Sanding and Buffing Acrylic

[DaveB]

I think you can see where the sander oscillated a little bit in the middle. Might be from the buffer though.

Actually that's just from the piece of acrylic being bowed. The sander couldn't get in there. But yeah, those side pieces that hold the lid in place ended up being pretty good guides to keep me straight on the edges, but in that middle area the motor kept pulling me in many directions. I'm still not sure if I want to risk using that and getting pulled into zig-zaggy sanding, or if I should just go and do it 100% by hand. Honestly, sanding the 7x2 front pane of the 220 wasn't that time consuming. I'd rather not do it again, of course, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. My 120 is bowed too, which would make it even crazier with the power sander, and that's the one I need to do sooner.

 

[cpr_mike]

Actually that's just from the piece of acrylic being bowed. The sander couldn't get in there. But yeah, those side pieces that hold the lid in place ended up being pretty good guides to keep me straight on the edges, but in that middle area the motor kept pulling me in many directions. I'm still not sure if I want to risk using that and getting pulled into zig-zaggy sanding, or if I should just go and do it 100% by hand. Honestly, sanding the 7x2 front pane of the 220 wasn't that time consuming. I'd rather not do it again, of course, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. My 120 is bowed too, which would make it even crazier with the power sander, and that's the one I need to do sooner.

You need to start a thread talking about how to get a tank back to a block instead of being bowed lol.

 

[DaveB]

Heh... it's bowed by design.

I filled the 220 last night to use as a holding tank. I'll get some pics in a bit. The front pane is the only one I worked on and it's definitely cloudy when empty, but when filled it looks great. I didn't spend too much time looking at reflections or anything as it was a bit of a crisis (I killed a discus) but I'm thinking that I should be OK go to ahead and do the 120 today and hopefully have some really great results.

 

[DaveB]

Heh. Here's what I'm working with upstairs:

the 220 is cloudy when dry, but looks OK when full... that's bubbles, not crazing:

Time to start in on the adventure with the 120...

 

[DaveB]

Well that's frustrating...

Just spent an hour on a 2x2 foot end. It's a non-viewing pane so I figured I'd give it a shot with the sander... and if anything, it looks worse now. I can still see all the scratches that were there originally, though they are fainter, but I can see all my sander marks, especially at the edges. I went over it time and again with the #2 and it just seems like it made a top layer of gloss over top of the scratches.

And I ended up putting a bunch of nicks on the outside pane too now so I'm worse off than when I started.

It does look nicer than the front pane. But the front pane was the worst to begin with and again, it's just kind of like polishing over the top of it.

Maybe I need to start with like 250 grit on the front and really just dig it down a whole bunch. I'm not sure I want to spend all that time on it now.

Having two dogs and two cats really complicates things... there's just no way at all to avoid all sorts of random hairs floating on into the tank.

I wonder if washing the buffing pad did something bad to it. The Novus seemed a lot thinner than before. Almost like water beading up.

 

[DaveB]

This is driving me crazy.

I was sanding with as low as 400 grit and still couldn't get certain scratches out. I was goofing around and slowly and deeply rubbing #3 into areas after going pretty hard with 400 to see what happened, and it seemed to be helping it clear up. As an experiment, I buffed for a long time with #2 on one central spot of the front pane... and after a while it was crystal clear.

Except for the original deep scratches. Which now seem like ordinary depth scratches. They're harder to see, but they're there, hidden among the distraction of the nice shiny area. But the passes with the 400 were buffed clean out. Better than any 2000 sanding I've ever gotten out, actually.

So I could only figure that the scratches themselves required more grit. (I'm looking for a man with true grit...) I went to Ace and bought 220, 320, and more 400. Another 20 bucks spent. But I figured that after that last try, this would be it... it buffed the 400 right out, and the 220 and 320 would cover the scratches and ease up to that 400, then I could do a lot of #3 then #2.

And so I did. Took forever. Did this on the other 2x2 side.

And the 220 did indeed take out 90% of the deep scratches... but it also gave me enough of a fog/haze that even a good half hour of buffing with #2 on the 2x2 spot didn't clear it up. Basically I put a nice shiny lacquer over the millions of scratches I made with the sandpaper... Same as I had been doing before with the 2000+!

I give up. The entire side is blurry now with a ton of very visible sandpaper passes. The only thing I can think of that'll fix it is a torch. At this point it's almost as blurry as the sanded end of a pane of acrylic anyway.

This blows. I would pay a ton of money for someone to just come do this for me. Hell, I've already paid a ton in just materials. Between this and messing with my plumbing I've probably pissed away 300 bucks in tiny items without any improvement at all.

 

[cpr_mike]

This is driving me crazy.

I was sanding with as low as 400 grit and still couldn't get certain scratches out. I was goofing around and slowly and deeply rubbing #3 into areas after going pretty hard with 400 to see what happened, and it seemed to be helping it clear up. As an experiment, I buffed for a long time with #2 on one central spot of the front pane... and after a while it was crystal clear.

Except for the original deep scratches. Which now seem like ordinary depth scratches. They're harder to see, but they're there, hidden among the distraction of the nice shiny area. But the passes with the 400 were buffed clean out. Better than any 2000 sanding I've ever gotten out, actually.

So I could only figure that the scratches themselves required more grit. (I'm looking for a man with true grit...) I went to Ace and bought 220, 320, and more 400. Another 20 bucks spent. But I figured that after that last try, this would be it... it buffed the 400 right out, and the 220 and 320 would cover the scratches and ease up to that 400, then I could do a lot of #3 then #2.

And so I did. Took forever. Did this on the other 2x2 side.

And the 220 did indeed take out 90% of the deep scratches... but it also gave me enough of a fog/haze that even a good half hour of buffing with #2 on the 2x2 spot didn't clear it up. Basically I put a nice shiny lacquer over the millions of scratches I made with the sandpaper... Same as I had been doing before with the 2000+!

I give up. The entire side is blurry now with a ton of very visible sandpaper passes. The only thing I can think of that'll fix it is a torch. At this point it's almost as blurry as the sanded end of a pane of acrylic anyway.

This blows. I would pay a ton of money for someone to just come do this for me. Hell, I've already paid a ton in just materials. Between this and messing with my plumbing I've probably pissed away 300 bucks in tiny items without any improvement at all.

Bring the tank to me and the tig for sale in chicago and I will let you chill at my place for the day and I will do it for you. If I cant get it done in a day I will pay for a hotel room for a night and finish it the next day.

 

[DaveB]

Don't be ridiculous. You're like 5-6 hours away. And my car is tiny.

I am going to Columbus in 2 weeks for the Arnold, though, actually.

Can a Tig live in your tank?

 

[cpr_mike]

BTW I was playing around a little tonight to see what works best. I got the #2 on the tank pretty thick (to the point it was cloudy and just starting to get thick) and let it sit because it was not buffing away anymore. I then came back with a nice microfiber rag and buffed the #2 away. WOW it looked good. Try it Dave. That might work after all the sanding. Dont give up. Its just a matter of time before its all working.

 

[cpr_mike]

Don't be ridiculous. You're like 5-6 hours away. And my car is tiny.

I am going to Columbus in 2 weeks for the Arnold, though, actually.

Can a Tig live in your tank?

Hahaha it was more of a joke. But yes a Tig can live in my tank. Right now I just have 3 bass in the 240 with a couple smaller severums. I will be getting a bigger acrylic before the tig would ever get too big.