You can't jump from 220 to 1000 grit. General rule of thumb is you should increase your grit by about 50% between sandings - 220 -> 400 -> 600 -> 800/1000. The first grit removes stock. The subsequent grits remove the scratches from the previous grits. 1000 grit can't remove 220 grit scratches. You're just smoothing off the peaks of the scratches that it left.
100% going through the grits is going to make it so much more clear and clean without even having to go up to super extreme grits. Can't skip that many grits.
You need about a 50% increase in grit number each time you go up. I realize the grits you can buy don't quite do that, so you'd probably looking at like 120>220>360>400>600>800>1000>1500>2000>3000>plastic polish. You also could use micromesh sanding pads before you do the polish. And, like Sven said, A clear gloss spray after around 400 grit would do the trick quickly too. Also, I think some acrylics can actually be cleared up with a quick hit from a torch.
Sanding then spraying clear gloss is the way to go for transparent things 👍 Also if you want to spray 3D models that aren’t transparent, sanding then spraying a frosted clear coat gives them their color back without being shiny ✌️
Agreed! Some light sanding, then clean up with soap and water. Spray some clear acrylic and you're all set! Works fantastic on headlights too. Much cheaper and less time consuming than the automotive refurb kits.
As others have mentioned a clear uv sealant should clear up a lot of the cloudiness. If you want to try any higher grit it might be worth moving to either zona paper or micro-mesh pads.
I used the powerball headlight restoration kit to restore the plastics on my resin 3D Printer. Using a power drill made it a LOT faster and didn't make any swirl marks. When I did the final wipe down, the plastic was super clear again.
If you're stepping from 220 to 1,000 to polish you really might as well just eliminate the last two steps and stick with the 220. It'll take a very very long time to get the scratches from 220 out with 1,000 grit and a long time to get the scratches from 1000 grit out with polish. If you're going to do this the best and easiest way to do it would be something like 220 then 600 then 1000 1500 and then polish
Should started with 600 grit, and advance with smaller gap between grits. To remove previous grit scratches, approximately 10 passes is needed to remove them.
My headlight restoration kit started at 800 and I think it might have been finer still :) After 3 different grits + polishing compound the result was still underwhelming, but UV clear coat (10x worse smell than UV printing resin; must apply only very thin layer, otherwise it'll leave waves) made them crystal clear.
I've been seeing some videos recently where you can make acrylic edges transparent again after cutting them by running a torch over them quickly. It seems to work really well. I wonder if a quick pass with a torch would work for this?
@@LexxDesign3D pretty sure he meant flame - look at the stadium seats that are faded, they run a weed burner over them to restor the colour and gloss like new
IMHO. Your main mistake is a jump from 220 straight to 1000. That is why you have this result. You have to send gradually in steps. When you go 1000 after 220, you are not sending out scratches, left by 220 grid. you just polished them. When you do in small incremental steps, you can get almost to the original transparency. I am not familiar with grids availability in US, but I would do 220, 350, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and then polish compounds.
After doing the proper sanding, as mentioned by others, use a heat gun. You have to be careful not to warp the plastic. The objective is to melt the super fine/micro bumps/scratches. The inside would be the most tricky.
To make the acrylic clear again you need to use a map gas torch They are the yellow cylinders that you can buy at a hardware store do not use propane or butane it does not get hot enough. From a distance you use the map gas torch and you slowly make passes back and forth like your spray painting and that should clear up the acrylic
There is a product available at O'Reilly's auto parts that is specifically meant to make old headlamps clear again that would likely give better results on each of these. It's pretty cheap (less than$10) and many for just this.
I'm who he got the printer and wash station from (you might even be able to see my username on the post, probably not but if you zoon in maybe?) Thank you for being so nice and buying it from me. One thing, I didn't sit the full build plate on top of the printer,.but I did sit the washed prints on top of them. So still not a great situation ^^;; the remaining resin/alcohol would drop down the sides and stay on top and that's why you got that weird, almost looked like a bird pooed on top of the cover haha. I knew you were gonna make a video on this! I'm glad you did ^^ Helps show other people how you can clean the covers. For anyone wondering, how I managed to get to the point that's seems in the beginning of the video (to were the clover I clean but still cloudy) was with Melamine foam and Cherry Bomb. Melamine foam is a Magic easier and very slightly abrasive and cherry Bomb is a cleaner sold most often in Walmart that contains both cherry oil and pumice particles.
