Thread: Acrylic

I dry sand with 320 then start wet sanding 400 thru 2000 wet and dry paper, finish off with white diamond paste on the buffing mop, comes up very nicely.

You'll want to use some sort of polish. I use automotive swirl remover, glaze, and finisher wax.

If you are using regular sandpaper, you'll want to sand down to about 2000, 1500 might work if thats all you can find. You'd have to spend more time polishing though. I'm not sure how the micromeshes work out in comparison.

Some use other polishes, plastic polish, wheel polish, etc, etc. You just want something to remove the scratches left from the sandpaper, and to bring out a shine, polish.

On some ancient (1980-ish) polyester resin castings, I've used Brasso (yes, Brasso) for the final polish. I don't know what the corresponding grit is. NASA found that India ink is ideal for polishing aluminium aircraft, to reduce fuel consumption.

Joe

there isnt a need to put a finish on acrylics

but most people still do ( me included ).

i use either EEE ( ubeaut ) or plastic polish ( mothers or mquires - from super cheap auto ). i use these because if the MM i use ( acrylic finishing pads - sand paper to approx 4000 grit in other words )doesnt get rid of any micro scratches, the EEE or PP will because they have a very fine grit inside them that will eliminate these scratches.

wet sanding to at least 1500 grit is best before the finish.

I sand up to 12000 micro mesh then apply T Cut auto colour restorer.

I've recently started to use a 3M product called "Finesse" cutting compound after the colour restorer and the finish comes up like glass.

I also find that polishing along the length of the pen with the lathe turned off as a final operation takes out any minute rings left by work marks or sanding.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by marelton

I sand up to 12000 micro mesh then apply T Cut auto colour restorer.

I've recently started to use a 3M product called "Finesse" cutting compound after the colour restorer and the finish comes up like glass.

I wish we had a way of finding out the approximate or comparable grits of these things we're recommending .. Brasso, Finesse, plastic polishes,
swirl removers..

my eyes aren't what they used to be, and for all I know, I'd be going from a very very very fine grit to a very fine grit.

Thanks for all the info now just have to work out what to use

I polish up to 12000 MM then fiberglass polish for boats, then Rustins burnishing cream


If you hold it in the sun light you will see the tiny scratches

Originally Posted by NewLondon88

I wish we had a way of finding out the approximate or comparable grits of these things we're recommending .. Brasso, Finesse, plastic polishes,
swirl removers..

my eyes aren't what they used to be, and for all I know, I'd be going from a very very very fine grit to a very fine grit.

That's why I use the 3M line of automotive finishers, (besides the fact that I have them all laying around from using on my vehicles) you know what is what.

Basically once you repaint a car, or are removing scratches or swirl marks, you'd start with 1500-2000 grit wet dry, then you'd go to a swirl remover to remove the sandpaper scratches and some swirl marks, then you'd go to a glaze to remove the marks left by the swirl remover, and thats about it.

I like 3M, but the Maguires (also good) lays out the flow better, they have a scale on each bottle showing how fine it is.

Hey all,

I do nearly the same thing as matt. I don't have any micro mesh pads yet so I have just been sanding to 1200 and then getting automotive cut and polish and they come up spectacular. On some acrylics the silicone carbide wet and drys have played up a bit, clump into lines and nearly melt into the blank. If this occurs I have to use a chisel, turn it out then use the white sandpaper (sorry don't know what breed it is) at 400 grit and then use the cut and polish. Even at 400 grit the polish really give it a great shine and so far I haven't really seen a difference between the 400 and 1200. It may be because I polish for a fair while though.

I also tried this with with the CA finish stuff on one pen as well and it came out ok.

BJ

Originally Posted by regulated

I also tried this with with the CA finish stuff on one pen as well and it came out ok.

BJ

This is a point worth noting. If you get a thick enough layer of CA (5 coats min I find is OK) onto a wooden pen you can finish it like an acrylic using the materials mentioned in this thread and you end up with a really nice gloss finish.

Originally Posted by marelton

This is a point worth noting. If you get a thick enough layer of CA (5 coats min I find is OK) onto a wooden pen you can finish it like an acrylic using the materials mentioned in this thread and you end up with a really nice gloss finish.

I use the same process regardless, to properly finish a CA finished pen you really need to. One of the reasons I use automotive finishers is CA is basically like the clearcoat on a car and you can use them to the same end result.

How many people know what orange peal is?

This is orange peal, it's a common malady of modern production cars, due to EPA and various government regulations to reduce emissions paint is thicker than it used to be and doesn't flow out like it used to, the result being paint that looks like the peal of an orange. This is also basically your average pen after a application of CA. It looks OK, it has a shine to it, some texture you can see, but to the average person it looks OK. In fact, with almost every car coming with it to an extent, some people view it as a sign of a good paint job on cars. It is actually the opposite.

It is however, entirely fixable. To do so however, you have to put many hours in wet sanding, buffing and polishing to knock the orange peal down and bring it to a perfect shin. Automakers can't pay someone to spend 40-80 hours doing this, so they don't.


When you are fixing it, like the layer of CA on our pens, you are basically flattening and smoothing the very surface of a very thin layer. With really bad orange peal, if you have the experiance to do so, you'd use 1500 to knock it down in a hurry, then switch to 2000. Now it's pretty smooth, but you have scratches and a haze on it. You need to remove the scratches, and as you do it will be polishing the haze out, so you bring out your finishing/buffing compounds, run through a degrees of grit, and once you're done you have a perfectly smooth finish. You can tell a good finish by looking at the reflections in it, particularly of lights, if the edges of the reflections are sharp and clear, and not blurry or distorted, it's had some elbow grease put into making it look that way.

You can get the same finish on your pen that you would a car. No matter how well you apply CA, it's never going to be perfectly smooth. To get a proper finish and shin you need to wet sand it smooth and buff it out with various buffing compounds.

The trick though, is to remember with both your pen and a car, that you are dealing with a very, very thin layer. Take your time, wet sand, use very light pressure, use the finest abrasive that you can that will do the job, and you'll end up with a great finish. Just be thankful you can easily refinish a pen if you go through, just think what happens on a car.

Matt,

I work for a very well known luxury sports cars manufacturer in the UK and orange peel is a definate no no.
One of the main differences between our company and the other mass market brands is the quality of paint surface finish, so I fully agree with everything you say.

The fact that you have been able to photograph orange peel on this Jeep it must have been very bad!!!

I thought your note was a good example of the finishing process though, thanks.