Polishing a Homelite Aluminum handle bar

[walterg]

Their doesn't seem to be anything written in this section on polishing.
So, here goes.

I recently polished the aluminium handle bar on my Homelite XL-12.

Supplies needed.
1) Cleaner. I use original Windex.
2) Shop rags or paper towels.
3) Polishing bars. For mine I used Black Emory, and Red Rouge. You can buy a complete set, if your going to be doing other metals.
4) 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper. Depends on condition of handle bar, if you will need this.
5) Cloth buffing polishing wheels. You need 2. Match diameter and arbor size to bench grinder.
6) 1/2 hp bench grinder. No reason for a dedicated polisher.
7) Option grinder stand. I use saw horses with a square piece of 3/4 ply on top clamped in place. Bolt, screw, or clamp grinder down.
8) Safety glasses.
9) Optional gloves, it gets messy.
10) Bucket of water.

Step one - is to take the handle bar off.
Clean it and evaluate the condition.

Step two - load up the polishing wheel with the bar compound. I used Black Emory to start.

Step three - start polishing, use the edges of the wheel when possible. Warning hold the handle bar firmly.
The buffer can pull it right out of your hands.

Step four - polish the whole bar. You will be turning the bar to get full coverage. This takes some patience, so take it slow.

Step five - clean handle bar, I used windex, and dry it.

Step six - wet sand handle bar with 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper used wet. Dry it off afterwards.

Step seven - clean handle bar, I used windex, and dry it.

Step eight - load the same polishing wheel up again with Black Emory and repolish handle bar.

Step nine - clean with windex and dry again.

Step ten - load other cotton polishing wheel with Red Rouge and polish handlebar.

Step eleven - if needed wet sand with 1000 grit paper again. You will need to clean it with windex afterwards.

Step twelve - reload the same polishing wheel you just used with Red Rouge and polish the handle bar again.

Step twelve - clean with windex and dry.

Step thirteen - evaluate polished finish. It should be good enough, if not more polishing, and cleaning.

Step fourteen - mount it back on your saw. You're done.

The nicer the handle, the better it will look. For a restoration I would start with a NOS handle if available.
Note, if you start with a handle with deep scratches or gouges, they will still be there after polishing.
Fully polishing a handle bar can take 30 minutes or longer, from start to finish.

This is the basics, if you have any questions just ask. If you have any tips please add them.

I'm not a pro, just a hobbyist. So anything you do different, please post it.

[walterg]

1st pic is before polishing handle bar on my XL-12.
2nd pic is after.

i.imgur.com/TyyaA0g.jpg

imgur.com/b11mR36

[Deleted]

Awesome Information Walter!

[tjthechainsawmech]

Very nice results!

[walterg]

Apr 21, 2018 22:13:34 GMT -5 oologahan said:

Awesome Information Walter!

Thank, you.

[walterg]

Apr 21, 2018 23:33:28 GMT -5 tjthechainsawmech said:

Very nice results!

Thank you. For the condition of the bar I think it came out pretty nice.
I could of probably spent another 10 minutes on it, and got it slightly better, but to be put on a user saw It's good enough.

[sweepleader]

Someone polished an entire SXL and posted it on another forum a while back, probably a couple of years. They accented it with black air cleaner cover, etc. It looked fabulous. They did not give details on the process but I imagine it must have taken a lot of hours. Anyone remember that? Where it is posted?

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2018 6:25:08 GMT -5 sweepleader said:

Someone polished an entire SXL and posted it on another forum a while back, probably a couple of years. They accented it with black air cleaner cover, etc. It looked fabulous. They did not give details on the process but I imagine it must have taken a lot of hours. Anyone remember that? Where it is posted?

I saw it during a google image search, but I didn't save it, pretty cool looking. There was a guy selling a XL-101 on craigslist that started the same thing, but never finished it. And of course there was the golden one.

[ronaldt]

Polishing the handle certainly puts the finishing touch on a saw restoration. I have polished a few of my own but took a little different approach. The nice thing about aluminum is that it is relatively soft. The nicks and scratches can be sanded out if you want to spend the time. I used an air operated orbital sander (dual action/da sander in autobody terms) for most of the sanding process. If you don't have a da sander and fairly healthy air compressor, an electric sander of some sort would probably work also. I started with 80 grit. That sounds very course, but is necessary to sand out the deeper scratches. This is probably the longest part of the process, getting the handle smoothed out. After smoothing the handle out with 80 grit, I switch to 180 grit, then 240 grit, then 320 grit, then 400 grit. After this you can hand sand wet with 600,800,1000 and even finer if desired. The more time spent sanding reduces polishing time. This process does not remove dents but will remove most of the scratches. You will want to start with a non dented handle. Remember to clean the handle after every grit of sanding. Glass cleaner and towels will work fine for this. As for polishing you can refer to the steps above given by walterg.

This whole process is time consuming but produced great results for me! Feel free to ask questions on any part of it. You might want to experiment on a different handle before tackling the one you want to use. Hope this helps.