I have been goofing around with a couple of Altoids tins, trying to polish one up to act as a crude mirror. I have tried a dremel with polishing compound and I couldn’t get any of the paint off. I then tried some graffiti remover (it took to paint off my workbench like it was glass cleaner) and that got most of it off, but not all of it. I have tried never-dull and brassO and I can’t get all of it off.

Does anyone have any advice on how to polish the surface of these tins? I can’t seem to get it to work out for me.

Thanks in advance, Garrett

I use Castrol Super Clean cleaner/degreaser to get paint off of wargaming miniatures, so that's what I used on an Altoids tin. Worked great. I haven't gotten around to polishing it yet though.

Note- don't use CSC to take paint off of aluminum. It actually eats into it.

Well, I just polished the INSIDE of the lid of my Altoids tin, so that from the outside, it still looks harmless. Have to be circumspect with all the paranoia among our building security people.

I use sand paper

Don't try to protect the polished surface by coating it with duct tape. That doesn't work. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I am currently using this mirror card. It is about 2mm thick, which I figured was thin enough to include. It comes as a big A4 sheet which you can cut to the exact size you need for your PSK. It is waterproof and it burns, if you are desperate for tinder (a thin shaving lasts for about a minute). The reflective surface is mirror-like; it's covered with plastic film to protect it.

The drawbacks are that although it is quite stiff, it may not be as flat as a glass mirror would be. It'll be as good or better than the tin, though. I don't know how important flatness is to heligraphy. Also, there's no aiming hole. (I don't know how to use that yet anyway.)

Overall I am please with it. Much better than a polished tin. It's good enough to use as an improvised periscope, for seeing rather than signalling.

I've been playing around with this too. Last night I took an old bottle of brake fluid and used it to remove the paint. It warns you right on the bottle not to get brake cleaner on the paint of your car. I think I understand why now <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. About a half teaspoon full of brake fluid, a paper towel, and 3 to 5 minutes and the bottom of my tin was down to bare metal (I did not want to strip the whole tin, just the bottom).

I then took 1000 grit wet/dry sand paper to it (I bought a couple packages at AutoZone). Followed this up with 2000 grit sand paper. I used plenty of water with the sandpaper as the water removes the cuttings. And then used rubbing compound on an old towel (bought the rubbing compound at AutoZone too). I think next I'll try to hit the polished metal with lacquer to prevent rust.

It works pretty well. Not as shiny as my mirror but it does reflect light.

Read on someones website once that they used chocolate to polish bare metal to a high gloss.

A lot cheaper than your method, but I don't know if it works.

Bountyhunter

Chocolate is a bit gritty, almost like polishing compound. The site I read it on used it to polish the bottom of a coke can, to make a reflector to start fires with. I tried it (using jewelers rouge, I didn't have an chocolate), and it kind of worked. I was able to make some sticks smoke, in the fall in MN. In the summer in lower latitudes it should work fine.

I tried it as well and I got a sort of polish on a soda can, but nothing to write home about. I am going to look at trying break fluid and dry/wet sandpaper.

THis is really an expiriment as my PSK is not in an altoids tin, but the ones I built for the family are and I want to try and modify their kits to be a little better, as they were some of my first attempts to make them.

Thanks,

Garrett

I soaked mine in paint remover overnight, then washed them. I polished them with Blue Magic and a soft cloth. Ended up with a "chrome" finish. If you want to keep the shine be sure and spray it with a clear gloss finish. The metal in an altoids tin will oxidize in a fairly short order.