plexiglass polish

[polaris]

hi everyone I'm calling for the UK and USA to work together on this one
Ive noticed a few times about people using plexiglass over CP'S and the longevity of it .IE it scratches over time.
so a few points.
is Plexiglas what we call perspex in the UK?
if so 'BRASSO' a brass polish, is allegedly a product that will take the scratches out of perspex(i say allegedly as Ive not tried it)
anyone in the UK got some perspex and brasso to find out.
then we need to find the comparable product across the pond for you guys to clean up your CP 's
a reliable source told me that brasso works a treat taking the scratches out of perspex, however bizarre it may sound using a metal polish for plastic.

[Loki]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylic_glass

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or poly (methyl 2-methylpropenoate) is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. This thermoplastic and transparent plastic is sold by the tradenames Plexiglas, Perspex, Plazcryl, Acrylite, Acrylplast, Altuglas, and Lucite and is commonly called acrylic glass or simply acrylic. The material was developed in 1928 in various laboratories and was brought to market in 1933 by Rohm and Haas Company.

Didn't knew it was a tradename... I was also confused about it before.

[patrickl]

Well I'm from the Netherlands ...

Plexiglass and Perspex are both brandnames for "Acrylic glass".

I think Brasso would work fine. It's probably more for bringing out the shine rather than taking out scratches though.

I use a metal polish for fixing CDs. It is a pretty coarse polish though so it will cloud up the CD so after that I polish it with a finer polish to a shine (forgot the name, but it is a plexi scratch remover). Using only a shine polish to take out scratches takes forever.

:edit: need to type faster I guess

Actually Google would probably have helped you faster here.

[polaris]

Actually Google would probably have helped you faster here.

yep im sure google would have helped. but it wouldnt have posted the answer here for everyone to read. i thought the point of these forums was sharing information which is what i was trying to do.
i benefit nothing from finding out that perspex and plexi are the same ,but the people who have plexi with scratches might have benfited

just re reading that im sounding a bit gobby, i just wanted to share the info about brasso

[patrickl]

i just wanted to share the info about brasso

Yeah true. There are so many polishing products and I always wonder which one to get.

Personally I was thinking about the Novus 3 step polish kit.

[Aurich]

That's why I use real glass now instead of plexi. My new cab has 1/4" tempered glass over the monitor.

[rolls rolex]

I guess a mac G4 is made out of clear plexi, i polished out a huge deep scratch with Brasso brass polish. Little scratches you can polish out with toothpaste and water, especially white teeth toothpaste works good, that's a watchcollector trick  Just make sure you use a soft microfiber cloth not some rough old rag 

[patrickl]

That's why I use real glass now instead of plexi. My new cab has 1/4" tempered glass over the monitor.

We were talking about covering the CP though. Could you use glass for that?

My own choice would be to cover the CP with a laminated print and the monitor with glass, but still it's good to know how to polish things

[Loki]

I think glass would be too thick (you have thin glass but I doubt it is strong enough)
Sure you can get some custom made glass overlay... but it'll cost ya I guess ^^;

I think Plexi is fine... polish it from time to time and when it gets too ugly just replace it.
Just keep all build designs with your cab

[bfauska]

I would think that 1/4" tempered glass would be strong enough an it's no thicker than the Plexiglas most folks use.

If you wanted to do a cp with the glass you could contact a custom glass shop or I would try contacting somebody with a waterjet.  We have steel parts made sometimes and the price is surprisingly not too bad.  I bet you could get a custom glass cp cut for about $60, if I didn't have access to plenty Plexiglas and I wasn't such a cheap bastard, I would probably look into it myself.

Polishing plexi is also not too difficult.  I have done some work on museum exhibits and displays in the past and fabricating with plexi almost allways includes some polishing.  Once you get the hang of it, it goes fairly smoothly.

I just need to figure out some art to put under some plexi, then I'll be set.

Later,
Brian

[fjl]

If you where to get a custom glass overlay with cut out button holes and such, wouldnt the glass be kind of weak with all those holes in it and break easily with something as simple as quickly setting down a glass cup on it?

I've been thinking on a glass overlay but not sure on how strong it would be. I'm thinking it would have to be pretty thick to sustain normal abuse. Perhaps about 1/2" or thicker. And that would end up being pretty thick. Not only that, what would you use to hold the glass in place?

[QuixoteQuest]

If you where to get a custom glass overlay with cut out button holes and such, wouldnt the glass be kind of weak with all those holes in it and break easily with something as simple as quickly setting down a glass cup on it?

I've been thinking on a glass overlay but not sure on how strong it would be. I'm thinking it would have to be pretty thick to sustain normal abuse. Perhaps about 1/2" or thicker. And that would end up being pretty thick. Not only that, what would you use to hold the glass in place?

