I want to get into polishing my clock faces, What do I need/what should I know?

[lololimmk]

Right now I'm only cleaning them with alcohol/goo-gone, and yeah that works fine, but I want to be able to see my reflection in it!

Jokes aside what are best products/tools to buy, also if you have any tips or easy mistakes I could make, please tell me, I don't wanna burn a hole through the plastics or my wallet.

[Mackey]

I can't believe that you've been able to use goo gone. That can damage some plastics. Anyway ...

First of all, I think you should make sure that you really want to go down that path. If you have a rare clock, I might even caution against it (in the event of catastrophe) .

But, from my experience, light scratches/imperfections can be polished out by hand using a plastic polish - the same sort that you'd use to restore plastic faced headlights on a car. You can even do this well by hand. I use "Meguiar's® PlastX™ Clear Plastic Cleaner" - I think its the best.

You can use a buffing wheel, but if you get the RPM too high you'll often create permanent optical aberrations because the heat gets too high and deforms the plastic throughout.

If you have a face plate that is toast, you can actually sand it, gradually increasing the grit of the sandpaper up to 1500 - 2000 if you have it then finish with the PlastX polish. Again, things can go wrong and you may need to plan for a long session of elbow work.

When sanding and polishing, avoid the temptation to press down hard - use moderate pressure. Beyond that, you'll learn your own style.

As I alluded to, I've started moving away from the whole process, unless they're just light scratches.

Good luck!

[Guest]

Some alcohol (%70, %91, %99 and even anhydrous) will absolutely eat or cloud up/haze certain ABS or acrylic plastics. Be careful! Along with Mackey's suggestion...Novus plastic polish is also very good. I use it on pretty much anything plastic.

You can also use polishing foam discs/pucks of different densities on a variable-speed drill (soft, medium, coarse) and since the foam has a little "give" it tends to be somewhat forgiving. You still need to moderate your pressure, however. And, you can mix and match different abrasive levels of the foam with different abrasive levels of polishing compound. Use it on a small or inconspicuous area to test.

[lololimmk]

Some alcohol (%70, %91, %99 and even anhydrous) will absolutely eat or cloud up/haze certain ABS or acrylic plastics. Be careful!

Huh, didn't know I could've been damaging them, I've been using 50% alcohol so I guess I just got lucky. Next time I get a flip clock I'll get the PlastX, just one more thing, if I get the PlastX polish should I use a cloth, or is paper towel fine?

[Guest]

Yeah, depends on the makeup of the plastic. Most don't react to alcohol, but I have seen a few that do. The reaction I saw was like when peroxide gets on clear acrylic...it scars it permanently.

I would use a soft terry type cloth (like the kind used for auto detailing) for applying and then polishing off the dried compound.