slopes 

How to polish plexiglass at home: step by step instructions and reviews. Polishing plexiglass, step by step instructions. How to clean plexiglass from scratches

Plexiglas is a unique material that does not lose its appearance for a long time and can serve for many years. Despite this, during operation for quite a long time, plexiglass may still become cloudy or on its surface, depending on the method of operation, scratches may appear, which may be deep or shallow, but they will still spoil the appearance of the product. If this happened to you, and the plexiglass product is no longer as bright and transparent as before, you should not be upset, because you can polish the plexiglass yourself at home.

You can give the product its original look, and for this you do not have to go to a specialized workshop, or buy expensive tools, to polish plexiglass at home, you will need some things that you most likely have in your home, or you can purchase them, because they are not expensive.

Before you start polishing plexiglass, you need to understand that this process will require a lot of time from you, because this process quite laborious. Do not use any chemicals to treat the surface of plexiglass, as this action can lead to clouding of the material, which is completely undesirable.

The process of polishing plexiglass at home

For polishing, you need two things, this is GOI paste and a small piece of felt. It is necessary to apply a small amount of GOI paste on a piece of felt, and then proceed to rub this paste into the surface of the Plexiglas product that needs to be polished. Polish in this way for so long until a shine appears on the entire surface of the polished product.

There is also another way to polish plexiglass at home. Take waterproof sandpaper and start polishing the surface of the plexiglass with it, periodically wetting it. After that, it is necessary to continue polishing the plexiglass using felt and GOI paste. This method is suitable for products on the surface of which there are large scratches.

There is another way, but it will take some work skills to complete it. First of all, polish the surface with an emery zero, you need to polish it well. After that, take a spray can with a burner, and proceed to carefully singe the entire surface of the plexiglass. Be careful and do not linger in one area for a long time, otherwise you will burn the product.

Organic glass is a thermoplastic material known for its impeccable quality. It has a high level of transparency and significantly surpasses ordinary glass in this, freely transmits light rays without any distortion, clouding or other defects.

What you need to know about polishing plexiglass? No matter how strong and reliable the plexiglass material is, it will still show minor cracks and small scratches and cuts. This is due to mechanical impact during its operation. Although polishing plexiglass at home is not a super difficult process, it is quite a lengthy, meticulous and patient task.

The main thing that the polisher should know is that aggressive, strong chemicals and substances should not be used when polishing. If polished with them, the glass may become dull, cloudy and not transparent.

Necessary tools and materials

Many who came across this material wondered how to polish plexiglass on their own without resorting to the expensive help of a professional. It is possible to polish plexiglass at home quickly and efficiently without significant costs. Moreover, the result will be significantly better than with machine processing, due to the rapid heating and melting of the surface.

To do this, you will need the following materials and tools:

  • A roll of masking (paper) tape;
  • Paper;
  • Sandpaper grade 800 and 2000;
  • Soft cloth;
  • Blade knife or sharp scalpel.

1. In order for the polishing of plexiglass at home to proceed conveniently and reliably, it is necessary to remove the processed glass from the product.

2. First of all, it is necessary to protect the edges of the glass with adhesive tape, pasting it from the ends along the perimeter with an overlap of 1 - 2 mm. If for some reason it is impossible to remove the glass from the product, then work like this, but glue all non-glass parts of the product. So that at the end of the work the glue does not remain on the glass, use a proven high-quality adhesive tape. Although we have already described in a previous article. After that, round the corners and remove the remaining adhesive tape by cutting them off with a scalpel.

3. When all of the above are done preparatory work Let's move on to polishing. We take the skin 800 and begin to grind the surface of the glass with a small addition of water. This process should be uniform and accurate. When the sanding is completed, we wipe the surface and see what we have.

Oddly enough, plexiglass should be completely opaque. There is no need to be afraid of this, it should be so. If the glass is not evenly opaque, then continue sanding until you achieve uniformity, and also carefully monitor the absence of ruts on the surface.

4. When the desired result is achieved, take the 2000 sandpaper and continue sanding with it. You will notice that the glass starts to become more transparent. Over its entire area, scratches and various cracks should not be observed. If you find any defects on the glass, sand again with 800 sandpaper until they disappear, and then again with 2000 sandpaper.

5. Next, you need a polishing paste in in large numbers which can be purchased almost anywhere. Apply the paste to a piece of soft cloth and continue sanding with gentle measured movements. Very quickly you will notice that your plexiglass is getting an intensifying luster.

