I have some silver and silveroid cases I would like to be able for my wife to use to put on lipstick. I have read here about some favorite paste or liquid polishes, and I currently use just a Walmart brand jewelers cloth, but I want the mirror finish I see in some cases.

It occurs to me that maybe a Dremmel tool might be used to advantage here. One Dremmel model is on sale at Lowes now for $39 and their polishing kit separately for about $15. What is good or bad about using a Dremmel for silveroid or silver cases?

Mike, I've never tried polishing a case with a Dremel.Automotive chrome polish or Noxon really work great on silveroid cases, I don't know how it would work on a real silver case, though.The Noxon really stinks like ammonia, but it will shine like chrome when you're done...I'm sure the more expert members will also have more advice....Ted B.

Mike you can buy a small bench top buffer from ebay cheap i have one i bought that is varible speed it works fine for about any polishing you would want too do only drawback it has no guards,,i use it mostly for small parts and i wanted a slow and varible speed for that..I have a heavy duty one i use most of the time with dust guards and a suction fan but the small one will do a good job also..I use semichrome frist on the silverloid cases followed by a good silver polish and they will come out like a mirror.

I discovered that Mothers mag wheel and aluminum polish works fantastic on any kind of metal watch case. When I use it on a gold filled case, after just a few minutes it takes on an incredible shine. Sometimes it looks good enough that I don't have to go to my big bench-mounted buffer. It comes in a small round plastic jar and is cheaper than Semichrome. Concerning the Dremel, I think the rotating head is too small in diameter and would not give a smooth even polish. I have used mine, though, for those hard to get at nooks and crannies.

Aloha

FLITZ
WWW.flitz.com

Hey Mike,
I use a Dremel with silver polish to shine my cases. The little buffing pads are kinda hard to find,and also I have a speed controller for the Dremel. I think it turns too fast without it. Seems to work good for me.

Thanks everyone for ideas. I think I'm gonna let the dremmel go for now and go with the chrome cleaner and elbow grease. In the past, I have used 'Blue Magic' and MAAS brand creams, but was not satisfied with their long-term lasting abilitys.
M.

Aloha Mike

Oh no! You have to try Flitz there is nothing better.

Aloha Scott

The Flitz 'store finder' doesn't work; I don't know where to buy it locslly. It's too expensive - especially by mail.
M.

I have never used that but searching on ebay for it there are tons it with free shipping.

Just go to your local auto parts store and buy some Mothers Mag wheel polish. It works just like Flitz. When you rub the watch case, in a second or two the cloth you are using will turn jet black just like those other polishes. Flitz is good, but Mothers works just as good and the jar is a lot bigger than a tube of Flitz. Plus it is easier to find. If you don't like it, go use it on your hot rod

I use a Dremmel for polshing my cases . Works great. also use a small buffing pad i get locally here at of all places a truck store. They are about 1 and 1/2 inches wide with a 1/8 inch shafe. 79 cents... Also i use Simichrome polish. I have used alot but this works best. It will also polish plastic crlstals as long as the speed is slow. It really works great on all finishes gold,silver ,plastic ect.
Mike Keirsey

The Dremel are not bad but due to the low power and thin buffs can leave lines, also throws dust and residue all around the room with time if using rouge you will notice it getting all over the room you buff in plus in hailed, always use a mask & glasses with dremel. I use (chance to show off a recent new toy) a fully enclosed buffing machine with full extraction & filtration, no dust dirt or flying object are getting out of this so can relax when doing it, it uses a ¾ hp motor the power & 8” buff leaves a near perfect smooth finish. The Mass paste is good but will leave scratches.

I have used dermels since the 1950's mostly for fine work because they run at such a high speed that it is difficult (for me) to control the heat while polishing.

These days I use the old watchmaker's estate motor buffer for Silveroid cases. Anything else I use good old elbow grease and various poliching brews. Mostly on the buffer pictured I use the "red wheel" on the right side to hand re-size watch crystals to fit.

Chris, what is "Mass paste?"

