Polishing and painting questions from newbie

[DrStein99]

I have a home-build CNC milling machine, I use to cut decorations from 1/8 aluminum flats. They come out very nice with the machine.

So, its basically an inlaid piece of artwork.

Ok so to make it look really nice, I normally sand with 250 grit, then 400 and then scotchbrite, then I use a rotary tool w/ trippoli compound around the raised edges. This makes it mirror-like.

Then I would proceed to use a small paintbrush and paint the inlays using laquer paint.

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It seems EVERY time I paint something there are specs of DUST in it. Is there a paint or process or something I can do to paint something and NOT have dust-specs?

Also - is there anything I can do to automate, or get the polishing process down from hand-sanding?

[rustamd]

even if using expensive paint booth to paint part there are still chances of having dust specs

Do you paint first than polish or polish first?

[DrStein99]

Thats what I thought - no matter HOW clean I make my area, there is always some dust; unless its a dustfree environment like the ones they use to assemble platters for hard-disk drives.

I know people paint little models all the time, and they never seem to have dust flecks in them so there must be a technique somehow.

Ideally I would like to find something I could just throw down as a powder or paste and MELT it in the oven on low heat-set. I think thats a good idea but dont know where to start.

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I tried both methods- polish first, then paint. And paint first then polish. I have found its much easier to clean away accidental paint off a polished finish, then it is to recover a painted surface from accidental sanding or a hit with a rotary tool.

So for now, I polish FIRST then paint - but I am very open to advice and suggestions.

I also have a small viabratory tumbler, the cheap little $40 at harbor freight. I have a mix of tripoli compound and walnut shells. This seems to work over time say two days, but I am not sure its supposed to work with flat parts that are 4.5" wide.