If you want to polish acrylic, the higher in grit you go, the better the result. That fogginess is coming from the striations created by the low grit sand paper. You’ll slower go up higher and higher, 220, 400, 800, 1200 , 2000, 3000 and finally 40000 and 5000. You’re literally buffing out the striations the higher and higher you go until the end game is polishing paste. OR, you can go up to like 3000 and either spray or dip the bucket in varnish. The varnish fills up the striations and makes it appear more clear. Getting old and dirty acrylic clear is the holy grail for record collectors who want to keep the lids to their turntables clean and clear from scratches. Either way you’ll need to put in way more work to get it even close to new
I used denatured alcohol to clean the gunk off of mine, it breaks down the resin a lot faster than the IPA does. I once left a print made of ABS-like resin in some overnight by accident and the next morning after I found it, it was almost like it was made out of flexible resin.
I believe, if you sand and still have a frosty cover, you can quickly blast the surface with a flame torch. I am sure I've heard this somewhere but I've NOT TESTED IT. Worth a try though, especially after all of your hard work sanding and if you have a spare. The best thing about this: No extra products, just "blanching" the acrylic with fire!
Elegoo seems to sell these covers for ~$20 if you ask their (in general amazing!) customer support for it. I'll wait until mine are "filthy enough" and will order some replacement covers for my Mars 3 Pro and Mercury Plus 2.0.
You should try novus plastic polish after sanding . The kit comes with three polishing compounds. Heavy scratches , light scratches , and final finish .
It seems sort of like it works like finished epoxy resin! I bet going through with more coarser of sand paper in between and being excessively OCD about it could really bring the results you’re looking for!
Many years ago I took a class making projects out of plastic. We used a buffing wheel to polish to plastic so it was clear and shiny using a chalk type material. This would help outside of cover, not sure about inside though.
you could try to use a gaz torch to smooth the surface. i do it on transluscent covers of the small cleaning machines i repair (nilfisk sc351). and when the blue covers are scratched,i can make em very close to the non used ones. but you have to be very careful because the frontier between transparent and burnt is short.
Hey there, I'm who he bought the printers from. A torch did not work for making them clear ^^;; It made it partially clear but you would be surprised at how well it *didn't* work.
I had been sanding a clear plastic container and was annoyed about the clousdy finish, I used plastic cement and it actually melted the surface and made it perfectly clear, the problem was the surface had strokes from the brush and was very lumpy. If you could solve the problem of applying plastic cement evenly and in a fine mist, you might end up with a clear and smooth finish.
I don't even take the clear plastic "saran wrap" off the cover when I get a new printer or wash station. Any liquid resin that may get on the outside of the case from my gloves goes on the clear wrap rather than the acrylic case. If I ever truly get worried about the amount of resin on the wrap I can just replace the wrap from the roll in my kitchen, but I doubt I'll get bother by enough to want to do it.
You'd have to put more steps between 220 and 1000 if you want them to be clear. I would have started with a higher grit to begin with like 380-600-800-1000-1500-2000. Then compound with a polishing machine, polish, wax. Similar to how you do automotive clear coat.
Yes, exactly you're correct...As on the Mandolorian....This is the way. Harder grit to the extremely soft grit through water/soap will get it looking new.
Random orbital polisher is the key to getting them clear again. Also you should use a plank of wood the size of the interior to have something to apply pressure against so you don't crack it while buffing out.
Doesn't heat on acrylic make it clear again after all the sanding?? Also, interesting fact I recently learned, sandpaper is designed to work best going through each grit, without jumping and akipping any.
I found that Novus polishing compounds work. They do require lots of elbow grease. The model car modelers use these polishing to get their high gloss finishes which aircraft modelers use them to clean up canopies.
