Axle polishing pics

[Fumbles]

Ok - so I was polishing axles today and thought I'd snap some pics of them after each grit. I ended up deleting some of them along the way while editing too quickly so I missed a couple of the steps but I do have the first and last ones and all but a couple of them in between.
It's a 92X axle:
Raw axle:


400 grit:


600 grit:


1000 grit:


1500 grit:


Ok - so this is where I lost track of a couple of pics so the rest of the pics are grits 2000/2500/3000/3200/3600/4000/8000/12000 but not all of the pics are present. However the last picture is the 12K grit.










12,000 grit:


One thing I noticed was that the pics were harder to get the shinier it got. My iPhone had trouble focusing on the image in the microscope due to the shine. Crappy pics, maybe next time I'll use something better to take the pictures. The microscope is set at only 4X... any closer and you lost perspective on the image as a whole and felt like you were staring at a sheet of metal instead of an axle.

 

[derbychip]

Interesting, did you take any pictures after using metal polish and leather

 

[davet]

You say crappy pics...I think they turned out very well. The difference is very clear between each stage. I go from 3,000 right to 12,000 then polish. I never found any grits in between locally. I wonder what I'm missing out on. Thanks for getting those up.

 

[Fumbles]

I think I got the 1500-12K grit kit on Amazon. It's a fabric backed material and works really well. I think it's Micro Mark or Micro Mesh.

Nope - haven't hit them with the leather strap and metal polish yet. I need to get some metal polish... not sure what to get though.

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

Ok - so I was polishing axles today and thought I'd snap some pics of them after each grit. I ended up deleting some of them along the way while editing too quickly so I missed a couple of the steps but I do have the first and last ones and all but a couple of them in between.
It's a 92X axle:
Raw axle:


400 grit:


600 grit:


1000 grit:


1500 grit:


Ok - so this is where I lost track of a couple of pics so the rest of the pics are grits 2000/2500/3000/3200/3600/4000/8000/12000 but not all of the pics are present. However the last picture is the 12K grit.










12,000 grit:


One thing I noticed was that the pics were harder to get the shinier it got. My iPhone had trouble focusing on the image in the microscope due to the shine. Crappy pics, maybe next time I'll use something better to take the pictures. The microscope is set at only 4X... any closer and you lost perspective on the image as a whole and felt like you were staring at a sheet of metal.

Your axles look great! Just a word of advise. With John's 92s I'd start at 1000, or no less than 800. There's really no need. All you'll end up doing less than that is wear down the diameter. I personally don't go past 7000 as I've not see a significant enough difference. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ngyoung]

Cool. Thanks for sharing. What device did you use over your phone camera?

 

[Fumbles]

Just the standard phone camera held in front of my son's cheap microscope. Worked ok for what this was.

However, last week I did take apart a laser pen and stole the plastic lens out of it. Wrapped a metal wire around it and gently twisted the wire to trap the lens in the middle of it. Kind of like a magnifying glass.
I have a rubber protective cover on my iPhone and so I slid the lens and wire between the rubber cover and phone itself and oriented the laser lens in front of the camera lens and it was surprising how well pics turned out with it. Turned the cell phone into a magnifier.

Here are a couple of pics that I took with the "laser" lens placed in front of my camera lens on my iPhone.

 

[davet]

very clever......
cool signature BTW

 

[BulldogRacing]

this kind of stuff is so great thank you for sharing

 

[OPARENNEN]

I go from 1500 grit to 8000, then use John's new axle polish. That does it. For re-prep between races, I only use Brasso. John told me he even stops at 6000, then his new polish.

 

[Mojo Racing]

Okay... so when y'all polish, do you do the polish with a chamois or just a microfiber cloth?

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

leather strip Jay. Old, but clean, leather gloves cut up work best /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif

 

[GravityX]

Thanks for sharing the pics Fumbles.

 

[slipstream]

I found individual sheets from this site, they are not very big but it was the cheapest I could find, until i found a better assortment with bigger sheets at Hobby Lobby..and some nice little Q tips that have cotton ends that can be inserted into wheel bore's with little effort (have a the pic's on my phone) dont know how to post them here.
Micro mesh sandpaper for axle’s (6000,8000,12000 grit paper) and it came with a business card that has 1/64 measurements I use very often.

http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/abrasives/?sort=priceasc