Hello forum, I have currently removed a hydraulic ram from my wheel loader to replace the pins, bushes and ram seal kit. The chrome shaft has a couple of minor imperfection score marks and a bit of very light rust in another small area. Can I polish the shaft with something to remove the slightly raised sections of the score marks and rust or should I leave it as it is?. The loader is for my own personal use for prospecting.
When I find dings in a cylinder shaft that aren't too bad I take the same whetstone I sharpen my knife with to 'em. Rub lengthwise on the shaft when you do this just enough to be able work the raised portion down, then a few strokes with fine crocus cloth after the stone to get rid of any possible sharp edges. Use the crocus cloth on the lightly rusted areas going lengthwise as well, just enough to get rid of the roughness.
Cheers for that. I have never heard of crocus cloth in Australia before so I googled it and it is what we call emery paper. A black/grey iron oxide on paper, what grit would you suggest?. I thought about ultra fine.
Crocus cloth is not the black/grey iron oxide emery cloth/paper. It is a very fine and soft reddish color iron oxide coated cloth.
Thanks for that, I would not like to use the wrong product as it could destroy the surface resulting in rechrome/ grind. I am currently purchasing machinery parts out of the states so I will source this crocus cloth. Is it graded like emery/ wet and dry paper?.
I don't think I've ever seen crocus cloth graded as to grit. It's used not to remove material as much as it's used to polish. If you can't find that, then an 800 grit or finer emery paper will work.
Here's one source in US: http://www.mcmaster.com/#crocus-cloth/=u6usth