Love the videos dude! I admit I bought my first resin printer (A Saturn S) when the sale happened recently and really had no idea what I was doing, your channel is my go to for every question I need answered!
You could then paste polish the acrylic or use a sort of cheat by using a clear spray (rattle can clear) and spray inside and out and that will clear up the acrylic significantly but it may not last more than a year or so.
Nice video! I've often wondered myself about the same thing. I reckon going through the different grit grades until the finest would be the answer (with polishing afterwards). If it works for headlights, then it should work on these cases as they are all usually plastic nowadays. 👍
I used acetone which quickly removed all the gunk, but it left the inside cloudy. I then gave one last wipe in one direction and it left it partially see through. You can then sand it from there and heat it with a heat gun to finish.
As a longtime plastic modeler I used fine grits without skipping until I had wet sanded with 1000 grit. Then I polished it with Colgate toothpaste. I finished by brushing on a coat of FUTURE floor polish. Airplane canopies and auto windshields never stood a chance.
sanding is a technique of its own when trying to get crystal clear finishes. I found after using the highest grit wet sand, a coat of epoxy resin will fill in the micro scratches and make it 100% crystal clear. but doing that on those covers would be hard, maybe a pour on top and let it drip down the sides evenly would work
There are also different grits of polish if you need to do more polishing work. Once you're done sanding, polishing, and buffing the panels, give it a few coats of clear coat paint. That should fill in the rest of the scratches and help with clarity. Kind of like how they should look much clearer if they were wet after all those steps.
dimethyl adipate, it's an oily substance, lather it on your resin areas, allow to sit for a few hrs then scrap or scrub off. Also if you sand down any transparent plastics use Turtle wax head light restorer on both sides. To make it transparent again. Enjoyed the vid
Bit late to the party, but you can get sanding sponges of varying grits, or just wrap the paper around an old kitchen sponge to get into tight corners. Spray with a clearcoat to give it that glass finish.
I've had good luck using fiberglass polish (meant for boats and RVs) for the final polish on plastics. Haven't tried cleaning my resin printer cover with it yet, but it works great on plastic headlights.
I have a buffing wheel I use to buff metals. We have a wax that is for soft plastics for the wheel too. I'd venture to bet it'd make easy work of that on the outside. Inside you'd need something smaller that can buff, but it's doable.
There are some sanding papers that are used for sanding epoxy resin dice that might work better for cleaning up clarity. They are called Zona papers. Not sure if this might help, but I think it is equivalent to 20,000 grit.
You mentioned that you were basing this off of people polishing their headlights. Just last week, I happened to polish my headlights. To set the stage, I have a 2017 w/200k miles on it and had not attacked the ever increasing headlight problem. I live in the desert so they were pretty sandblasted. I started with 1000 and wet sanded, stepped up to 2000 and wet sanded again. Then I polished them with auto polish using a buffing pad on a corded right angle grinder. I'm guessing that your results are not what you wanted because nobody can manually buff as effectively as a powered buffer. If you tried buffing with a power tool, you would probably have a better finished product. I'd post before/after photo but that doesn't seem to be an option.
i one use a plastic clear coat to restore some outside light . and it did the job really well for my purpose . wet sanding and 2-3 coat with smaller grit sanding in betwen
At this point you'd just need to treat it more with the polish (there's also a specific plastic polish). You can get yourself a polishing pad with velcro on the back and put that on your hand sander or on a tool that you turn with your drill. But try on a small area first, the hand sander may be too strong and the hood could start melting a bit which can mess up all your previous sanding.
It's not just higher grit, but also need a less aggressive jump between grits. Also some of the cloudiness can be from not sanding down the previous grits enough
I was wondering how much a super thin coat of clear resin would work? Like even from the stright 200 grit form just clean with alcohol then knces its dry brush/whipe on a thin coat of clear reain inside and out might also work!
Thanks for doing this video @UncleJesse ! Those dirty lids drive me crazy!! Looks like there were some good comments on how to get these completely clear. Gonna have to give these a try.
