Refinishing stainless steel sink

[Mtodd62406]

Does anyone have any suggestions for refinishing an in place undermount stainless steel sink? The sink has normal wear and tear like scuffs and scratches for a 6 year old sink none of which appear to be severally deep but I'd like to know your guys process in case they are deep. Thanks guys.

[Kowboy]

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Put a 120 grit paper on a random orbital palm sander, 80 grit if the scratches are really deep, and abrade until the scratches are gone. Follow up with 220, 400, and a 500 padded Abralon which will get the shine to scream as pictured:https://mirka-online.com/abrasives-by-name/abralon.html

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[Kowboy]

No, you don't pull the drain flanges either. Sand right over them, they need refinishing too.

If you sand over the flange and water seeps up, the seal is bad and the flange is leaking. The water makes a nasty stainless slurry. Old school plumbers only use plumber's putty to reset, but the whippersnappers use silicone because the putty manufacturers have taken out the stuff that keeps the putty from hardening so modern putty stiffens and leaks. I've set sink flanges with silicone for twenty years. No callbacks ever, you can test for leaks immediately, and continue finishing without nasty slurry. And in Florida, one of the most strict states, this is considered maintenance, not plumbing, so no permit or plumber is required.

Leaking disposal flange set with putty:

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[Greg H]

That sounds like a lot of steps to do to use a orbit sand which wouldn't leave the stainlesss steel directional grain. I use scotch brite and some elbow grease and it takes out even deep scratches by how much pressure u use When u use scotch brite run it the same direction as the stainless steel grain don't go opposite direction of grain crossing it. Follow along the walls of the sink then do the bottom and follow the grain of the bottom of sink which will be a different direction then do the overflow spillway and see what way the grains going and follow it then use soap and water to clean up sink and ur done I always leave drain in too but I do not normally scotch brite but if it's made out of stainless then I imagine u can but I would clean drains in a different step! Let me know if this works out for u

[Omni Cubed Larry]

That sounds like a lot of steps to do to use a orbit sand which wouldn't leave the stainlesss steel directional grain.
.....

Good point on the directional grain.
Many stainless sinks don't have grain, they are more of a satin finish (bead blast finish). I had one in my last house and liked it. I would occasionally rub it all over with fine scotch bright to take out small shiny scratches. The orbital sander would be pretty quick to restore that satin finish if it was really scratched up. I've done this many times with other steel and brass parts (not sinks, but it would work the same). On those parts, I had to do some sanding by hand where the orbital wouldn't fit.

If you have grain and want to keep it, then don't go obital.
Don't go all orbital on me dude!

[Kowboy]

You've gotta get the deep scratches out first, direction be damned. You put the directional scratches back in by hand after the bad scratches have been removed with the random orbital. 90% of the work is in the sink bottom; the sides aren't usually too tough.

Most homeowners will forget about any directionality when they see their scratched up mess turned into consistently glowing stainless.

These were all done by hand:

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Not perfect maybe, but the janitorial company was happy to pay me instead of buying a new cooktop. They wouldn't have paid if the homeowner hadn't approved.

[Greg H]

Looks pretty good I never thought of using a orbit sander and I imagine ur right u could use a scotch brite afterwords to bring grain back but for small scratches scotch brite will take them out without sanding it

[Mark Lauzon]

Nice...