What is the best way to give bead blasted titanium a satin finish.?

Death's Head

Death's Head

Joined
Jul 26, 2005
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I have some bead blasted titanium frame locks that I would like to polish out the scratches and give a satin finish. I have had some decent success using Scotchbrite, but I was wondering if you guys know of a more efficient way that gives better results.
Thanks for the advice.
 
Well without a belt grinder or such, it all goes back to how much time you want to spend....

On a belt grinder a scotchbrite finish is usually very quick. Without, not so much.

I would simply judge how much metal you need to remove to get past the scratches and start with the finest sandpaper you think you can get by with, as to not scratch it up too bad with coarser papers... Use automotive wet dry paper and a flexable backing (uless you are doing the inside of the frame where it needs to stay FLAT) and just work your way up in grits til a scotchbrite hand pad will even your finish all out....

I usually take my hand finishes to a point FINER than I want the final finish and then take it back to either a coarser grit paper or scotbrite to give me my satin... That way I know I have all the scratches out and my finish is set at that final step.

Experiment a little... using wet dry paper with a little simple green or windex on them speeds yoru process up too so the Ti doesnt clog the paper too easily.

If you need any more help finishing um out, let em know. I can always run um on the belt grinder for ya...:)

Alan Folts

alanfolts@hotmail.com
 
Thanks Alan for the info and the offer. I will give it a shot and see how it goes. I have a portable belt sander. Would you recommend getting something like a 600 grit sanding belt and then go from there. I don't need a shiny finish, just a nice smooth finish.
 
I wouldn't use a belt (unless it's a scotchbrite belt). You will have a hard time avoiding tweaked edges. Also, you'll remove more material than necessary and do so unevenly, even at 600 grit. A nice satin finish is somewhere around 300 anyway.
Sorry, I don't have a magic bullet answer. Doing the job by hand with a scotchbrite pad is by far the safest approach. If you had a bunch to do I'd look into the scotchbrite belt. If it's just a few, I'd knuckle under and do it by hand. (or take Alan up on his generous offer!)
 
I agree with sanding it out and using the ScotchBrite. For sanding, I use 1" diameter discs on a Foredom that go to very fine grit, like 1000 grit or so, but sanding by hand will work well too. For a satin finish, I use a scruffy wheel on a polishing machine. It's similar in texture to ScotchBrite, but maybe a little more firm. It's around 8" diameter or so. Again, using ScotchBrite by hand is safe and it can work well too. You can get the scratches in one orientation or scrub in small circles for more of a random look.
 
The only reason I suggested sandpaper is that the beed blasting can hide some pretty significant scratches.... So without knowing the manufacturing process or maker of the peice you wanna re-finish I wouldnt guess that you would need anything coarser than say a 320-400 grit to start...

Offer still stands if you need it scothchbrited... With a scotchbrinte belt it only take a couple minutes...

Alan Folts

alanfolts@hotmail.com
 
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