Maybe try smear some vasaline or baby oil on them, would help bring out a semi perminant gloss that would allow them to be more see through. But the added benefit that it will act as a barrier for any future resin that gets on them. Though they would he sticky to the touch. So maybe just do a square in the front panel.
All right,. You want sand in order P220>P320>P400>P600>P800>P1000>P2000>P3000>P4000. Don't miss any grain because you get a better result in less time. Then you want to use a pure polish suite (Meguiar's use mostly fillers which hides but don't polish that much). 3M or Menzerna are polish brands which will never desapoint. Don't buy a heavy compound but just a medium cut polish and a final finish polish. Don't polish by hand, use a polisher or ani foam drill attachment (one for every polish), and you'll get your transparency back. Regards.
Get a headlight restore kit. You jumped up in grit too fast. should have done 220 > 400 > 600. It will still lock foggy when dry but clean when wet. To make it clear up clear coat it with spray paint. Acetone would probably clear it up some but still be a little cloudy. Headlight restoration wipes might work but I think they are made for poly carbonate and not acrylic.
When starting with new top you can apply a coat of plexus to protect the plastic. Or you can use Pledge furniture polish if you find plexus to expensive.
After sanding up to 1000grit personally use honing pastes from my hand plane sharpening strops (cheap red diamond paste from ebay and green strop paste that is aluminum oxyde if memory serves me). Buff all that with a rag and it works great.
Use a Dual Action car polisher and car polish, start with a course compound and work your way to finer compounds, I did I video on this around 18 months ago. Funnily enough the same compound your now using!
You can also use a paste mixture of lemon juice and baking soda to bring back the clear look, or a rag with acetone, and you could have avoided so much sanding
Apologies if someone asked already (150 comments are a lot to dig through; great job on the video btw!) Would the cloudy acrylic provide better protection from outside UV? Cheers!
Well I of course double gloved and was super careful about handling resin to make sure I'd never get any on my machines. Aaannnnd my machines are covered in resin hand prints, smears and even a blob somehow transported in to the bottom lip of my lid and spread out across the bottom. How does it get there? I was so careful! lol
Do you think if you hit it with a lacquer or varnish it will make it clear again? I've seen composites guys bringing carbon fiber parts to a glossy mirror finish with a coat of those thigs or more epoxy after sanding
harbor freight sells a cloth buffing wheel for a drill and use the stick compound they sell one id for plastic dont remember which color one but it works very well to clean headlights
You can stop at 1000 grit - anything higher and it'll make the plastic brittle. Use a soft polishing wheel on a grinder with plastic polishing compound - the red/brown sticks. That'll shine up the outside to near perfect clarity.
A heat gun dose wonders, do as you have to get it smooth with sand paper and use a heat gun to dehaze after that. It only takes a few seconds in an area to get it to clear up
I'l have to try wetsanding. Mine are filthy, because my table is covered with printers so I sit the lid from printer 1 on printer 2, etc, and I'm handling them with gloves covered in resin as I pull prints. I have one machine that I'm trying to keep clean by only handling it without dirty gloves on, and it's such a nightmare. I don't know how people do that where you pull the lid off, pull the print, take the gloves off and put the lid back, put gloves back on and handle the prints, etc. SO much easier to just say to heck with it and let the printer covers get caked lol
I’d try two things: spraying on a clear coat (water-based acrylic, e.g.), and trying a heat gun or GENTLY torching (the way they heat-polish cut acrylic edges).
Use some heat. Dust over the surface with a small torch, things should just clean right up. They call it Flame Polishing. You make awesome vids BTW. Keep up the great work.
to protect against splashing on the inside of my printers i put clear packing tape all over the inside so if anything does splash its on clear tape and not the actual cover and its easy to remove!
Just sanding won't be see thru. You have to treat this like restoring headlights. You did most of it right, accept you need to clear coat to fill in the micro scratches to get a crystal finish again. No lt a polish/compound. That comes after clear
New video idea I would love to see. Comparing different resin types and their levels of warpage/ shrinkage. Which resin will get you the cleanest seams on multi part prints?
I need to figure a way to clean the turntable plate on my cure station. I had a fail that I cured so I could toss adhere between the "points" on the plate and now feels permanent. Any ideas?
