Tool of the Jedi Master....Use the Lathe Luke

[FEM2008]

Nice!

You might be able to get better brightness in the rod by roughing up the surface. The trick is to have uniform and fine texture (think frosted look). A light baking soda bead blast would probably be prefect, but fine emery cloth would also work fine. The rod ends should be flat and polished as much as possible. I would add a mirror on the far end to reflect back into the rod. It would have to be perpendicular to the rod. Test first on a scrap piece of the rod.

By the way, I have had good results using micromesh pads for polishing plastics. The light pink (I believe it is rated at 12000 grit) works well.