Plexiglas is a unique material that does not lose its appearance for a long time and can serve for many years. Despite this, during operation for quite a long time, plexiglass may still become cloudy or on its surface, depending on the method of operation, scratches may appear, which may be deep or shallow, but they will still spoil the appearance of the product. If this happened to you, and the plexiglass product is no longer as bright and transparent as before, you should not be upset, because you can polish the plexiglass yourself at home.
You can give the product its original look, and for this you do not have to go to a specialized workshop, or buy expensive tools, to polish plexiglass at home, you will need some things that you most likely have in your home, or you can purchase them, because they are not expensive.
Before you start polishing plexiglass, you need to understand that this process will require a lot of time from you, because this process is quite laborious. Do not use any chemicals to treat the surface of plexiglass, as this action can lead to clouding of the material, which is completely undesirable.
The process of polishing plexiglass at home
For polishing, you need two things, this is GOI paste and a small piece of felt. It is necessary to apply a small amount of GOI paste on a piece of felt, and then proceed to rub this paste into the surface of the Plexiglas product that needs to be polished. Polish in this way for so long until a shine appears on the entire surface of the polished product.
There is also another way to polish plexiglass at home. Take waterproof sandpaper and start polishing the surface of the plexiglass with it, periodically wetting it. After that, it is necessary to continue polishing the plexiglass using felt and GOI paste. This method is suitable for products on the surface of which there are large scratches.
There is another way, but it will take some work skills to complete it. First of all, polish the surface with an emery zero, you need to polish it well. After that, take a spray can with a burner, and proceed to carefully singe the entire surface of the plexiglass. Be careful and do not linger in one area for a long time, otherwise you will burn the product.
With a huge number of advantages, organic glass still has disadvantages. And one of the main disadvantages is a high tendency to mechanical damage. Scratches on such a surface appear quite quickly if you do not use a special protective film. It is possible to scratch thin plexiglass even when cleaning it, for example, with powdered detergents.
In general, organic glass is an excellent replacement for real glass. Its use has the following advantages:
- High light transmission;
- Five times more impact resistance than glass
- Plexiglas is much lighter than ordinary glass;
- High resistance to harmful environmental factors, it is also a frost-resistant material;
- Possesses electrical insulating properties;
- Eco-friendly, non-toxic material, etc.
Scratches on plexiglass are no longer a problem!
Removing scratches from the surface of plexiglass does not require such cardinal methods as using a drill with a grinding disc, it is enough to polish the glass. This is pretty easy to do on your own at home. You will be satisfied with the work done, unless of course the scratches are too deep. Otherwise, you can contact a car service where organic glass is polished using special polishing machines.
Also, polishing organic glass will restore its original luster and transparency.
Preparing the plexiglass surface for polishing
In order to start polishing the orgsurface at home, you need to remove the glass from the structure. This will greatly simplify your task, because the polishing process is quite laborious and does not tolerate haste. If it is not possible to remove the glass, the surfaces adjacent to it should be pasted over with adhesive tape. After that, clean the plexiglass from dirt and dust with a washing gel or spray and microfiber.
To perform the ritual of removing scratches from the plexiglass surface, you will need the following materials and tools:
- Soft sandpaper;
- A piece of soft cloth or felt.
Step-by-step instructions for polishing plexiglass
Step 1 Wet the surface to be polished with water using a sponge or small cloth.
Step 2. Start polishing the glass with sandpaper until the surface becomes matte. 
Step 3 Wipe the glass with a soft cloth, then moisten the surface again and start polishing the glass with a fine sandpaper. As a result, the glass will become more transparent, and the smallest scratches will be removed from the surface.
Step 4 Follow the steps below to remove deeper scratches. Wet the surface. Apply a thin layer of polish or polishing paste, mixing thoroughly before use. Continue polishing in a progressive motion, spreading the mixture evenly over the surface with a soft cloth. In just a minute you will see an unsurpassed result.
Step 5. To polish old organic glass, repeat the application of the polishing paste on the surface and rub it with a felt.
Thus, you can easily and simply get rid of scratches on organic glass. And household items will again delight you with a radiant surface!
Organic glass is a thermoplastic material known for its impeccable quality. It has a high level of transparency and significantly surpasses ordinary glass in this, freely transmits light rays without any distortion, clouding or other defects.
What you need to know about polishing plexiglass? No matter how durable and reliable the plexiglass material is, it will still show minor cracks and minor scratches and cuts. This is due to mechanical impact during its operation. Although polishing plexiglass at home is not a super difficult process, it is quite a lengthy, meticulous and patient task.
The main thing that the polisher should know is that aggressive, strong chemicals and substances should not be used when polishing. If polished with them, the glass may become dull, cloudy and not transparent.
Necessary tools and materials
Many who came across this material wondered how to polish plexiglass on their own without resorting to the expensive help of a professional. It is possible to polish plexiglass at home quickly and efficiently without significant costs. Moreover, the result will be significantly better than with machine processing, due to the rapid heating and melting of the surface.
