How to get the brushed metal looks on an aluminum box???

[fusionid]

I want to get the brushed metal look a la Eletro-harmonix big muff. Is there a tutorial online or can you guys point me in the right direction? thanks

[petemoore]

  Fasten sandpaper on a [slightly padded?] board.
  Attach an edge guide board so you can keep a side of the box pinned @90 degrees to make the sanding lines parallel to the side. Sand...keeping the right angle happening consistantly, if one false move is made, it can take alot of sanding to get the non parallel scores sanded back down to all parallels.
  220 grit?...

[John Lyons]

That sound about right to me. You can get any angle you want with the scratch lines. Just make a little jig as mentioned above and set up the angle you want...and sand away. The EH stuff is steel but the sanded aluminum will get you a similar look. A little brighter...

John

[object88]

I picked up a few tips when looking at CPU coolers.  Over on the HardOCP forum, they talked about heat sink lapping, which is the process of sanding down the surface of a heat sink to a mirror finish (to increase the surface contact with the CPU, thereby lowering temperatures).  Getting brushed finish is way less extreme, of course.

Anyway, they talk about using upwards of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to start.  You use a thick piece of glass as a surface to tape your sandpaper to, keep it wet, and run the object consistantly in one direction, but don't apply pressure.  Applying pressure could result in an uneven sanding, as will running back and forth.  So.  Pick up object, set at one edge of sandpaper, push to other end, pick up, repeat.  Rotate the object for an even sanding.  To get a mirror finish, you step up to 800, 1500, and sometimes 2500 grit sandpaper.  Reported to take 3-4 hours. 

Ah, found a link to a detailed breakdown.

I have not tried this myself, so I don't know if sticking with a lower grit sandpaper will get you where you want to go, or if you'll end up with some other weird finish.  Caveat emptor, but enjoy! 

[sfr]

I got a good looking brushed metal look using a wire brush in the flex shaft on my dremel tool, or a wire brush in a hand power drill.  You can get a cool swirl pattern if you use the wire brush shaped like a "cone", or a straight pattern using a standard rotary brush.  Where eye protection.  The dremel gives more control, and a finer brush pattern, but takes a lot longer to do a whole box.

[fusionid]

great thank you all
after reading the last post, I think I will give it a try to make it mirror like
will post back results