6. After that, you will have the opportunity to carefully examine the glass for any residual defects. If you find any, you will have to repeat all the grinding steps again. If everything suits you, you can remove the tape and make sure that he did not leave any glue on the edges of the glass.

7. If you removed the glass before work, then after removing the tape, you need to grind the edges of the glass in the same way. After that, your organic glass will shine like new.

In addition to the above method, there is a good opportunity to polish plexiglass at home using felt and GOI paste. If you do not have felt on hand, it can be easily replaced with a piece of felt boots, a woolen insole, or an ordinary cotton pad. The method is quite simple: apply GOI paste on plexiglass and treat the surface with one of the above materials until the desired result is obtained.

If the processed organic glass is quite old, then you need to use a fine emery cloth, moisten the surface with a spray bottle and make sure that it does not dry out. After that, wipe with a soft cloth and rub to a shine with GOI paste.

You can also use car polish for polishing. Apply it to the glass and rub it with felt. But, it is worth noting that before that, test the polish on a small area of ​​\u200b\u200bglass and make sure that it does not spoil it. After all this, rub the surface with any liquid oil, from machine to sunflower.

If you have a burner available, you can polish the glass by first treating it with zero sandpaper, and then evenly burn the surface with a burner. But be careful not to stay too long in any place, so as not to singe the plexiglass.

Unique polishing agent

Any polishing method has its pros and cons. For example, GOI paste contains chromium oxide, which penetrates into any surface irregularities, from where it is very difficult to get it. Also, glass can be ruined if rather large grains appear in the GOI paste. Therefore, it can be easily replaced with another substance, while care must be taken that this substance does not contain ammonia, due to which the glass can become faded.

You can make your own unique plexiglass polish. You will need a can of any spray, hot water and wine white vinegar. Mix water with vinegar 1: 1 and fill a can with this mixture. This will give the glass a smooth finish and prevent mold and mildew.

You can also polish plexiglass with various toothpastes, powders or chalk with a soft cloth.

Alternative grinding methods

For grinding, you need a polishing wheel, paste, chalk, sandpaper, but at the same time you always need to prepare felt or other necessary fabric.

Crystal clearness and dazzling brilliance are not always achieved from glass. Sometimes the task is to obtain frosted glass, for example, for some kind of musical equipment or just to make various home or office interior items original. To do this, glass is treated with coarser abrasive materials, for example, fine-grained sandpaper or using chemical matting.

Note to beginners!

When polishing organic glass, you must always remember about your own protection and safety for your health. For example, when grinding with GOI paste, you need to know that it can be severely poisoned if it gets into the internal organs.

Because of this, you must be careful to maintain moisture during the polishing process and avoid the formation of dust that is easy to inhale. It is best to use funds personal protection: respirator, gloves, goggles. This will prevent poisonous substances from entering your body and polishing plexiglass at home will not harm you.

Video: POLISHING PLUS GLASS

Unfortunately, compared to materials such as polycarbonate, polysulfone, and ultem, optical polishing of plexiglass is not that easy to achieve. In addition, when polishing internal surfaces, such as threaded holes, it is difficult to achieve absolute transparency.

Compared to other clear polished plastics, polished acrylic diffuses and transmits light the best.

Both extruded acrylic and cast acrylic are polished. Depending on the type of material, the following polishing methods are used: diamond, flame, mechanical, laser, steam polishing, and machine polishing.

Diamond polishing of Plexiglas

With diamond polishing, the effect of the glossy surface of acrylic is achieved by processing the edges of the sheet with a rapidly rotating machine with diamond cutters. After high-quality diamond polishing, a new sheet of cast acrylic cannot be distinguished from a polished sheet. In addition, this the method is relatively inexpensive and quite productive because it can be used without wear on the mechanism parts on a large number of acrylic sheets.

Diamond polishing of acrylic is used when it is necessary to grind the edges after cutting, such as the edges of various shelves or elements made of PMMA. It should be noted that diamond polishing of the ends of plexiglass performed exclusively on straight or angled edges. Acrylic products with rounded edges are not subject to this type of processing.

How to burnish acrylic with a flame?

PMMA can be polished with a burning flame. Reaching a temperature of 2700-3300 degrees Celsius, the flame acts on the edges of the product and due to the melting of the upper layer, the surface becomes transparent. This method used for polishing hard-to-reach places: on curved and inclined surfaces, when machining holes and inside corners.