My CP's 1/8" plexi is held in place just with the buttons that are screwed down from underneath. But 1/2" glass wouldn't be possible to attach down the same way if you're using 3/4" MDF for the substrate. 1/4" tempered glass is quite workable though, and one should still have _barely_ enough neck to screw down using the buttons if the substrate is 3/4" MDF. I've used glass for a variety of display projects. I'd make sure to have the CP edge rounded or beveled and polished but other than that if you have a good shop it can be drilled for all your buttons. If I were going with glass I'd use a 5/8" high grade plywood for the substrate, sanded nice and smooth; make sure to overlay with good art then overlay that with 1/4" glass. You'd have plenty of neck on your buttons to screw them down and hold it all together. The tricky part would be getting the T-molding on right since you'd need an off-center channel to accommodate for the thinner substrate.

I can't imagine any professional who'd take the care needed to prep, drill and polish that's do a glass CP overlay for $60 though.

[Level42]

So would it be possible to polish an entire plexi bezel ? The one I just got for my Galaxian from the US is plexi (because it was too risky to get a glass one) but it's pretty full of minor scratches.

[FrizzleFried]

My cocktail table has 3/16" glass on it...originally tempered...but when I ordered from the glass shop here he told me that was overkill...and that the original manufacturer did it because it would be taking a huge amount of abuse on location.  I installed the 3/16" glass on the table...(non tempered)...and I have had absolutely ZERO issue.  I put beer glasses on it,  bang it around a bit...bottom line is you would have to TRY to break it in order to do so...no on is going to accidently break this glass.

Glass is very strong when there is support under it...a would imagine it would take a very good amount of effort to break a 1/4" sheet sitting on a metal or wood control panel.

[polaris]

So would it be possible to polish an entire plexi bezel ? The one I just got for my Galaxian from the US is plexi (because it was too risky to get a glass one) but it's pretty full of minor scratches.

when i was originally told about brasso , the pieces of plexi we were talking about cleaning were about 6ft by 2ft and covered in little scratches , i was told brasso would bring it up like new , but obviously proceed with caution , monkeyman seems convinced ,see above.

[bfauska]

I would say that for a bezel, if the majority of surface is scratched (even minor) that you would be better off replacing it, it's easy to replace (just a rectangle w/o holes) and it would take lots and lots of time to do a piece that size w/o any streaks or buffing marks.

Back on the glass idea, I agree w/ FrizzleFried, as long as the underlying surface is smooth you would be transferring the force directly to the support and the glass would be safe.  If you had a nice sized grain of something strong between your cp and the glass then you could have a point load that would fracture the glass, but that would definitely be avoidable.

As far as the price for the glass, I don't have any glass shop experience, but I know that my waterjet source has made some fairly complex parts for me for very little money.  The fact that he doesn't actually have to do any of the layout (I send him CAD drawings) means that he is practically charging for machine time only.  I will admit that the $60 may only cover the cutting and the material charge would be on top of that, but even then, for a cp that won't scratch w/o LOTS of effort, it's probably worth it.

[rolls rolex]

So would it be possible to polish an entire plexi bezel ? The one I just got for my Galaxian from the US is plexi (because it was too risky to get a glass one) but it's pretty full of minor scratches.

when i was originally told about brasso , the pieces of plexi we were talking about cleaning were about 6ft by 2ft and covered in little scratches , i was told brasso would bring it up like new , but obviously proceed with caution , monkeyman seems convinced ,see above.

People also use Brasso to clean up their scratched ipod, plexi front and iron back. You can google it, the most awful beaten up ipods turn to new.
As for glass, i got a glass desk and it does scratch even though i'm not a maniac  you can't polish glass so easily.

[fjl]

My cocktail table has 3/16" glass on it...originally tempered...but when I ordered from the glass shop here he told me that was overkill...and that the original manufacturer did it because it would be taking a huge amount of abuse on location.  I installed the 3/16" glass on the table...(non tempered)...and I have had absolutely ZERO issue.  I put beer glasses on it,  bang it around a bit...bottom line is you would have to TRY to break it in order to do so...no on is going to accidently break this glass.

Glass is very strong when there is support under it...a would imagine it would take a very good amount of effort to break a 1/4" sheet sitting on a metal or wood control panel.

Well, I was talking about a glass overlay. You now, like a plexiglass overlay over the control panel with drilled holes and such to fit the joystick and buttons through. I would figure that a plexiglass overlay would retain most of its strenght being made mostly of plastic and plastic can bend, but glass cannot bend and loses most of its strenght when it has holes drilled into it.

[shorthair]

I heard of using Brasso for smoothing the scratches on CDs...so that's the first thing I thought of seeing the title of this thread.