Aluminum lens mounts
Aluminum lens mounts
I have tended to use a different technique, and it works really well for me. Brasso is wonderful stuff, and can make aluminum glow like - polished aluminum. There are several reasons why polishing the aluminum lens mount is not a great idea though:
- The lenses never had a mirror finish on them in the first place. Having them too shiny just does not look right.
- As was pointed out above shiny aluminum quickly passivates, and does not remain shiny all that long. Places where your fingers touch the lens will go dull first, leaving it blotchy.
- Most of these lenses are somewhat corroded on the surface, so you need to do a great deal of polishing
- A very shiny surface on the lens will show every tiny irregularity. Come on- these are FSU lenses. Irregularities were a sure thing since the day they were made.
- The very shiny surface also makes the engravings hard to see. I have a prewar FED 100mm f6.3 lens, which is finished in very shiny chrome over brass. It's really hard to see any of the engravings at all, and the fact that they didn't fill the engravings with paint back then makes it worse.
So, if you get the lens apart, I recommend you use emery paper instead of polish. Fine stuff, in the range of 600 to 2000 grit, is my weapon of choice. It cuts through the crud and corrosion very nicely, gets rid of nicks and scratches, and leaves a nice matte finish. You do need to be careful as the paper leaves a very fine pattern something like the grooves of a vinyl record, so you want to try to rub it around the circumference of the rings and the barrel, not any other direction. This ends up looking like the lathe marks from when it was first made.
If you want to tone down the resulting striations, I find a light wash with sink cleaner such as Old Dutch or Comet does a great job, just don't use it until the surface becomes too shiny.
The last thing you need to do after any kind of refinishing is to renew the black paint in the engravings with a paint stick. Any sort of polishing or sanding you do will lessen the contrast in the markings, making them hard to see. I typically remove the old paint at this point using lacquer thinner to make sure I have a good engraving to fill, otherwise the paint may not stick properly.
Anyway, that's my two cents' worth. This approach has always serverd me well.
Cheers,
Dez