To do this, you will need the following materials and tools:
- A roll of masking (paper) tape;
- Paper;
- Sandpaper grade 800 and 2000;
- Soft cloth;
- Blade knife or sharp scalpel.
1. In order for the polishing of plexiglass at home to proceed conveniently and reliably, it is necessary to remove the processed glass from the product.
2. First of all, it is necessary to protect the edges of the glass with adhesive tape, pasting it from the ends along the perimeter with an overlap of 1 - 2 mm. If for some reason it is impossible to remove the glass from the product, then work like this, but glue all non-glass parts of the product. So that at the end of the work the glue does not remain on the glass, use a proven high-quality adhesive tape. Although we have already described in a previous article. After that, round the corners and remove the remaining adhesive tape by cutting them off with a scalpel.
3. When all the above preparatory work is done, we proceed to polishing. We take the skin 800 and begin to grind the surface of the glass with a small addition of water. This process should be uniform and accurate. When the sanding is completed, we wipe the surface and see what we have.
Oddly enough, plexiglass should be completely opaque. There is no need to be afraid of this, it should be so. If the glass is not evenly opaque, then continue sanding until you achieve uniformity, and also carefully monitor the absence of ruts on the surface.
4. When the desired result is achieved, take the 2000 sandpaper and continue sanding with it. You will notice that the glass starts to become more transparent. Over its entire area, scratches and various cracks should not be observed. If you find any defects on the glass, sand again with 800 sandpaper until they disappear, and then again with 2000 sandpaper.
5. Next, you will need a small amount of polishing paste, which can be purchased almost anywhere. Apply the paste to a piece of soft cloth and continue sanding with gentle measured movements. Very quickly you will notice that your plexiglass is getting an intensifying luster.
6. After that, you will have the opportunity to carefully examine the glass for any residual defects. If you find any, you will have to repeat all the grinding steps again. If everything suits you, you can remove the tape and make sure that he did not leave any glue on the edges of the glass.
7. If you removed the glass before work, then after removing the tape, you need to grind the edges of the glass in the same way. After that, your organic glass will shine like new.
In addition to the above method, there is a good opportunity to polish plexiglass at home using felt and GOI paste. If you do not have felt on hand, it can be easily replaced with a piece of felt boots, a woolen insole, or an ordinary cotton pad. The method is quite simple: apply GOI paste on plexiglass and treat the surface with one of the above materials until the desired result is obtained.
If the processed organic glass is quite old, then you need to use a fine emery cloth, moisten the surface with a spray bottle and make sure that it does not dry out. After that, wipe with a soft cloth and rub to a shine with GOI paste.
You can also use car polish for polishing. Apply it to the glass and rub it with felt. But, it is worth noting that before that, test the polish on a small area of \u200b\u200bglass and make sure that it does not spoil it. After all this, rub the surface with any liquid oil, from machine to sunflower.
If you have a burner available, you can polish the glass by first treating it with zero sandpaper, and then evenly burn the surface with a burner. But be careful not to stay too long in any place, so as not to singe the plexiglass.
Unique polishing agent
Any polishing method has its pros and cons. For example, GOI paste contains chromium oxide, which penetrates into any surface irregularities, from where it is very difficult to get it. Also, glass can be ruined if rather large grains appear in the GOI paste. Therefore, it can be easily replaced with another substance, while care must be taken that this substance does not contain ammonia, due to which the glass can become faded.
You can make your own unique plexiglass polish. You will need a can of any spray, hot water and wine white vinegar. Mix water with vinegar 1: 1 and fill a can with this mixture. This will give the glass a smooth finish and prevent mold and mildew.
You can also polish plexiglass with various toothpastes, powders or chalk with a soft cloth.
Alternative grinding methods
For grinding, you need a polishing wheel, paste, chalk, sandpaper, but at the same time you always need to prepare felt or other necessary fabric.
Crystal clearness and dazzling brilliance are not always achieved from glass. Sometimes the task is to obtain frosted glass, for example, for some kind of musical equipment or just to make various home or office interior items original. To do this, glass is treated with coarser abrasive materials, for example, fine-grained sandpaper or using chemical matting.
Note to beginners!
When polishing organic glass, you must always remember about your own protection and safety for your health. For example, when grinding with GOI paste, you need to know that it can be severely poisoned if it gets into the internal organs.
Because of this, you must be careful to maintain moisture during the polishing process and avoid the formation of dust that is easy to inhale. It is best to use personal protective equipment: a respirator, gloves, goggles. This will prevent poisonous substances from entering your body and polishing plexiglass at home will not harm you.
Video: POLISHING PLUS GLASS
Over time, scratching is inevitable, so many are trying to figure out how to polish plexiglass at home. The proposed instruction will allow you to get the desired result.
It is important to understand that this work is very laborious and very long. In no case should you use aggressive chemicals and highly abrasive elements.
Polishing plexiglass involves the use of only low abrasive cleaning elements.