I made a copy of the platform in CAD that has hexagon holes so that UV light can reflect off the bottom. Whenever the platform gets dirty/ sticky/ foggy I just throw it out and print out another one. Works for me
You can't jump from 220 to 1000 grit. General rule of thumb is you should increase your grit by about 50% between sandings - 220 -> 400 -> 600 -> 800/1000. The first grit removes stock. The subsequent grits remove the scratches from the previous grits. 1000 grit can't remove 220 grit scratches. You're just smoothing off the peaks of the scratches that it left.
Just what I was going to say , unfortunately you skipped to many grits to get what was needed
This
Yah, I would copy the grits in the 3M headlight kit which go up to 3000 trizac.
100%!! You can’t just jump from 220 to 1000!
100% going through the grits is going to make it so much more clear and clean without even having to go up to super extreme grits. Can't skip that many grits.
You need about a 50% increase in grit number each time you go up. I realize the grits you can buy don't quite do that, so you'd probably looking at like 120>220>360>400>600>800>1000>1500>2000>3000>plastic polish. You also could use micromesh sanding pads before you do the polish. And, like Sven said, A clear gloss spray after around 400 grit would do the trick quickly too. Also, I think some acrylics can actually be cleared up with a quick hit from a torch.
Wait… you’re saying I can’t cheat my way to clear 🤣🤘 thanks!
@@UncleJessy The clear gloss top coat on both sides should make a huge difference.
Would acetone vapors maybe work, like they do on headlights?
You can just spray them with clear gloss varnish. That way you don't have to do too much sanding and polishing.
Sanding then spraying clear gloss is the way to go for transparent things 👍 Also if you want to spray 3D models that aren’t transparent, sanding then spraying a frosted clear coat gives them their color back without being shiny ✌️
I was thinking the same thing using clear spray paint or maybe using a heat gun to see if changes the surface
I came here to say this.
Or maybe even just put a coat a vasaline over them. Would also act as a release agent for any resin that gets on them.
Agreed! Some light sanding, then clean up with soap and water. Spray some clear acrylic and you're all set! Works fantastic on headlights too. Much cheaper and less time consuming than the automotive refurb kits.
As others have mentioned a clear uv sealant should clear up a lot of the cloudiness. If you want to try any higher grit it might be worth moving to either zona paper or micro-mesh pads.
I used the powerball headlight restoration kit to restore the plastics on my resin 3D Printer. Using a power drill made it a LOT faster and didn't make any swirl marks. When I did the final wipe down, the plastic was super clear again.
If you're stepping from 220 to 1,000 to polish you really might as well just eliminate the last two steps and stick with the 220. It'll take a very very long time to get the scratches from 220 out with 1,000 grit and a long time to get the scratches from 1000 grit out with polish. If you're going to do this the best and easiest way to do it would be something like 220 then 600 then 1000 1500 and then polish
This man knows his polishing techniques. 👍
Should started with 600 grit, and advance with smaller gap between grits. To remove previous grit scratches, approximately 10 passes is needed to remove them.
My headlight restoration kit started at 800 and I think it might have been finer still :)
After 3 different grits + polishing compound the result was still underwhelming, but UV clear coat (10x worse smell than UV printing resin; must apply only very thin layer, otherwise it'll leave waves) made them crystal clear.
I wonder if you used a buffing device if that would help a lot.
I've been seeing some videos recently where you can make acrylic edges transparent again after cutting them by running a torch over them quickly. It seems to work really well. I wonder if a quick pass with a torch would work for this?
What kind of torch? Heat, LED, UV?
@@LexxDesign3D pretty sure he meant flame - look at the stadium seats that are faded, they run a weed burner over them to restor the colour and gloss like new
@@LexxDesign3D a fire torch. like gas once
@@LexxDesign3D I beleive just a handheld propane torch
I think a bit of a flame polish might help. Also, Harley-Davidson has a polish for their windshields that works wonders on foggy looking acrylic.
