metal finishing: lapping to a mirror finish

hello everyone,

this is my first tutorial ive written so this is a learning experience for me also :up:

well lets get this started..

as a modder, there may be several things you will want to have a mirror finish, from your blingin side panels to the bottom side of your heatsink, or even the top of your processor!

Lapping is a simply process of giving metal a mirror finish, like so

So here we go..

WHAT YOU NEED:


the obvious, what you are going to give your finish, for this i used a side panel(with metals that are coated like this panel you will need to sand through the coating):

Next you will need sandpaper, ranging from about 600 grit to 1200 or even 1600, in intervals of 200:

a sanding block:

Next you will need rubbing compound:

then you need your metal polish (i use a special mix that i got from my work's polishing company):

Paper towels for clean up and polishing:

And finally a polishing cloth:

First i sanded the area i was going to polish with some heavier grit sand paper(about 200) to get it down to bare metal:

then slowly worked the surface with my sanding block and sand paper:

(i only had 800 and 1200 grit around to do this)

After sanding with the 800 grit i had a surface that looked like this:

Then i moved onto using 1200 grit, leaving a finish like this:

see the sanding lines even after 1200?

this is the point where the rubbing compound comes in handy. Rubbing compound,along with polishing compound, is like a SUPER high grit sandpaper.

Using my paper towel and rubbing compound i ran over the surface again, bringing it to this finish:

Now i added some of my polish compound:

And using your polishing cloth begin to rub away

When polishing you will see your compound go from its original color to a dark grey, this is the metal getting worn, which is what you want:

then using a clean area of your polishing cloth, wipe away the polish and rub it a bit more to get it all clean and you will be left with a mirror finish:D

i hope this is informative to some of you and hope you will try it out!

thanks for looking in!

Great info, thanks for posting. Question, what is in the polish you use and what would be a substitue?

honestly...i dont know what is in the compound...but i do know it works hella awesome... its something that our polishers mix in house...all i have is a small sample of it

when in machining we used Mothers metal polish....it works very well.. it comes in a tub like turtle wax...

Nice addition to the Modding Arsenal that is accumulating here!

if you going to lap processors, heatsinks and waterblocks you must (if you want it to work best) use a flat surface. looking through the internet i have learned you should use a 1/4" thick sheet of glass or thicker. like b4i7 said above you should use from 600 - 1200(i would go to 2500, but you don't have to) grit sand paper. i also read on some sites that marking an X or lines on the processor, Heatsink, Water block will tell you if there are any low spots. here is a picture of a scrap processor i lapped then polished.

Links to some sites
PCViper UltraKit - Heatsink Lapping kit Review
EasyPCKits Lapping Kit Review
my thread about lapping my processor

yeah....marking it will help show where you are low and such...just like hitting a bondo job with a light coat of paint would...thanks for adding info spawn

I would +rep you, but it says I have to spread it around again. Nice tut d00d!

thanks, ill try to write a few more tut's for you guys on metal finishing

See if you can find out what's in that polish at work unless it's a trade secret. I'd love to know.

yeah...im pretty sure its a trade secret..sorry

Great job man! +rep for sure.

Good Info . .on Lapping. +Rep
I had no idea you could do this to SECC steel case panels.

Random Info.
SECC Stands for:

Sheet Steel
Electrolytically coated (with zinc, typically),
Cold-rolled
Commercial quality

They have three types of SECC steel.
They call them SECC1, SECC2 and SECCT.
The zinc content is labeled as ZZ10.