Tips on Keeping Parts Shiny

[Jay H 237]

Clear shoe polish is easy and works well for small parts that aren't handled much.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by squirrel

Move to Arizona. Seriously....bare polished aluminum stays shiny for years here, especially if kept indoors. I have bare sandblasted steel parts in my garage that have been sitting there for years with no rust forming on them.

I don't think that's a really viable solution for most teams.

[the man]

One question how dose having shiny parts help your robot, the dullness adds some personality to your robot.

[Peter Matteson]

The one word solution is Mother's.

Get their aluminum polish and it will give you a wonderfule shine on most parts.

That is how 177 has been polishing our robots since 1995.

FYI Do not polish parts before welding, you will regret it.

[Tom I]

One thing I wanna comment on is you may not necessarily remove the oxidized aluminum. Alumina (Al2O3), as it's referred to, is actually one of the hardest natural materials, second only to Diamond. Removing this Alumina actually weakens the piece, and could potentially result in structural weakening.
My team always used to make our aluminum look shmexy with different ways. We simply used a wire brush and brushed patterns into the metal, tedious, but well worth it in my mind.
http://www.team811.com/photo/main.ph...g2_itemId=6739
The benefit of this was the aluminum could still oxidize and have its strength, as well as looking real good!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by the man

One question how dose having shiny parts help your robot, the dullness adds some personality to your robot.

All other things being equal, a better-looking airplane always does better than a not-so-good-looking one. [R/C piloting wisdom]

Some parts you do want a bit duller, like anything with a coating of grease. But the main reason to have the robot shiny is so that the robot looks more professional and catches more eyes. This is especially important come Saturday near lunchtime, as teams try to remember who is good enough to pick. A professional-looking robot will help jog their memories, provided that it doesn't do really poorly on the field.