IMHO. Your main mistake is a jump from 220 straight to 1000. That is why you have this result. You have to send gradually in steps. When you go 1000 after 220, you are not sending out scratches, left by 220 grid. you just polished them. When you do in small incremental steps, you can get almost to the original transparency. I am not familiar with grids availability in US, but I would do 220, 350, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and then polish compounds.
You can't jump from 220 to 1000. The 220 causes really deep scratches.
After doing the proper sanding, as mentioned by others, use a heat gun. You have to be careful not to warp the plastic. The objective is to melt the super fine/micro bumps/scratches. The inside would be the most tricky.
Having worked with acrylic quite a bit I agree about the heat possibly clearing up that clouding.
To make the acrylic clear again you need to use a map gas torch They are the yellow cylinders that you can buy at a hardware store do not use propane or butane it does not get hot enough. From a distance you use the map gas torch and you slowly make passes back and forth like your spray painting and that should clear up the acrylic
There is a product available at O'Reilly's auto parts that is specifically meant to make old headlamps clear again that would likely give better results on each of these.
It's pretty cheap (less than$10) and many for just this.
I'm who he got the printer and wash station from (you might even be able to see my username on the post, probably not but if you zoon in maybe?)
Thank you for being so nice and buying it from me. One thing, I didn't sit the full build plate on top of the printer,.but I did sit the washed prints on top of them. So still not a great situation ^^;; the remaining resin/alcohol would drop down the sides and stay on top and that's why you got that weird, almost looked like a bird pooed on top of the cover haha.
I knew you were gonna make a video on this! I'm glad you did ^^ Helps show other people how you can clean the covers. For anyone wondering, how I managed to get to the point that's seems in the beginning of the video (to were the clover I clean but still cloudy) was with Melamine foam and Cherry Bomb. Melamine foam is a Magic easier and very slightly abrasive and cherry Bomb is a cleaner sold most often in Walmart that contains both cherry oil and pumice particles.
If you want to polish acrylic, the higher in grit you go, the better the result. That fogginess is coming from the striations created by the low grit sand paper. You’ll slower go up higher and higher, 220, 400, 800, 1200 , 2000, 3000 and finally 40000 and 5000. You’re literally buffing out the striations the higher and higher you go until the end game is polishing paste. OR, you can go up to like 3000 and either spray or dip the bucket in varnish. The varnish fills up the striations and makes it appear more clear.
Getting old and dirty acrylic clear is the holy grail for record collectors who want to keep the lids to their turntables clean and clear from scratches. Either way you’ll need to put in way more work to get it even close to new
I used denatured alcohol to clean the gunk off of mine, it breaks down the resin a lot faster than the IPA does. I once left a print made of ABS-like resin in some overnight by accident and the next morning after I found it, it was almost like it was made out of flexible resin.
Did you ever cure it? And, if so, what was it like?
I believe, if you sand and still have a frosty cover, you can quickly blast the surface with a flame torch. I am sure I've heard this somewhere but I've NOT TESTED IT. Worth a try though, especially after all of your hard work sanding and if you have a spare.
The best thing about this: No extra products, just "blanching" the acrylic with fire!
Elegoo seems to sell these covers for ~$20 if you ask their (in general amazing!) customer support for it. I'll wait until mine are "filthy enough" and will order some replacement covers for my Mars 3 Pro and Mercury Plus 2.0.
You should try novus plastic polish after sanding . The kit comes with three polishing compounds. Heavy scratches , light scratches , and final finish .
Novus 1 Clean & Shine recommended by Formlabs for the acrylic parts of their printers did close to nothing for my UV covers.
It seems sort of like it works like finished epoxy resin! I bet going through with more coarser of sand paper in between and being excessively OCD about it could really bring the results you’re looking for!
Many years ago I took a class making projects out of plastic. We used a buffing wheel to polish to plastic so it was clear and shiny using a chalk type material. This would help outside of cover, not sure about inside though.
you could try to use a gaz torch to smooth the surface. i do it on transluscent covers of the small cleaning machines i repair (nilfisk sc351). and when the blue covers are scratched,i can make em very close to the non used ones. but you have to be very careful because the frontier between transparent and burnt is short.
