I was working on a bike I just got, the fork is chrome but was very rusty and after several attempts to clean the rust off unsuccessfully I decided to take it off. I pulled out a wire brush bit and went to work on it. I discovered it would not take the chrome off though it did an amazing job removing the rust and now the fork looks fairly nice.

With this new discovery fresh in mind I got my rotary tool out and took a smaller wire brush bit to some aluminum cranks I hoped to polish. Not nearly the same effect. Previously I had used a general purpose polishing cream and a felt brush but this did nothing to really help.

Is there a way to clean and polish aluminum cranks to their original shine?