[bleucamaro]

I use Scotchbrite (red) with a D/A sander a bunch, but our tooling rarely requires a high polish.

If going for a higher polish, start with sand paper with a grit course enough to remove the blemish you need gone, then work finer until you get to the level of polish needed. IE, 120, 240, 400, 800, 1600, 2000. . .

Then go to polishing compound and highspeed buffer.

For small parts, I have a wire wheel and a polishing wheel in a pedestal grinder.

Question: What is the use of the material you're finishing? Is Polishing the answer, or should you be looking into passification?