Such a polish transparent plastic usually produced on prototypes and small volumes, and most often used for polishing extruded acrylic with a certain thickness, since black dots may remain on the surface of cast PMMA - unburned acetylene residues.

Video: "How to polish plexiglass with a burning flame?"

Polishing on a cloth wheel

Plexiglas parts can be polished mechanically by holding the part over a fabric rotating disk on a special machine, or by sanding the PMMA surface with a cloth that has been previously coated with a polishing paste or plastic polish. Using the mechanical polishing method large surfaces and angled sides can be machined and remove minor scratches.

However, the imperfection of this method lies in the fact that as a result of mechanical polishing, the acrylic surface can become covered with microcracks and still remain cloudy. This method is quite time consuming and most often used for local grinding or for polishing a small amount single and expensive parts.

laser processing

By laser cutting, acrylic glass sheets can be cut into 25mm strips. With such cutting, the edges of PMMA are processed according to the effect of flame polishing and are used as for processing single parts as well as industrial batches.

Polishing plastic from scratches with steam

Steam polishing uses a solvent vapor that acts on the surface of the plexiglass. This method is suitable for polishing internal parts acrylic product, however it gives a translucent effect on the surface. As a rule, the final result depends on how well the machine polishing was done.

Due to the optimal combination of elasticity and impact resistance, ABS plastic is one of the most popular materials for the production of molded products with a high degree of drawing.

Special equipment

AT industrial scale use special machines for polishing plexiglass, which automatically and independently process acrylic. Usually this method does not require human intervention and can be successfully used for processing uneven surfaces.

With a huge number of advantages, organic glass still has disadvantages. And one of the main disadvantages is the high tendency to mechanical damage. Scratches on such a surface appear quite quickly if you do not use a special protective film. It is possible to scratch thin plexiglass even when cleaning it, for example, with powdered detergents.

In general, organic glass is an excellent replacement for real glass. Its use has the following advantages:

  • High light transmission;
  • Five times more impact resistance than glass
  • Plexiglas is much lighter than ordinary glass;
  • High resistance to harmful factors environment, it is also a frost-resistant material;
  • Possesses electrical insulating properties;
  • Eco-friendly, non-toxic material, etc.

Scratches on plexiglass are no longer a problem!

Removing scratches from the surface of plexiglass does not require such cardinal methods as using a drill with a grinding disc, it is enough to polish the glass. This is pretty easy to do on your own at home. You will be satisfied with the work done, unless of course the scratches are too deep. Otherwise, you can contact a car service where organic glass is polished using special polishing machines.

Also, polishing organic glass will restore its original luster and transparency.

Preparing the plexiglass surface for polishing

In order to start polishing the orgsurface at home, you need to remove the glass from the structure. This will greatly simplify your task, because the polishing process is quite laborious and does not tolerate haste. If it is not possible to remove the glass, the surfaces adjacent to it should be pasted over with adhesive tape. After that, clean the plexiglass from dirt and dust with a washing gel or spray and microfiber.

To perform the ritual of removing scratches from the plexiglass surface, you will need the following materials and tools:

  • Soft sandpaper;
  • A piece of soft cloth or felt.

Step-by-step instructions for polishing plexiglass

Step 1 Wet the surface to be polished with water using a sponge or small cloth.

Step 2. Start polishing the glass with sandpaper until the surface becomes matte.

Step 3 Wipe the glass with a soft cloth, then moisten the surface again and start polishing the glass with a fine sandpaper. As a result, the glass will become more transparent, and the smallest scratches will be removed from the surface.

Step 4 Follow the steps below to remove deeper scratches. Wet the surface. Apply a thin layer of polish or polishing paste, mixing thoroughly before use. Continue polishing in a progressive motion, spreading the mixture evenly over the surface. soft cloth. In just a minute you will see an unsurpassed result.

Step 5. To polish old organic glass, repeat the application of the polishing paste on the surface and rub it with a felt.

Thus, you can easily and simply get rid of scratches on organic glass. And household items will again delight you with a radiant surface!

During the operation of plexiglass, there always comes a time when it is necessary to return it to its original form. Various defects appear on the surface of the glass panel. It is necessary to carefully study how to polish plexiglass at home before taking on this painstaking task.

Why polishing is needed

It is necessary to polish plexiglass in two cases: after long operation and after processing. During the cutting process, tools may leave rough edges, small cracks or chips. Subsequent use can also be harmful. appearance panels: the glass tarnishes, various defects appear on its surface, due to which the image is distorted.

