The Shop > Composites & Plastics
Soda blasting shiny plastics
bry1975:
Chaps,
Have any of you soda blasted acrylic(PMMA) plastic? if so will it remove light scratches?
TIA
Bry
PTsideshow:
Short answer is no! It is strictly a gentle method for cleaning and remove surface coating of material, graffiti, dirt, paint, mold etc. It works on plastic, metals, fiberglass, stone, brick and some woods As it can get caught in the woods grain structure of some soft woods.
On this side of the pond they are mixing it with an abrasive for light rust removal. It does leave a residue on the material that has to be cleaned off, before painting or other coating process.
They have a kit in the auto parts stores that have a head light covers cleaning and scratch removing kit that may work for you.
Lew_Merrick_PE:
--- Quote from: bry1975 on June 24, 2011, 03:59:56 AM ---Have any of you soda blasted acrylic(PMMA) plastic? if so will it remove light scratches?
--- End quote ---
Try a hot air heat gun. With a little bit of practice it's really quite easy to melt the surface of acrylic materials to gloss over light scratches. There is a commercial polishing compound for acrylics that works on heavier scratches -- Interstate Plastics (west coast US) sells it under the "Novus" brand name. I use it every few years to clean up the scratches that accumulate on my Trav-A-Dial units on my milling machine.
bry1975:
Thanks chaps.
The glossy plastic I was working with was a right nightmare brand new part but couldn't find a away to clean or remove fluff or grime without scratching so ended up using finest soda beads and then blew the blast media off with a hand puffer.
Next time I'll try something less likely to peen might try using a plastic blast media.
Jasonb:
Try Miocromesh, its designed to take the scratches out of fighter plane canopies, works a treat on plastic, you can buy small starter sets.
http://www.sylmasta.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Micro_Mesh_Abrasives_1.html
Jason
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