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Old 01-01-2015, 05:20 AM
Frank.de.Kleuver's Avatar
Frank.de.Kleuver Frank.de.Kleuver is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Eindhoven (The Netherlands)
Posts: 771
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Greg,

Congrats and very nice result.

Regarding your upper: It depends if your running true radius anvils or the ones with contact flats. The contact flats are very demanding on alignment and if you have the upper polished they can mess up your contact area since you've starting to harden this area by usage. So be sure they know what they are doing when sending it out for a polish. When using true radius wheel this all is a bit less demanding. I polished my upper myself by putting it in a lathe and sanding it with a contact plate (mdf) with wet sanding paper in incremental steps. If your upper is hardened then change the sanding paper very often since it will loose it's bite rather quickly. I was in luck that my friend Ben pointed this out early in this process I went in incremental steps up to 3000 grid. It toke me more than half a day! But for a magpi like me the result was worth it.

When wheeling for a mirror finish use a hammer with a larger radius. Use a sandbag or a nice soft wooden beam with a recess in it when blocking. Make it super smooth before putting it in the wheel. If you go too quickly it's very hard to get a mirror finish without upsetting the shape. I normally only hammer to preshrink some edges of higher crowned areas. When wheeling this without blocking you first bend the panel near the overall shape your aiming at llightly. Peter calls it 'braking the grain' and start wheeling with light pressure. Then go up in small steps so the ali is ready for higher pressure. Be patient grasshopper so to avoid wheeling lines that are again hard to get out without upsetting the shape. You should ask yourselve if a mirror finish on you bottom panel is what you want timewise.

The time you've put in isn't that long for a novice. Maybe you shouldn't see yourselve that way looking at this result. Don't rush, be patient and absorp the fun. The finish in the ali will show this!

Great result and thanks for sharing,

Greetings,

Frank
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