I was going to say the same thing. Just make sure you go back and forth over the surface with the torch. Don’t hold it in one spot.
Hey there, I'm who he bought the printers from. A torch did not work for making them clear ^^;; It made it partially clear but you would be surprised at how well it *didn't* work.
Main question I have with using the sand paper on the cover is, aren't you sanding away the uv protective coating?
I usually work up to 5k grit when restoring headlights. I also do a clear coat as the last step, usually with a paint that has uv resistance.
I had been sanding a clear plastic container and was annoyed about the clousdy finish, I used plastic cement and it actually melted the surface and made it perfectly clear, the problem was the surface had strokes from the brush and was very lumpy. If you could solve the problem of applying plastic cement evenly and in a fine mist, you might end up with a clear and smooth finish.
I don't even take the clear plastic "saran wrap" off the cover when I get a new printer or wash station. Any liquid resin that may get on the outside of the case from my gloves goes on the clear wrap rather than the acrylic case. If I ever truly get worried about the amount of resin on the wrap I can just replace the wrap from the roll in my kitchen, but I doubt I'll get bother by enough to want to do it.
You'd have to put more steps between 220 and 1000 if you want them to be clear. I would have started with a higher grit to begin with like 380-600-800-1000-1500-2000. Then compound with a polishing machine, polish, wax. Similar to how you do automotive clear coat.
Yes, exactly you're correct...As on the Mandolorian....This is the way. Harder grit to the extremely soft grit through water/soap will get it looking new.
Hey Jessy! I watch your videos every now and then when I feel like I need 3D printing and all. Do you have any thoughts on a starter 3D printer?
Random orbital polisher is the key to getting them clear again. Also you should use a plank of wood the size of the interior to have something to apply pressure against so you don't crack it while buffing out.
Doesn't heat on acrylic make it clear again after all the sanding??
Also, interesting fact I recently learned, sandpaper is designed to work best going through each grit, without jumping and akipping any.
Did you try acrylic varnish? After sanding of course.
I also been thinking about this as well, wonder if you might need a polisher machine, a buffer machine that you use for the cars
I found that Novus polishing compounds work. They do require lots of elbow grease. The model car modelers use these polishing to get their high gloss finishes which aircraft modelers use them to clean up canopies.
Love the videos dude! I admit I bought my first resin printer (A Saturn S) when the sale happened recently and really had no idea what I was doing, your channel is my go to for every question I need answered!
You could then paste polish the acrylic or use a sort of cheat by using a clear spray (rattle can clear) and spray inside and out and that will clear up the acrylic significantly but it may not last more than a year or so.
Nice video! I've often wondered myself about the same thing. I reckon going through the different grit grades until the finest would be the answer (with polishing afterwards). If it works for headlights, then it should work on these cases as they are all usually plastic nowadays. 👍
I used acetone which quickly removed all the gunk, but it left the inside cloudy. I then gave one last wipe in one direction and it left it partially see through. You can then sand it from there and heat it with a heat gun to finish.
As a longtime plastic modeler I used fine grits without skipping until I had wet sanded with 1000 grit. Then I polished it with Colgate toothpaste. I finished by brushing on a coat of FUTURE floor polish. Airplane canopies and auto windshields never stood a chance.
Saw a long time ago where they use heat to slightly remelt the surface of stadium seats. Wonder if that would work with these too?
sanding is a technique of its own when trying to get crystal clear finishes. I found after using the highest grit wet sand, a coat of epoxy resin will fill in the micro scratches and make it 100% crystal clear. but doing that on those covers would be hard, maybe a pour on top and let it drip down the sides evenly would work
There are also different grits of polish if you need to do more polishing work.
Once you're done sanding, polishing, and buffing the panels, give it a few coats of clear coat paint. That should fill in the rest of the scratches and help with clarity. Kind of like how they should look much clearer if they were wet after all those steps.
Ive seen people use flame to clear up foggy or clouded plastic chairs and make them brand new. Would that work on the shields
dimethyl adipate, it's an oily substance, lather it on your resin areas, allow to sit for a few hrs then scrap or scrub off.
