polishing alum.

was sitting around working on a lower and was wondering how hard would it be to polish one. i would thank it would not be hard just a lot of work with a bench buffer and a few diffrent compounds. anyone tried it and how did it turn out. was thanking polished upper/lower ss barrel and the rest black

Polishing Aluminum isn't hard jewelers rouge and a buffing wheel will do a great job. only problem is aluminum oxidizes rapidly and will turn dull rather quickly

clear coat it ?

I've seen folks use Simoniz car wax and a buffing wheel to polish AL. Works pretty good. Like Reload said, the jewlers rouge will work and would probably give a little better shine. Clear coating would help.

Once you get a good shine on it, use Mothers mag and aluminum polish to do the last buff by hand...it is designed to protect the aluminum from oxidizing too fast on wheels that see more weather than your gun ever will.

One word of caution....removing the anodizing will weaken the surface of the receiver...so it will be more prone to wear and scratching.

not sure how it would weaken the reciver if i was to clear coat or clear powder coat it after i would think it would be just as strong or stronger if i powder coat

anodizing adds a surface hardening to make the aluminum stronger ....not too much different then surface hardend steel or hard cast bullets...remove the hardened surface and it is going to be a softer metal.