How do you protect the polished metal?

[substandard]

From what I gather from reading this forum, once the mchining is finished, and all the chips are swept up, late that night the Bling fairy appears and the little engine is made all bright and shiny....

So how do you perserve the Bling fairy's work? For example polished brass parts, do you use a spray on clear coat? Or just some light film oil? Or do you pretend you are in the Navy and polish all the parts ever so often?

 

[tel]

Just put a baked ham under your pillow and the Bling Fairy will come back and ....

 

[rake60]

I don't.

I think a model of a 100 year old engine should look like a 100 year old engine.

Rick

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Then again, if you pull it off the shelf every now and then and polish it up, you are re-acquainting yourself with that model you worked so hard on in the first place. Why shelve it and forget about it? It may be something you'd like to polish up every now and then, maybe even fire it up.

Years ago, I made exotic hard wood jewelry boxes which still decorate the house in many places. I love to pull them down and put a nice fresh coat of beeswax on them.

It all depends on your perception.

I wish there were a bling fairy.

-T

 

[bearcar1]

Trout, I could not agree more. Models should be 'maintained' by an occasional clean and polish to keep them at their finest. Just imagine what the displays in the museums would look like if that were not the case. I machined up a small oscillating engine as a gift to my sister for a b'day present several years go. I explained to her at that time that an application of aluminum polish once a year would do wonders to keep it bright and shiny. You think she was listening? Nope. I received a phone call from her about a month ago and she was quite upset. It seems that the little jewel that I had made her was left unattended in a wicker basket on the floor in one of the spare bedrooms and one of her cats had taken that opportunity to mark its territory. Needless to say cat pee can be quite corrosive to metal but fortunately for my sister I had spent a lot of time getting this one to shine forever and the heavy coat of polish had acted somewhat like a water repellant and the damage was not too bad except for some of the painted flywheel spokes. I repainted the flywheel and re-polished all of the brightwork and sent it back to my sister with a note saying to use only aluminum polish once a year and a speck of oil upon the sliding surfaces and she is a believer now. The model is now proudly displayed up on the mantle and out of harms way. Just a few minutes is all it takes to keep a model looking as new. I prefer two products for this, "Flitz" and "Semichrome". Both have given me terrific results.

BC1
Jim

 

[substandard]

Just put a baked ham under your pillow and the Bling Fairy will come back and ....

:big: I must disagree. In my house a 60 pound Basset Hound would be the first to find the ham. The dog is excellent at keeping killer bunny rabbits out of the yard, but her machining and polishing abilities are lacking.

 

[SAM in LA]

It seems that the little jewel that I had made her was left unattended in a wicker basket on the floor in one of the spare bedrooms and one of her cats had taken that opportunity to mark its territory. Needless to say cat pee can be quite corrosive to metal but fortunately for my sister I had spent a lot of time getting this one to shine forever and the heavy coat of polish had acted somewhat like a water repellant and the damage was not too bad except for some of the painted flywheel spokes.
BC1
Jim

And the cat lived?

 

[JMI]

Renaissance Wax. This place has it at a pretty good price:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=17424&utm_source=gan&utm_medium=aff&utm_campaign=feed

Jim

 

[Noitoen]

The other day I fabricated a male/female adapter for a model airplane propeller and to give it a different look, the steel part was polished and then wrapped in a lemon juice soaked tissue for a couple of hours. The result was a beautiful gray oxidized part that "hopefully" won't loose it's aspect.

 

[hammers-n-nails]

walnut shells ( the oil i guess) is supposed to keep steel from rusting they use it when they sandblast stuff

 

[bearcar1]

And the cat lived?

Fortunately for the cat, we were separated by 1000 miles. :big: :big:

BC1
Jim

 

[brettlee]

nice..........

 

[wes]

I use walnut hulls on my ax. Keeps it nice and shiny and makes spliting easier. Might add a nice smell to that engine.

 

[Cedge]

Just finished polishing up 20 engines for a local farm show, scheduled for this weekend. It's just part of owning and maintaining the darned things...(grin)

Steve