Otherwise, the glass may lose its transparency, become dull, and it will be impossible to use it in the future.
Preparatory work: if possible, then the part should be dismantled, since it will be much more convenient to polish the plexiglass.
The work surface should be pasted over with masking tape, it is better to do this with an overlap of a couple of millimeters.
Excess adhesive tape must be carefully cut with a clerical knife or scalpel (any other sharp cutting tool will do).
We need felt and GOI paste.
You should apply a small amount of paste on the glass and start rubbing it with neat, active movements, using felt.
This operation should be carried out before the formation of shine.
Second phase
When deciding how to polish plexiglass and what tools to use, fine-grained emery cloth should be preferred.
If you do not follow this advice, then instead of polishing, you will only cause more scratches and defects. It is necessary not only to wet it with water, but also to apply water to the plexiglass.
To do this, you can use a spray bottle, because during the use of the skin, it is important to maintain the level of humidity, i.e. rub glass with sandpaper should be “wet”.
If you don't have a spray gun or don't want to use one, then the polishing process can be done underwater.
The main thing is to carry out all the work carefully and as carefully as possible, this will be the key to a quality result.
If, after using the skin, some defects and irregularities are still visible, then the process should be continued until the surface becomes smooth and even.
After finishing the sanding process, wipe the glass with a clean cloth and apply GOI paste with felt. This type of processing is suitable for polishing old glass.
Alternative polishing methods
There are alternative ways to polish plexiglass: for this you need a colorless auto polish.
First, you should still apply auto polish to a small area of glass, if the result is good and it suits you, then you can apply polish already to the entire surface of the glass.
You can also rub the polish with felt. After completing this work, you can rub the glass with oil. For this, olive, sunflower or regular machine is suitable.
If you want to get an excellent result, but do not want to do such work yourself, then you can contact a car service.
Most of them polish plexiglass, and you don’t have to worry about the result - the use of professional equipment will allow you to get perfectly polished plexiglass.
Depending on the type of work, it may even be preferable to contact a car service, because the process of self-polishing plexiglass is a very laborious task, and the lack of specialized equipment will not guarantee that the result will be perfect.
The polymeric solid transparent material is called Plexiglas. Although there are quite a few other names - plexiglass, acryplast, carboglass and others. It is often used instead of ordinary glass in the automotive, aviation and other industries. But with all the advantages of the material, it happens that it becomes cloudy or damaged. And then the problem arises, how to polish plexiglass with your own hands.
General requirements for the performance of work
Polishing is carried out with low-abrasive compounds. And at the same time it is necessary to avoid the use of aggressive substances. It is worth considering that it is easiest to do the work when the plexiglass is removed from the structure. When this is not possible, adjacent areas of the surface should be protected with adhesive tape.
Usually, if the surface to be polished is small, the work is done by hand. But easier, at lower cost and faster, the desired result is obtained when using a grinder. For example, car headlights are best polished with it. Such work is carried out in several ways, and sometimes you have to think about how you can polish plexiglass.
Ways to do it
Using sandpaper and polishing paste
From the necessary equipment for polishing you will need:
- emery cloth 2000 and 800;
- soft cloth, felt or felt;
- polishing paste.
Initially, sandpaper No. 800 is used, the workpiece can be moistened with water. As a result, small scratches will be removed (leveled) and the surface will become matte. There's nothing wrong with that, that's the way it should be. The main thing is that it should be smooth and without visible signs of damage.
Then the surface is treated with sandpaper No. 2000, after which the glass becomes transparent and the scratches disappear. To improve the quality of grinding allows the use of polish. It is applied to a soft fabric (flannel, felt, felt, etc.), and then the entire surface is processed with uniform movements. This continues until the desired result is obtained.
A variation of the considered method can be considered the option when they are limited only to polishing with sandpaper (if the part is not responsible and its transparency does not play a special role). Or when only polish is applied without pre-sanding. You can learn more about this from the video:
Using GOI paste
In principle, this is almost the same as the method discussed earlier. Only in this case, GOI paste is used instead of polish. The polishing technology is actually the same - first, the surface is treated with an emery cloth, and then the final gloss is applied with GOI paste. Its characteristics and features of use can be found here:
More details about the technology of polishing in a similar way are described here:
Surface treatment of glass with auto polishes
To restore the quality of surfaces, you can use various car cosmetics designed to eliminate minor scratches and damage. In principle, the work is carried out as follows - an auto polish is applied to the surface, and then it is rubbed with a soft cloth, or a grinder, or a special nozzle for a grinder.
But it is better to first read the instructions for using the product and conduct a trial check on a small area of \u200b\u200bthe surface.
The polishing methods mentioned are far from the only ones, there are others, for example, using toothpaste, but these are already options for critical situations, and the considered methods for restoring the transparency of plexiglass are usually enough.
Sometimes we do not intentionally damage the glass of watches, phones or transparent surfaces of various devices. To eliminate the scratches that have appeared, it is quite enough to simply polish the surface of the plexiglass. And you can do it yourself, including at home.
