Crocus Cloth - polishing machined surfaces

[Ron Earp]

Anyone know where I can get some crocus cloth for working on my Lotus crank? 1000 and 2000 grit would be nice to see if I can polish it up. retail outlets would be nice, but I'm just not sure who would have it. Thanks!

Ron

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Ron,
Try your local NAPA store. If not, ask a machine shop.
I guess if you want to polish your Lotus crank, that's OK, but most guys would rather have their knob polished!

AR AR AR.....

Rick

[Alex Hirsbrunner]

Hey Ron,

I think that you will be there forever with 1000 or 2000 grit and it will produce a surface finish far finer than required. A strip of wet/dry 800 grit paper (used wet) pulled around the crank will get you very close to the RA (say 10-12) of a new crank and will knock down any high standing burrs that might otherwise remain from a 2000 grit pass that might mess with your shiny new bearings. If you must :-) then you can clean up with 1000-2000. As a reference, a 15 micron tape abrasive used in automated crank polishing produces results similar to a #600 grit paper. Check out the info at the bottom of this page from Federal Mogal:

http://www.federal-mogul.com/cda/con...5_6752,00.html

If you are not in a rush I can drop a sheet of each (800, 1500) in the mail for you tonight to experiment with. This is what I used on my crank after a similar incident and have not had any problems (yet!). Just PM me your address as I have probably lost it.

Al

[JohnC]

3M have some amazing microabrasive products these days. They have a product called polishing paper which I've used for burnishing bearing shells, etc.

It ranges from 400 to 8000 grit, and the really fine stuff is great for plastic polishing, etc.

Here's a place that sells the crocus cloth as well as the 3M polishing paper:

http://shorinternational.com/Emery.htm

[Ron Earp]

Hey Al,

That sounds fantastic! I'll cover the costs and shipping via PayPal. Nice avatar JohnC, I'll check that link out.

Ron