My sister in law gave me her old wassily chair when she moved. I don't have it yet and don't know the manufacturer. The leather is totally busted. What's the best way to replace it?
Also - My steelcase sofa has the knoll-like metal base. I cleaned it after I got it but it is a little scuffed in some areas. Is there some miracle cleaner/descuffer? I am pretty sure the base is chromed steel but I don't know for sure.
polishing chrome or steel
If a magnet sticks to the leg it's chrome plated, if not it's stainless steel. Use a buffing pad on a cordless drill with the correct buffing compound (rouge). Stainless buffing compound can be a bit more abrasive and make fine scratches dissappear. Chrome is just plating so chrome compound is less abrasive. Either one will make the metal sparkle like new. It's cheap and easy to do.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffing.htm
confused
So I bought white rouge and some buffing wheels (they are soft and white). I put the wheels on to a power drill. Then I followed the instructions and put the rouge ( a chalk like stick) against the spinning wheel. I put the spinning wheel against the steel to polish ... nothing. Absolutely nothing is happening. What am I doing wrong? It doesn't even seem that the white rouge is rubbing off onto the wheel very well. I just see some rouge crumbs on the floor.
Polish
How deep are the scuffs you're talking about? How big is the area you need to polish?
You should turn the drill on, and when using the polishing wheel for the first time, hold the white polish against the wheel only lightly, but for a minute or two, at least.
One thing I must say is, people often underestimate the amount of pressure and time they should apply when they use the white polish buffer on the surface they wish to polish. Are your forearms sore?
My recommendation is that you use the white one first. The white polish usually leave you with a semi-gloss/semi-flat finish. Then move up to the red-rouge polish. Which will then polish it to a mirror finish.
I once (17 years ago) had a dual core study in printmaking and small metal sculpture when I was in art school. I can recall sometimes spending, oh, a half an hour or more just polishing one piece of jewelry, and this was at a proper polishing wheel, not one of these make shift drill-bit polishers. Expect to apply some pressure and for a time enough to make your arms sore on the white polish, and then less pressure AND WITH A DIFFERENT POLISHING BUFFER WHEEL with the rouge. Always start with the white and move up to the rouge. If you have deeper scratches, you may even have to start with a find grit metal sand paper, move on to a rough, then a fine steel wool, then on to a white polish, then a rouge polish.
This will work, but, depending on how big an area you need to polish, this may be a bit (maybe quite a bit) more time and work involved than you anticipated.
Best of luck,
Chris
Ok. So I talked to a...
Ok. So I talked to a neighbor who refurbishes cars. He suggested starting with the red rouge. This was after I used the white. I held the drill in one place for almost the entire length of Radiohead's OK Computer ..... barely any difference with the white!
With the red I noticed a lot more results. I just polished a bit around one of the side legs. It seems that if I keep this up then it will work pretty damn good. I noticed that the polished area with the red actually has slightly less luster than the other old spots (the base actually still has a lot of shine its just very spotty and has scratches) ... but it's a whole lot more even. The guy next door suggested using the white after an initial polishing with the red to bring out the luster.....
It looks like this just might work.
Patience and a high RPM
This will eventually work but it takes some serious time. The white compound will cut slightly so it can correct some degree of scuffing and fine scratches. The red, aka jewelers rouge, will then bring a high mirror shine. Polishing hard metals like this is not like polishing brass, which will take a mirror shine in a minute. You WILL spend hours. It helps if you have a high RPM buffer but those are hard to find. Use a corded drill or have plenty of spare batteries. I just finished polishing my cast aluminum bank table base (one of those things you stand at and write out deposit slips in the bank line) which I use as a kitchen island and spent about 12 solid hours. 0000 steel wool, white and then red compound.
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