buffing acrylic SUUUUCKS

[Dert42]

the guy from marine solutions was very helpful last night.
told me to use novus heavy scratch remover and to polish it with fine scratch remover.

it worked pretty well after a long time.

i got an electric buffer to help. this would be futile without it.

the pics i took don't show very well, i'll take more tonight.

 

[sirreal63]

I had the same experience...it took me about two weeks to get my Tenecor tank done. I had to pull out the 10" random orbit buffer to get it done. The previous owner must have used a bbq grill scraper to clean the tank, it was severely scratched. Novus worked well for all but the really deep scratches...600 to 5000 grit paper was needed for those.

 

[Letmegrow]

If you go into a zen mode, it goes by alot quicker.
I have never used a buffer tho.

 

[dphins]

Is that zen mode or amish mode?

 

[Dert42]

hehe nice.
tonight i'm going to replace 2 boards on the stand (not load bearing) and prime the entire thing. it looks kinda nasty now. going to paint it a nice dark grey i think.
if i get to it hopefully i can buff the rest of the tank and leave the corners for another day.

and hopefully my R/O filter comes tommarow.

 

[Letmegrow]

Amish. Have... to.... work.... hard...... till .... the ....sun ....sets.....

 

[Dert42]

i buffed for a couple hours last night.
and buffed the corners and angles by hand where the electric buffer couldn't reach.
all the haze is gone!
there are still a lot of fine scratches though.
i plan on doing a couple more hours of buffing tonight.
my back hurts....

 

[sirreal63]

FYI...the fine scratches on the inside will not show when full of water.

 

[Dert42]

oh reeeeeeally?
i think i'll buff a little bit more then and call it quits!
i haven't done the outside yet or hit it with the polish.

 

[mjpelikan]

(time to try to hijack my nephew's thread)

All this talk about buffing out scratches in acrylic, has got me thinking - is there a way to do this to glass?

 

[Letmegrow]

If there is, the glass experts will not share the secrets !

You get no info if you try and call them.

Use hot water with regular big aquarium salt and a algae pad, and it seems to help the very minute scratches. When glass"scratches" it actually chips away, so it would be nearly impossible to "buff" scratches out.

I would think theyd have some type of filler that you could pour into there, and it drys hard....

 

[Goalie66]

I know someone in the glass business and from what he tells me it can only be done to scratches that are not very deep. If you can feel them than more than likely they will not come out. From the way he describes it, it is best to do it by hand on glass and not with the sander.

My .02

TOm