Ceramic polishing a wheel - GIF

[schuylergrace]

I wonder about work hardening with this process. I made a batch of mounting tabs out of 16 gauge aluminum sheet and decided to run them through my cheap ceramic polisher to clean them up. They all came out with a nice finish, but they were also very brittle from work hardening. Still, surface hardening shouldn't hurt those wheels (and might actually protect them), while it could penetrate all the way through my thinner stock.