Ever wonder how to make that chrome look like new, or make
your control panel plexi shine? Well then I guess
you're in luck, cuz here's the lowdown. Using a simple
bench grinder, a cloth wheel and some compounds, we will
make a professional looking panel and bring parts back from
the dead. Read on!
First you
need access to a bench grinder. I prefer an 8" wheel,
but you can probably do fine with a 6 or even a 4. On
mine, I left a fine grinding stone on one side, and the
stiched cloth wheel on the other. If you're really
spiffy, you can have 2 cloth wheels, one for each kind of
compound. I cheat and do both on one, but to each his
own. I use only two compound sticks, the mid and the
finish. There are actual classifications for each
"stage" of compound, but I can't recall them, and it's not
really needed. What you need to know is that one is
and abrasive, and one is a polish. The abrasive
compound will grind away material, including metal, and the
polish will take a surface to a high shine. For an
in-depth look at polishing wheels and compounds, check out
the link
here. For our purposes though, I'm going to keep it to
the current applications.
First,
you need to set up your buffing wheel, and get ready to set
your compound into the wheel. Once you get used to
this, you'll want to set the
compound
while the item you are buffing is on the wheel, but for now
you can apply it while the wheel is spinning freely.
take the stick of compound and gently press it into the
spinning wheel to melt some compound into the cloth. You
can't tell from the pic, but the wheel is up to full speed
here. By the color of the compound, you can tell that
this is the abrasive compound. Now that our wheel is
well saturated, we can bring in our piece to work on.
As
you can see by this wonderfully blurry photo, we have a
common problem, the rusty worn looking joystick. Let's
bring it back from the dead. Now you have to trust me that
the pictures that follow are of the same stick (would I lie
to you?)
I
should remind you that a buffing wheel can be an extremely
dangerous tool. It can fire off a burr of metal or
even the whole piece you're working on, in a split second.
You won't believe it till you see it, but please keep a good
grip on your work (unlike I'm doing in this photo), pay
attention and wear your safety goggles! Apply even
pressure to the metal as you apply it to the wheel, and keep
the piece moving. Leaving it in one place too long can
gouge a pit into the metal.
After
one pass on the wheel, you can see the difference. The
surface rust is gone, and the shine has started to come
back. To complete this stick, I polished the redtop
with black compound (which I will get into later), to
restore a new look. Just look at that shine!
Here the stick is ready for another generation of gamers.
You can tell it's a bit different than new, but heads and
tails above what was there!
The
same process works for your control panel bolts. Here
is a quick pic of a dull bolt with one polished to a shine.
For that kind of work, only the polish compound needs to be
used, since we are not removing material, just buffing.
Now for
plastic...that's a bit different. You want to get that
plastic edge to a mirror shine. Well it's a bit more
advanced. to the right is a blurry photo of some lexan, in
need of a shining. To get this from the rough bandsaw cut,
to a see though finish, we need to:
ONE:
File the rough scratches and
grooves off with a file or disc sander. Here I use the
file to carefully bring the plastic to a flush finish.
Once you have a fairly good surface, you should progress to some
100 and then 200 grit sandpapers. I have had good luck
with wet/dry paper, and a bit of water. I was a bit short
of sandpaper when I did this up, so I kind of cheated and went
from this stage to the buffing wheel. You can do this, but
it takes longer, and is easier to screw up than the sandpaper
method, so I suggest you get some beforehand.
TWO:
When you get the plastic to a
fairly acceptable state, you are ready to go to the buffer.
Here I peeled the protective film off the plastic so that it
doesn't get melted onto my work area. I also should
mention that I put some electrical tape on the part rest on the
buffer, so that when I move the plastic along, the metal rest
doesn't scratch the material.
Here we want to use the non abrasive compound, and simply buff
it to a high gloss, much like you would your car. This
step does melt the surface very slightly, which gets rid of the
microscopic pits and scratches, which allows light to properly
pass through the edge (refraction is it?). Again, keep the
material moving, or you'll get a melted spot or indentation.
If you've prepared the edge properly, this step shouldn't take
long at all (which is why you should get that sandpaper) ;)
There it is!
A super glossy finish that looks straight from the factory!
Clean it up with a little glass cleaner, and you're ready to go!
One
last note, you can use these methods for repairing scratches in
the surfaces of plastic. Using the abrasive compound or
extremely fine sandpaper you would remove the scratch, and then
use the polishing compound to feather out the edges of the
repair to match the surrounding plastic. It takes a lot
more care, and sometimes a surface or handheld buffer, but the
process is basically the same. Good luck!!
