Help, I have an older Beseler 1620 roto dryer that my daughter(really, not me)used a steel wool pad to try to clean some spots on the drum. Any way to to get it to shine again? It was only a couple of spots about an inch or so. Thanks for any help. Shell

-- Shelly Donley (shelly6@qwest.net), February 16, 2001

Answers

Shelly,

I don't think that you will get the drum shiny again. However, if you are not using it to ferrotype your prints, you should not have a problem. You con continue to dry prints with their backs to the drum.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), February 17, 2001.

Try using a chrome polish with lots of elbow grease, or a power tool with a buffing mop attachment; but I'm also not optimistic that you'll ever get a satifactory shine on it again.
If it really is a couple of little spots, then mark the edge of the drum with a felt pen where they are. Then you can avoid putting smaller prints in those places.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 19, 2001.

Obviously they polished it to begin with, so it can be repolished. The question is more how much trouble do you want to go to. Most easily available polishes aren't very effective, since they concentrate on cleaning, not altering the surface. You need an actual abrasive polishing compound like "Clover Compound" from a machine shop supply company (MSC, Travers Tool, etc.). Probably around 1000 grit, though you might need a couple different ones. Hand is too much work- use some kind of power buffer. It can also be done with very fine polishing paper (or plastic film). 3M lapping film, maybe 12 micron or finer would be a good place to start. Not sure where to get it, but a net search should turn up a supplier. Unfortunately none of this is available at the local hardware store!

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), February 20, 2001.