Bruce,

Mass is a cream polish from walmart, works ok for the right job but is gritty and leaves marks, like most things no one product covers all needs.
I very rarly use anything but the buffing machine, I have a clean room, wet & buffing polishing room they say this new machine of mine catches all the dust and could be used in the clean room so far I think you could!.

Something you might consider are some polishing compounds made by 3M for the body shop business. One is a bit grittier to take off oxidized clear coat off cars and the other is called "anti-swirl" polish to finish and polish the clear coat without any swirls. The polishing particles on the grittier ad still fine by most standards but not as fine as the anti-swirl.

Dave for the guys that like your "new toy" but don't want to spend as much they could look at the less expensive bench sand blast cabinets and some people will run ~4" hose from the cabinet to a plastic container that could hold 5-10 gals of water and then hook a shop vac to another hose that is connected to the outlet side of this container. The inlet side has a tube that is below water level and when the shop vac pulls some vacuum (container is sealed with tape or lid) the crud is pulled down via the vacuum on the other side through the water, so you get some air flow (not nearly as much as your unit) and you keep a clean environment. I think if you search the net for cheap sandblasters and air cleaning setups one should stumble on the plans. I guess since you are only pulling minor stuff and not glass bead or sand you could bypass the container and just let you shop vac filter stop the particles, the other method is to capture sand blast material that would eat a shop vac motor up. Your advice on the gloves and dust mask is a great tip, I travel to auto body shops as part of my occupation and you see people sanding away without dust masks.

Hi Claude,

Your correct in many ways the machine I have is only viable to for professional use due to the high cost, I expect this setup will see me out. I was very much in two minds to invest in a complete system or to modify my current setup which dust was escaping from (the open extracted cowls do not work adequately ), after much deliberation I decided to invest in the ready made system and move on problem solved, and of course company owned tool after all its just another machine in the shop. I cannot say how much better the entire setup is to other systems I have used the extraction on this machine is exceptional far stronger than could be obtained form a shop vac and once extracted is filtered through various filters (hepa also) so nothing gets out motor power is huge no slowing it down while polishing.
As you say it would be relatively easy to construct a cowl or box with Perspex mounted on a table top hooked up direct to a shop vac or complete shop vac system and would work very well indeed for occasional use, working by a shop vac nozzle would be good idea for dremels.
I would just like to add again at the risk of sounding boring but cannot stress enough these bench polishers should have a extraction or use good filter mask & glasses (even dremels over a relatively time), you don’t realize how much comes off that your breath in, and only take a short time for the dust to get everywhere rouge is terrible once in dust form to clean up. I know from experience on the bench buffers, when things go wrong it happens fast, to fast to respond, if you present a part to the wheel wrong or it catches, it will tear it from your hand even S18 coin cases and fire off at a truly amazing velocity, given the fact you are stood directly inline a head shot could very easily cause serious injury.

I see things at auto body shops that makes you wonder why there are not more maimed people out there and your advice even for the part timer should be followed. I do sandblasting on my old car parts but my sandblaster is a larger stand up type but I know they make smaller plastic bench units that one could easily mount a buffer in. With the shield and shop vac one could make a nice low cost unit, here is a bench type unit that I found on the net when I did a search, bench unit I always comment that if needed I could use my 18s silveriod watches as defensive weapons if swung by the chain. When flung by a high speed buffer wheel I would not want to be the one with a bullseye on their noggin. I would imagine you could also put some filters in to trap most of the stuff. Also if you need any product numbers for the 3M products I can post them but the anti-swirl is a very fine abrasive so you could do 2 steps and work up a good shine.

The most surprising thing about my $1.00 (or less) polishing machine is that it throws nothing except when I am dressing the cloth buffer wheel. The Red wheel only spins of a few drops of water and it sure works nice for sizing crystals. (It reminds me of when I hand sharpened carbide cutters for the Microwave business I managed when I was in school. (Mead Morrison Mfg&Cambridge Waveguide Co., Cambridge, Mass)