How to care for your aluminum product
We purchase our metal supply from a high quality local supplier here in Southern California. We use this material to produce some of the beautiful parts you see here. The aluminum parts, unless otherwise noted, are "raw" aluminum, meaning the aluminum is not treated after they are machined. Raw aluminum has a beautiful, versatile finish, and in many cases, people opt to anodize the surface. Anodizing protects the surface against oxidation and strengthens the part.
Here, we leave the choice up to you - the parts we sell are raw aluminum. Meaning that they are more susceptible to scratches and will definitely oxidize over time. However, light blemishes are very easily removed! Here's how.
Here, we leave the choice up to you - the parts we sell are raw aluminum. Meaning that they are more susceptible to scratches and will definitely oxidize over time. However, light blemishes are very easily removed! Here's how.
Some of our raw aluminum products are shipped like this. This is PVC film, which protects the raw aluminum surface during post-production of the aluminum sheet. Aluminum sheet with the PVC film is more expensive than sheet without it, but of course, making sure that the finish on the piece is perfect is a no-brainer.
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As you can see, even straight from the materials manufacturer, there are small blemishes in the material. All this is is surface oxidation, probably due to an air pocket between the material and the PVC sheet. The area exposed to the air will oxidize slightly, while the area not exposed to the air will not oxidize, thus resulting in slight variations in appearance.
This is easy to deal with. |
Apply a good amount to a clean pad and very gently move the pad in the SAME direction as the metal grain.
You need to keep the pad damp with polish because if the polish dries up on the piece, it will leave residue on the piece which forces you to re-do the process (more info in the next picture). You can use a foam pad as well, but I only had a microfiber pad, and it worked well. You need gentle pressure because excessive pressure will put scratches or gouges into the material if the pad happens to have debris on it. You need to go in ONE direction, along with the direction of the grain because you want to maintain the same finish. Otherwise, you piece have have swirls or an inconsistent finish on it. |
If you are doing it correctly, you will get black residue on your pad, and perhaps on the piece. This is why you need to keep a good amount of polish on your pad and piece, because you don't want this black residue integrating itself into the grain of your piece.
This black residue is a result of a chemical reaction between the raw metal and the polishing chemical. The black residue is basically oxidized metal/polish material If you did this correctly, and used enough polish to keep the material damp, then you can easily wipe the surface off with a clean microfiber towel, without any left-over black residue. If you have left over black residue, just put more polish on your pad and lightly go over your work to remove the black residue, and wipe clean again. . |
After you're done it should look like this. Perfect!
You can also put a thin layer of caranuba wax on your piece to seal out excess moisture/oxygen to preserve your finish longer. If you do so, be sure to apply it evenly. You can care for all your raw aluminum pieces like this and keep them looking new forever! |