During operation, scratches and other external defects may appear on the plexiglass, polishing is required to eliminate them.

Synthetic glass is more transparent than real glass, so it is used much more often. When defects and damage appear, it becomes normal plastic panel. If it has rather deep damage in the form of scratches or the dullness of the surface has almost completely blocked the view, it is unlikely that it will be possible to restore the glass. However, the most serious defects can be eliminated and a colored film can be glued, which will not only remove aesthetic imperfections, but also add strength.

Video "Polishing plexiglass at home"

From this video you will learn how to polish plexiglass at home.

Surface Technology

To date, specialists use several methods for polishing plexiglass, each of which is effective and suitable for repairing all types of defects.

Car polishes

Automotive cosmetics- one of the simplest methods for the restoration of plexiglass, which copes well with shallow scratches and other minor defects. To restore in this way, you need to purchase auto polish and a soft cloth. Sometimes grouting material comes with a polish. You can also use a grinder, equipping it with a special nozzle. If you plan to polish carboglass glass, Compound brand of polish will work well:


Pastes

A method in which paste plays a key role involves the use of GOI paste, a special substance used to polish high-strength materials. To work on this technology, you will need a fabric as a trowelling material. Felt or felt rags will do. You can also use cotton pads sold in cosmetic stores. Fine-grained sandpaper is used for post-processing. This method is optimal for restoring glasses that have served for a very long time:

  1. You need to apply the paste on the surface of the glass panel.
  2. With the selected grouting material, the substance is rubbed into the glass.
  3. The polished surface is processed with water-moistened sandpaper. Glass also needs to be kept moist.
  4. The glass is wiped with a piece of soft cloth and again treated with GOI paste. This time, felt is used for grouting.

Felt is excellent for polishing plexiglass due to its structure.

Felt and sandpaper

Grouting with sandpaper will eliminate minor imperfections in the Plexiglas surface in a short time, without putting much effort. Polishing according to this technique also involves the use of paste, but in this case, you can purchase any substance at a hardware store. In addition, you will need two types of sandpaper - with a grit of 800 and 200, as well as felt or a soft cloth:

  1. The glass is gently and evenly rubbed with 800 sandpaper, constantly wetted with water until a completely matte surface and no visible damage.
  2. The surface is wiped with a soft cloth and treated with sandpaper for 2000. The panel should become completely transparent and not have any defects.
  3. Use a clean cloth to apply the polishing paste and spread it evenly over the entire glass. After a few seconds, the material should get a sheen.

Custom helpers

Paste is an optional component. There are many "folk" recipes for polishing organic glass, which have varying degrees of effectiveness. Sometimes craftsmen use regular toothpaste or chalk instead of polishing paste. Both of these substances allow you to achieve a shiny smooth surface and are applied with a soft cloth. Instead of a cloth, you can use a towel made of natural material:

  1. The selected polishing material is applied to a towel and rubbed in a circular motion until the desired surface condition is obtained.
  2. After polishing, the glass is washed with plain water.

If you don't have plexiglass polish on hand, you can replace it with toothpaste.

Disadvantages of a self-performed procedure

Do-it-yourself polishing of plexiglass has a number of disadvantages. Usually, independent work takes a lot of time and requires a lot of effort, especially if you need to process a decent area. It is difficult to achieve a perfectly smooth surface without a single defect.

Micro-scratches and small cracks become invisible and can no longer be removed. If a single defect is to be removed, the complexity of the procedure lies in the fact that it is practically impossible to leave the surface around the scratch intact.


Self-polishing can leave micro-scratches on plexiglass

First of all, it is necessary to ensure the safety of work on polishing plexiglass. During processing, attention should be paid to the following points:

  1. Spraying dichloroethane should be carried out with a protected airway: you need to wear a medical mask or respirator.
  2. The room in which chemicals are handled must be constantly ventilated to avoid the concentration of harmful substances in the air.
  3. Before starting work with a power tool, you must make sure that it is in good condition, as well as the integrity of the power cable and the electrical network of the working room.
  4. While working with sandpaper or a grinder, you should protect your eyes with goggles, as dust or small fragments can get into them.
  5. For work, you need to use protective gloves made of durable material to protect the skin of the hands from chemicals and hard fragments. It is necessary to select gloves according to the size so that excess fabric does not get into the tool and does not interfere with manual work.