Brushed nickel/aluminium finish on chrome?

[Chuck]

Hey gang, I'm playing around with an idea that may require me to make a couple of control plates from sheet aluminium. What I'm wondering is if there is a way that anyone has found to get that brushed nickel/aluminium finish on chrome - from bridges to pickup covers to tuners - as I think it might look weird if some bits are shiny chrome and others are brushed aluminium. I've played around with various grades of wetndry with limited success.

I guess the flip side of that is how successful people have been with polishing aluminium to a true shine? I'm guessing the "colour" would still be a bit different though.

Cheers
Chuck

[stan]

Green scotch brite pads do a good job - I've done watch cases this way.
"Sand" in one direction only, dont scrub back and forth. This will give a more consistent brushed look.
If there appears to be a "grain" with the metal, sand with it

[Chuck]

Thanks Stan, I'll give it a crack. I've got a couple of old neck plates that I can trial it with. I'm still a little concerned about how I'd tackle things like tuners, but again I've got a couple of random spares I can try with.

[Maddogm]

Aluminium polish does exist, we sell a product at work called Bonderite C-MC 1495 X (formerly known as Turco 1495X) It's probably overkill as an aviation grade aluminium polish. No idea on colour difference though.

Metal does have a grain, it can be hard to pick out though. Any markings on the sheet are probably along the grain direction

[dave.king1]

Make sure you clear coat it once you have the finish you want because it will start to oxidize and go dull pretty much immediately

[Chuck]

Because I'm an impatient sod I just knocked this up from a piece of 2mm thick aluminium I had in the workshop. This is just with 600/800/1200 wet and dry sanding and a quick polish. There's potential here me thinks as I did this pretty quickly. A bit more time on the sanding and polishing, and then sealing as you suggest Dave and it could look okay. Now cutting the slot for a 5-way switch? THAT could be interesting!!

[Chuck]

Sorry, that's 3mm aluminium. The only frustrating thing is the largest size I can get from the Green Shed is 50mm wide. Fine for a switch or telecaster control plate, but you'd need closer to 70mm for the plates used on a Jaguar (which is what I'm essentially looking at). I guess there must be more specific suppliers where I could get larger dimensions, but hopefully without needing to order metres of the stuff.

[wokkaboy]

looks good Chuck. So will you incorporate the switch plate with the new pickguard ?

[Chuck]

looks good Chuck. So will you incorporate the switch plate with the new pickguard ?

That's the plan - I guess it's more like a Jaguar setup than the Jazzmaster. Ideally I'd make plates for the vol/tone controls, the lower bout 5-way switch (above) and another for a toggle on the upper bout. All three plates would ideally look like the ones on a Jag. As I said before, my only concern is how these aluminium plates would look with the regular chrome of the bridge/trem and even the chrome pickups.

[dave.king1]

Carpal Aluminium will sell sheets down to a minimum of 1/3 of a sheet which will do a hell of a lot of pickguards.

Also have a Google and find any local sheet metal shops and have a chat with them about offcuts