Project Mulligan

[_paralyzed_]

have you considered oven cleaner or drano for removing the anodizing? It would help in the little grooves and pits that you're missing with the sandpaper.

Also, if you're serious about polishing parts a small room and a bit of crystal meth go a long way...........................

hi all/neil...well 1.5mm aint far off considering your working by hand, sounds to me like drill wander, check your drills are nice and sharp and sounds to me like you need a centre drill, they are cheap like £3.00. place centre drill in punch mark and then start drill.
i have spaced holes using the mill and then measured them and they have been all over the place with a normal drill chuck.
to get a good hole you need to drill undersize and then ream out to size holding the ream in a collet, but this could still be around .20mm off, but as you say, you cant justify spending 100s just to drill a few holes.
a good quality drill press can be used to mill soft stuff by using a compound table, but the drill must be a good one, or a bench top mill for the same money??
redshift is right wirewool or scotchbrite leaves a nice finnish in alloy.
never use sand/glass paper on metal, wet and dry is the one(tungsten abrasive) but the halfords stuff is useless.
personally i use scotchbrite (i get it free from a freinds workshop).
but to polish i use 1500 wet and dry then onto the polishing wheel for a mirror finnish but that is a mission and i dont usually bother.
see ya all...

[suicideneil]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

have you considered oven cleaner or drano for removing the anodizing? It would help in the little grooves and pits that you're missing with the sandpaper.

I have been using oven cleaner, but the trouble is in the UK consumers can only lay their hands on pretty weak stuff, mainly foam sprays - cant buy the super strength gel or liquid based stuff like Greased Lightning that you can get in the States. I've trawled the web and ebay, and to import a bottle of the good stuff would cost a small fortune, so I'll have to resort to maybe a wire wheel attachment on my dremel and see it that does anything to shift the last few pockets of blue. Doesnt bother me that much, but it does look a little unsightly for sure.

[_paralyzed_]

Even brass wire wheels on the dremel leave pretty deep lines that then need to be sanded.

If you can't get the chemicals to do it for you sanding, IMO, is the best way to go. You were going to sand them anyway, just use your roughest grit on the blue spots.

I screwed up a few too many peices with the wire wheel