Hello everyone,

I have put together an Altoids-style survival kit. I want to be able to use the inside of the lid as a signal mirror. I have tried polishing it with some fine steel wool which seemed to help a little, but it didn't get as shiny as I wanted. Does anyone know a way to put a decent mirror finish on these things?

Maybe a fine polish like flitz would work. You would need to find a way to keep the contents from scratching the polished surface. Maybe have a glass shop cut a small mirror and use that instead. Plastic shop should have a mirrored type of plastic. That way you could signal and not have all of your contents strewn about.

You could use a dremel with a polishing head and some polishing compound. I was surprised what that would shine up. As far as keeping stuff from scratching the inside, you could use a napkin or something against the lid. That would also give you extra tinder as well, an extra piece of toilet paper, an improvised bandage, or even use it as a napkin.

You can use wet/dry sandpaper, starting at about 600 and working your way up (600, 800, 1000, 1200, etc) until it shines like the sun. The wool will take too long. Flitz might be ok, or Brasso on a cloth. Both have abrasives like polishing compounds in them to speed things along. I'd use wet/dry maybe followed by Flitz.Brasso.

Ahh - good ol' Brasso. I've spent countless hours polishing things with that. Bells, belt buckles, pin rails, plaques, compass housing... you name it. Never used it on a candy tin though. Nevr Dull might work well too...

Two cheapies: Comet cleanser (roughly 300 grit). Then toothpaste (roughly 800 grit).

Yep, Brasso for buckles, keepers, and anything with a brass snap head on it. Polished my nameplates so much through the years the engraved letters were gone <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Semichrome, and a lot of elbow grease...

Maybe you could cut a piece of mylar to size and glue that into the lid?

Good ideas - would add that my next-to-last is crocus cloth, then followed with white jeweler's rouge on felt pad. "Watch it - you could burn your retina with that!" <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Cheers,

I have three altoids tins inuse, one of which I shined up pretty nice but not quite "mirrorlike". Now, I'm thinking here without knowing for sure: if you glue mylar or any other clear substance on the lid, won;t that reduce the reflectivity (is that a word?) of the lid? I'm thinking that you wouldn't want to glue it down, just fasten it there temporarily. Then, when you're ready to use it, you would take off the protective coating. My theory (untested/unproven) is that, any clear substance adding depth and covering the mirror will reduce its effectiveness.

My solution has been to cover the polished surface with clear tape that I remove when using the "mirror". This slows oxidation (at least the tape I've been using) and keeps the surface ready to us (this emulates what I've seen commercially). Seems to work for me in Delaware's humid and corrosion-prone atmosphere.

Reflectivity is the right word, so is albedo.

If you want to make a mirror out of an altoids tin, I'm not sure it is possible. The material is very prone to bending and denting, and it probably isn't very reflective because of the alloy involved.

I agree with Stretch, Micro Mesh might work, that's what we use at work on metal and glass. We've made an awesome mirror out of LT-80 Tape (Aluminum Tape) at work. We used aluminum oxide for the final polishing.


Micromesh

I don't know about your Altoids polishing endeavors, but I always thought this "alternate mirror" thread was a neat idea: http://www.equipped.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=survival&Number=65328

Dremmel, felt wheel, polishing compound.