Scratched Acrylic Cube

[xeon]

I had my sister watch my son while we traveled over the holidays.  He is autistic and does not travel well these days.  She's great with him, but her children are just bad news.  

 

Anyway, my sister's daugther did a real number on the 12" cube tank I built for my daughter in addition to other things around the house... which I won't mention to keep me on topic.  

 

She went nuts with the Super Nano-Nimble.  It's easy to figure how the inside got sand on it... but the outside is another thing.  The acrylic is scratched all over the place.... both inside and out.  It is going to be a slow process and after about four hours of work... I'm not even finished with one of the outside panes.  Some of the outside scratches can be caught with a finger nail.    

 

I don't even want to think about the inside.  The tank just really started to get going.  Presently, I am working the not-so-deep scratches with a mild abrasive polish and the deeper ones I am starting with a rubbing compound.  

 

I was doing it all by hand... but it would take me years to finish it like that.  I graduated to my Dremel after about an hour of elbow grease.  I'm glad the tank isn't any larger... that's for sure.  Today I might experiment with some 1500 and 2000 wet/dry paper on some scraps.  This is going to take some time to bring it back around.    

 

So I should be a real expert on acrylic tank scratch removal before long.

[Lee Stearns]

Xeon,

The polishing wheel on the dremmel with some jewlers rouge is not working pretty fast?

Do not know how you'd tackle the inside, maybe the flex extension on the dremmel?

Good luck-- how are the LPS holding out?

Regards,

[Grav]

Dave,

 

I did the inside and out of my 150g durring a football game using an orbital palm sander with a clean rag with #2 compound.  Minor scratches all of them, but the sander made quick work of the job.

[xeon]

Lee,

It is a slow process presently.  For one I am experimenting with how hardcore I want to go with grit, since I will have to work it back down.  I didn't have much time to tinker with it today.  The LPS are doing great, in fact my tank has never looked better.  You know Bek just loves those "wavy things".  

 

Phil,

The orbital is sounding good.  My Dremel and flex shaft are getting it done... I will say it again, it is slow work.  If the orbital would do the trick, I might pick up a 10 gallon tank to house the critters for a few hours.  In fact that sounds like an ideal situation.

 

What specifically do you mean by #2?  Also, did the #2 leave a smooth, scratch free finish?  Also, what kind of pad did you use... wool, terry cloth?  Sorry about the zillion questions, I'm going at this kind of like I would detail one of my cars... with care.  In fact the rubbing compound is more agressive than I would like.  The other thing I have, which I normally use when detailing my car headlights isn't agressive enough.