Polymeric solid transparent material is called plexiglass. Although there are quite a few other names - plexiglass, acriplast, carboglass and others. It is often used in place of conventional glass in the automotive, aviation and other industries. But with all the advantages of the material, it happens that it becomes cloudy or damaged. And then the task arises of how to polish the plexiglass with your own hands.
General requirements for work
The polishing is carried out with low-abrasive compounds. And at the same time it is necessary to avoid the use of aggressive substances. It is worth considering that the easiest way to do the job is when the plexiglass is removed from the structure. When this is not possible, the adjacent areas should be protected with tape.
Usually, if the polished surface is small, the work is done by hand. But it is easier, with lower costs and faster, the desired result is obtained when using a grinder. For example, it is best to polish the headlights of a car with it. Such work is implemented in several ways, and sometimes you have to think about how you can polish the plexiglass.
Methods of execution
Using sandpaper and polishing paste
From the necessary equipment for polishing you will need:
- emery cloth 2000 and 800;
- soft rag, felt or felt;
- Polishing paste.
Initially, sandpaper No. 800 is used, you can moisten the workpiece with water. As a result, small scratches will be removed (smoothed out), and the surface will become dull. There is nothing wrong with that, it should be so. The main thing is that it is even and without visible traces of damage.
Then the surface is treated with sandpaper No. 2000, after which the glass becomes transparent and the scratches disappear. To improve the quality of grinding allows the use of polish. It is applied to a soft fabric (flannel, felt, felt, etc.), and then the entire surface is processed with uniform movements. This continues until the desired result is obtained.
A variation of the considered method can be considered a variant when they are limited only to polishing with sandpaper (if the detail is not responsible and its transparency does not play a special role). Or when only polish is applied without preliminary sanding. You can learn more about this from the video:
Using GOI paste
In principle, this is practically the same method as the one considered earlier. Only in this case, GOI paste is used instead of polish. The polishing technology is actually the same - first, the surface is treated with an emery cloth, and then the final gloss is applied with GOI paste. Its characteristics and features of use can be found here:
More details about polishing technology in this way are described here:
Glass surface treatment with auto polish
To restore the quality of surfaces, you can use various car care products designed to eliminate minor scratches and damages. In principle, the work is carried out as follows - an auto polish is applied to the surface, and then it is rubbed with a soft cloth, or a grinder, or a special attachment for a grinder.
But it is better to first familiarize yourself with the instructions for use of the product and conduct a test check on a small area of the surface.
The mentioned polishing methods are far from the only ones, there are others, for example, using toothpaste, but these are already options for critical situations, usually the considered methods of restoring the transparency of plexiglass are enough.
Sometimes it is not intentional that we damage the glass of watches, phones or transparent surfaces of various devices. To eliminate the scratches that have appeared, it is quite enough to simply polish the surface of the plexiglass. And you can do it yourself, including at home.
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