Thread: gun regulator

Acetone has melted the surface. Use car polish with fine abrasives or even toothpaste with abrasives to polish the plastic lense.

Originally Posted by Lappa

Acetone has melted the surface. Use car polish with fine abrasives or even toothpaste with abrasives to polish the plastic lense.

I have used some plastic polish that is many years old. I don't see much change yet. I thought about what you thought about so I'll keep working on it.

Before you start polishing you need to remove the original damage with progressively finer wet and dry sandpaper. Once there is no visible damage then you can start polishing but not with a power tool as the area is so small that you will rapidly melt the plastic.

Originally Posted by Bohdan

Before you start polishing you need to remove the original damage with progressively finer wet and dry sandpaper. Once there is no visible damage then you can start polishing but not with a power tool as the area is so small that you will rapidly melt the plastic.

Thanks for this. All mine have the same damage and I’ve been wondering what to do with them.
Cheers
Arron

Very helpful. I wondered about this too.

As described use something like wet and dry to get as smooth finish on the lens as possible before using something like burnishing cream which you can use a dremel type machine with a small buffing wheel but only apply gentle pressuse and keep removing from the surface to prevent over heating the lens. As stated above to mush pressure can overheat and melt the plastic

Go to a welding products supplier or eBay and seek out a polycarbonate clear welding lens or safety lens replacement. They come in a hundred different shapes and sizes.
Pick out a flat piece of heavy polycarbonate lens replacement that has a bigger diameter than your gauge. I prefer at least 1.2mm thick. They can come up to 2mm thick in polycarbonate safety lenses for impact protection.
Prise off the gauge lens retaining cover, it's usually only held on by a couple of dimples, or sometimes they're a twist lock. The premium gauges have the retaining cover held on by a couple of small screws.

Take the old gauge lens out and lay it on the new replacement polycarbonate lens. Mark the diameter and cut a section out of the new lens to match the gauge lens.
You can cut it to approximate dimensions with very sharp shears, a Stanley trimmer, tinsnips, or even Mothers kitchen poultry shears (provided she's not looking).

Once cut out, trim to size and perfect circularity and gauge fit, using a small bench grinder, or a belt sander. Fit to gauge, refit retaining cover, and hey presto, you have a perfectly clear new gauge lens.
Warning - don't touch the needle or try to clean gauge faces when the gauge is apart, they are both extremely fragile, and sometimes even just a gauge face wipe will remove numbers. Just blow any dust out with a gentle snort of air.