Acrylic Rod polishing

[graemeian]

I want to polish the ends of acrylic rods. I use a wet tile saw with a non-segmented diamond wheel to cut the rods. The blade gives a smooth matte finish. The diamond blade is also safe in that it is difficult to loose a finger. I now want to polish the ends. I was going to use a face wheel and a V block made of delrin to get a perpendicular match where I could manually touch the rods to the face of a wheel and get the polished results. I have tried the hard buffing wheel with no success. Does anyone know of a wheel composition that would work?

[wildwestpat]

Use self adhesive wet and dry paper on a flat face plate i.e. no holes! or disc sander. You will need to work up from 120 grit through to the finest paper you can get 1,200 grit as your diamond tile saw will have grit around the 100 mark. Final polish with metal polish on soft plain paper - the type of liquid polish used for silver or jewelers rouge if you are doing a lot of polishing. If you can tolerate a bit of rounding at the circumference then use soft leather as it hold the abrasive (rouge) better than paper. Keep the pressure and speeds low as the friction can melt the acrylic and spoil the finish. I use carborundum grit obtainable from a lapidary supply store in various grits from 40 to 1,200 on leather disks keeping each disk in a separate plastic bag to avoid contamination of the finer grades with grit from the early coarse grit discs. Keep everything clean to avoid the odd bit of big grit ruining the final finish. I use water with a dash of dish washing soap to keep the acrylic cool and help the lose grit to embed in the leather. Olive oil is also used but is a bit messy on the clean up between grit.

Hope this helps. - Regards - Pat

[ynneb]

A hit of flame while it is in the lathe. Shiney in seconds.

[graemeian]

My diamond saw leaves a finish equivalent to a 1200 grit sanding or better. I may try the leather. Do any of those hard rubber wheels with embedded grit work on acrylic?

[wasnotgod]

If your not glueing the rod after flame polishing is a good option, you could prob use the little blow torches chef's use, or wet and dry the finish with Tcut, or if your around the UK? we have a diamond polisher that can take upto 50mm?

[Ken_Shea]

Chemical polishing on Acrylic and Polycarbonate work really well and quickly using methylene chloride

A fellow on HSM was where I saw this trick.
I like chemical polishing - The Home Shop Machinist & Machinist's Workshop Magazine's BBS

[wildwestpat]

If your saw leaves a truly flat finish equivalent to 1200 grit then finish with tin oxide on leather with water or oil as a lubricant to help prevent over heating. 'T cut' as used in the auto finishing trade is tin oxide in water mix. Similar results will result from using household metal polish with the types intended to polish silver, by rubbing not chemical dip, being slightly smaller grit than those for brass. An optical polish being obtained with jewelers rouge of the finest grade available. However with the fine grades it is essential to clean the surface between grades to prevent any of the coarser grit being carried over to the next stage. I doubt that your diamond saw is leaving a surface that is equivalent to 1200 grit as this would cut acrylic very slowly and be prone to clogging unless supplied with copious amounts of lubricant to prevent heat building up and melting the plastic and causing rapid cutting by a combination of friction cutting and abrasion by clumps of acrylic that become welded to the saw's surface.

If you do not need a very flat surface use a soft window wash leather with a dab of tin oxide - 'T cut' or jewelers rouge. And simply apply with finger pressure. If you want to be super careful wrap and glue a bit of the wash-leather to a stick rather than use a finger!

Regards - Pat