I have a separate dedicated polisher with two different pads on it. It's mounted to a couple heavy blocks of wood and somewhat easy to move around. If the weather is nice, I do it outside. Otherwise, you need to build a cage of some sort out of plastic or cardboard, because you will make a mess.

I've done some aluminum as well. I've taken the anodize off a few pieces (purposely). It does require some routine maintenance, but it's not bad. Something that would see weather more often than not, I would have re-anodized.