Sanding clear cast resin?

[JANDERS10]

(Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, admin please move as appropriate)

Anyone have any tips of smoothing bumps out of clear cast resin , without compromising the transparency? I've tried very fine wet'n'dry, but still get that 'cloudy' look?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
N.

 

[Tan Djarka]

Sanding probably won't be enough. You'll likely need to polish it in stages with progressively finer compound and a buffing attachment for a Dremel tool. Or you could try the cheapskate method: buff it out with a dap of toothpaste and a soft cloth.

 

[Bizarro Lois]

I knew someone who used Mop'n'Glo to remove scratches and restore shine after sanding a piece of armor. I think the deal was that he cast it in black, but then had to do a little sanding. Would that work on clear resin?

 

[Superkrates]

Depends on the resin. Urethane resin should be buffed with a high grade automotive polish (Mothers, Meguires, etc. Polyester resin should be buffed with a fiberglass or Marine (boat) polish.

When sanding smooth, finish with at least an 800, or higher, sandpaper (I use 1500 just before buffing with polish).

 

[PHArchivist]

Wet sand to 2,500 grit, use polishes, finish with a coat of Future Floro wax (same as Lois suggested).

Practice on a throw-away first.

 

[CustomCreations]

Yeh- use wet n dry, but I'd only use water( mixed with a little washing up liquid) on properly cured resin as water itself can cloud resin which is only recently hard.

You will need to manually buff the resin, but you must, must, must have a nicely smooth surface before the final polish/ buff- otherwise you will just end up polishing the scratches back into the surface again. ;-)

 

[JANDERS10]

Cheers Guys,
some food for thought here.
I'm working Urethane and Polyester resins, and some of the trade names are not here in the U.K. so I'm going to sus out some equivalents.
Ta,
N.

 

[deconx]

I used to work as a dental technician and I used to polish clear acrylic with a big round calico cloth mop with different polishes. The secret is to use lots of polish and not to put on to much preassure.
If its a flat surface try using t-cut car paint restorer to remove the cloudiness. It will take time but it will work eventually.
Good luck.

 

[exoray]

Follow the steps above and have a lot of patience and don't rush... You can get the shine back but it doesn't always come easy...

 

[CustomCreations]

Uk Based eh?
Basic T-cut will probably do you for polish- try Halfords.
'Farecla' G3 ( think Ive spelt that right) is probably better than T-cut (its a bit courser) but as ever, more expensive.
You can also buy a pack of graded sanding sheets from Halfords too, which will help.
I doubt you will need wax afterwards if you can put enough pressure on whilst going through the polishing stages, although it can help remove the slight milkyness left sometimes....

 

[LeMarchand]

in case you have an airbrush:

use a high grid sandpaper, put some clear laquer from a spraycan in a cup and add 30-40% thinner to it and mix it properly.

give it 2-3 light wet coats and it looks perfect

 

[JANDERS10]

I was thinking of T-cut type stuff, looking at the earlier posts.
Interesting idea on the spray laquer.
Ta again.

 

[panzerwerk]

Lots of Great advice , I use progressively finer sand paper , after about 2500 grit , I buff with super fine steel wool , steel wool will polish resin very nicely , they a use some plastic polish and a soft cloth ,works great !

 

[JANDERS10]

Yep, the progressive fine sanding took away the cloudiness, and the T cut and soap and water polished it back to clear.
Thanks to all.

 

[sloopy]

thats cool that you got it clear again in the uk you can use tcut then thers "mer" which is just like tcut but even finer and yeah a good coat of lacqure can work wonders on most things