all my Ti bikes.

Cheap and effective.

 

[steadite]

You have “hazy” because you haven’t removed scratches from the coarser grit, just smeared them over.

In order to achieve a proper metal polish, you have to use successively finer grits. In the lab, it goes like: 500grit SiC, 9micron diamond, 3micron diamond, 1micron diamond, 0.3micron alumina. As you can see, this is a gigantic amount of work for an entire bike frame, and the smallest damage will ruin your polish. I’d just be normal and go with scotch brite finish.

 

[Trinimon]

I recall trying to do a polished raw finish golf 3 wood head. I removed the factory paint and tried to polish the head but it always looked blotchy and hazy. From what I've read, it's tricky to get titanium polished and if you do, it oxidizes pretty quickly. Being softer than steel, the polished surface is easily scratched and would need some kind of protection on it if you can get to it before it oxidize or you end up with a blotchy looking finish. If you figure out how to do it, I'd love to see the finish.

 

[milehi]

I had this frame that was polished to a mirror finish from Sandvik. I would hit it with a cloth and pledge. In fact this was one of the for sale pics after racing it for over ten years.

 

[Cord]

I polish titanium to make jewellery, it can be done, and you can get good results. However, it will be LOTS of work on an entire frame. If 1000 grit is the first grade you’ve used, you have started on too fine a grit. Experiment on a small area to see what you need (inside a chainstay for example) As someone else said, you’ve probably smeared over existing deeper scratches. You need to work your way down the grits, starting at something coarser than 1000, just how coarse, is hard to say without examining what you have. Definitely 500, maybe even 320. Some points may not need this, some area’s around joints may need coarser, it really depends on the existing finish. I’d wet sand down to 1800/2500 before attempting to get any kind of shine on it from polishing.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

The last step of polishing aluminum is chemical/mechanical, because aluminum is very easy to etch/oxidize. This isn't really an option for titanium so I expect it to be a lot harder to bring to a mirror finish but technically it should be possible using mechanical means.