buffing acrylic ?????????????

[jrmx635]

anyone good at buffing acrylic that can give me advice.
I have an 8 foot tank that I started by hand but it is way too much work.
I have 1500-12000 micromesh disks already,but my god it takes forever.
Basicly any shorter ways known to man.
I was thinking of buying one of those electric kits but is there a cheaper way.

 

[marco67]

The Novus 3 part system can perform miracles, use power and go slow.
depending on how bad you may have to go through all 3 a few times.
Keep that buffer moving never stop on a spot,
and keep a "sterile" work area (just a single grain of sand can be very bad)

Sorry thats not fast but it is cheap,
even if you have to buy everything new you'll only be into it for ~$150.

 

[CaptainAndy]

I buffed out a 6 foot tank about a year ago. Much more work than I thought it would be. I bought one of those car buff kits and it was still a job. For deep marks I actually started with 400 grit by hand before I started the novus.

One thing to remember, perfect is the opposite of good and here I am, a year later, with a new generation of marks that I've created

 

[Miller]

That's a metric $h!t ton of buffing...make sure you warm up first, do some nice stretching exercises to warm up your arms and back, wouldn't want to pull something. Then make sure you have a cold one after a long session of buffing.

 

[Nonmouse]

Power tools. You can pick up an electric angle-grinder pretty cheap, along with some sheepskin or wool polishing disks (the synthetic ones'll work, but they wear out in a screaming hurry- with a tank that big, you'll end up spending more replacing them than on a real disk or three.) Use very, very little pressure, and vary the angle and direction of movement on your grinder constantly. No. 7 (automotive) clearcoat polishing compound (or even buffing compound, if you've got -really- deep scratches) is actually a pretty good place to start- it's inexpensive, but works very well. Once you get it smoothed out, you can move to a specialized plastic polish.

It's best to use a separate disk for each compound, otherwise you're likely to carry rougher grits over to your finer finishes, and re-scratch it. It would also be worth it, time and money-wise, to pick up a scrap piece of acrylic, intentionally scratch it up, and practice on it before tackling the tank, to get a feel for how the various compounds cut. Probably the most important, and hardest, trick is to always keep the disk moving, and use less force than you think you need. You'll be tempted to pause over a deep scratch, and use a bit more force, and you'll end up melting a gouge into the tank that'll take 5x as long to smooth out as the scratch would have.

If you were practiced, you could knock out a tank like that in an afternoon, but the learning curve is kinda steep- I'd reserve a couple days, at least- but that's still a helluva lot less time than it'd take to do it by hand.

 

[skyedolphan]

Dont know how bad yours is but when I got the 240 it was a disaster. I spent almost a monht sitting in the tank buffing. Two weeks were by hand finally decided to bit the bullet and try a power buffer. Definately worked faster although be VERY careful one extra couple seconds can lead to warped acrylic.. I uses the Novice and also some other higher grit I will try to find it. I also used an acrylic diamond pad with different textured wraps.
My best advice Stay away from acrylic LOL
My tank, as Andy stated with his, is completely covered with new scratches I am debating what to do about it. All I know is that when we move the next one is definately going to be glass.

 

[Jim Tansey]

I think so many people underestimate how easy acrylic not only scratches but over a relatively short time develops a haze from the normal cleaning process. Acrylic is said to be clear for viewing as an advantage, but how long will that last? I can't think of any advantages of acrylic other than its easy to drill.

Jim