Moleroda employee Samantha discusses how to polish copper. Tips, techniques, and the equipment you’ll need to make polishing copper easy, and give it a stunning finish. You’ll find everything you need to know about how to polish copper below.
To provide an example of how to polish copper, we took an old copper fireplace hood and polished it up to create a stunning polished copper light fitting. You can apply this method to any form of copper.
What to do with a old grubby copper fireplace chimney hood?
Turn it into a fancy light fitting of course!
How to polish copper you ask? Well, Lizzie and Rob have been hard at work constructing and finishing this amazing bedroom lighting arrangement to demonstrate.
It started life very grubby from years of being over a fire with a pitted and uneven surface. Cue Rob and some elbow grease.
To provide an example of how to polish copper, we took and old copper fireplace hood and polished it up to create a stunning polished copper light fitting. You can apply this method to any form of copper.
General points to take into consideration before you start to polish.
- Determine where you start, this will depend on the state of the surface.
- What speed will your mops run at?
- What is the quality of your material?
- Removal of all previous process marks.
- Try not to overload your compound. It will leave it greasy.
- Correct PPE! Make sure you have masks and eye protection! If polishing at home without extraction try going outside. Look how cool Rob looks in the video! 🙂
- Consider degreasing solutions. Vienna lime or solvent removers work well.
- Do not wash your mops, you can buy mop dressers that will bring your mops back to life.
- Do not cross contaminate compounds. Keep one mop per compound.
How to Polish Copper | Method
Copper is generally softer than other metals, if your surface is in a bad way like Lizzie and Robs copper hood you will need to start with an abrasive, dependent the on condition, anything between 180g & 400g is a good starting point.
Rob used an angle grinder for the whole process and started with a 100mm Red Unitized Wheel to remove surface dirt and smooth out the hammered finish. Unitized wheels are great for smoothing surfaces, they cut and blend metal but leave a brighter surface finish than other abrasives or cutters.
This was then followed by a 4” Superior Brown Lap Disc Mop to prepare the surface and remove residual dirt.
Once you have prepared your surface, start your polishing with mops and compound. Rule of thumb with compounds, dark ones are abrasive and pale ones are for finishing.
Start with a dry sisal if you have scratches to remove. Spin the mop against the cutting compound to load. See Rob’s handy way to fix the compound to the worktop!
Work over the metal ensuring you keep moving not staying in any one place for too long.
Move on to the white stitched mop. At this point, you can either use a cutting compound or polishing compound.
Finally, use the WDR mop with either the finishing compound to bring the finish up to a high shine.
To clean up dip a soft lint-free cloth in the Vienna lime and wipe over the metal. It will remove the polishing haze and bring the finish up to a high shine.
Products for Polishing Copper
Moleroda manufactures and supplies equipment for polishing and finishing all types of materials. Here’s our top picks for getting the best finish when polishing copper.
Abrasive Wheels
Abrasive Unitized Wheels Unmounted for polishers and grinders
Mandrels, Pigtails & Tapers
Mandrels, Pigtails & Tapers