Fabrication of low-cost metal polishing machine for preparation of microstructure samples of lightweight alloy and composite material

A metallographic specimen should be performed to determine the microstructure of a material. One of the processes of preparation of metallographic specimen is polishing process. The designing and manufacturing a polishing machine will be very helpful in the process of polishing the metallographic specimen. This apparatus includes a motor, aluminum circular disc, switch and speed controller, and base plate. The polishing machine is constructed from these individual parts. This paper is proposed to design and fabrication a metal polishing machine for laboratory scale. In this paper, several stages of the process are performed, such as designing the model, preparing tools and materials used, making components, assembling and testing the polishing machine. The results obtained are polishing machine that works well and can be used for the metallographic test for students and researchers. It can be concluded that this polishing machine can produce the level of specimen preparation for a metallographic test.