Can this be polished?

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bussdriver

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I always polish my Kayfuns, Taifuns, etc. My method is to chuck an old airflow controller (or something 510 threaded) into an electric drill, then screw the tank onto it. While spinning the drill I hold sandpaper against the device. I start with 180 grit, then 400 grit, 800 grit, etc. until I get the polish I desire. 2000 grit will give a nice finish; sometimes finer grits may be hard to obtain locally.
 

shortdraw

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It's a media blasted finish, likely 120-180 mesh aluminum oxide, garnet, or silicon carbide. The best way to polish it out is to use a buffing wheel with progressively finer grades of polishing compounds.
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VHRB2014

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Nic`d Up in Oklahoma!
One of the things I do for a living is polishing things. I can tell you that although you can polish that out, it is very labor intensive work and you have to be very careful about rounding the edges off. For me, I`d chuck it in the lathe and take a "hard" felt wheel to it to remove the most of it without taking the corners down, or rounding them off, then I would final polish with a soft muslin wheel.

I can also tell you that by the time you get it right (if nothing goes wrong: spins off the drill or chuck or flies through the room breaking something on the way, LOL) ), buying a new polished one will seem like it was the easiest solution.

Just saying.
 

shortdraw

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I'm going to disagree. There's nothing precise enough on the outside of a Russian to be concerned about taking down with a buffing wheel. Stay away from the threads and the tolerance fit parts. Polish it assembled. I had mine to a mirror polish in less than 5 minutes using brown tripoli then green compound and a felt wheel mounted on my bench buffer.
 
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