Also if you sand down any transparent plastics use Turtle wax head light restorer on both sides. To make it transparent again.
Enjoyed the vid
sometimes you can quickly run a tiger torch over the acrylic and it will remove some of the haze.
I agree with the comments about more grits closer together but I was wondering if they can be flame polished.
I use to work in Glass, and the final polishing to remove sanding scratches we used a Cork Sanding belt, so maybe a cork pad might help too?
Bit late to the party, but you can get sanding sponges of varying grits, or just wrap the paper around an old kitchen sponge to get into tight corners.
Spray with a clearcoat to give it that glass finish.
I've had good luck using fiberglass polish (meant for boats and RVs) for the final polish on plastics. Haven't tried cleaning my resin printer cover with it yet, but it works great on plastic headlights.
I have a buffing wheel I use to buff metals. We have a wax that is for soft plastics for the wheel too. I'd venture to bet it'd make easy work of that on the outside. Inside you'd need something smaller that can buff, but it's doable.
There are some sanding papers that are used for sanding epoxy resin dice that might work better for cleaning up clarity. They are called Zona papers. Not sure if this might help, but I think it is equivalent to 20,000 grit.
You mentioned that you were basing this off of people polishing their headlights. Just last week, I happened to polish my headlights. To set the stage, I have a 2017 w/200k miles on it and had not attacked the ever increasing headlight problem. I live in the desert so they were pretty sandblasted. I started with 1000 and wet sanded, stepped up to 2000 and wet sanded again. Then I polished them with auto polish using a buffing pad on a corded right angle grinder. I'm guessing that your results are not what you wanted because nobody can manually buff as effectively as a powered buffer. If you tried buffing with a power tool, you would probably have a better finished product. I'd post before/after photo but that doesn't seem to be an option.
Like 3D prints, you can always add a glossy topcoat to make it more transparent (but you would have to skip the polishing part for adhesion issues).
Funny enough I just happened to be searching for this same topic earlier in the day and this popped up on my feed after getting home.
Can't you flame polish them after sanding like acrylic? Don't know myself but just wondered...
i one use a plastic clear coat to restore some outside light . and it did the job really well for my purpose . wet sanding and 2-3 coat with smaller grit sanding in betwen
At this point you'd just need to treat it more with the polish (there's also a specific plastic polish). You can get yourself a polishing pad with velcro on the back and put that on your hand sander or on a tool that you turn with your drill. But try on a small area first, the hand sander may be too strong and the hood could start melting a bit which can mess up all your previous sanding.
It's not just higher grit, but also need a less aggressive jump between grits. Also some of the cloudiness can be from not sanding down the previous grits enough
If it’s acrylic can’t you flame polish (with care) after removing the resin?
I was wondering how much a super thin coat of clear resin would work? Like even from the stright 200 grit form just clean with alcohol then knces its dry brush/whipe on a thin coat of clear reain inside and out might also work!
Thanks for doing this video @UncleJesse ! Those dirty lids drive me crazy!! Looks like there were some good comments on how to get these completely clear. Gonna have to give these a try.
did you try flame polishing it? some thermal plastics can flame polish with a gas torch or paint strip gun after sanding with 800 grit.
Maybe try smear some vasaline or baby oil on them, would help bring out a semi perminant gloss that would allow them to be more see through. But the added benefit that it will act as a barrier for any future resin that gets on them.
Though they would he sticky to the touch. So maybe just do a square in the front panel.
have you try liquid ceramic coating? usually used for automobile.
All right,. You want sand in order P220>P320>P400>P600>P800>P1000>P2000>P3000>P4000. Don't miss any grain because you get a better result in less time. Then you want to use a pure polish suite (Meguiar's use mostly fillers which hides but don't polish that much). 3M or Menzerna are polish brands which will never desapoint. Don't buy a heavy compound but just a medium cut polish and a final finish polish. Don't polish by hand, use a polisher or ani foam drill attachment (one for every polish), and you'll get your transparency back. Regards.
Get a headlight restore kit. You jumped up in grit too fast. should have done 220 > 400 > 600. It will still lock foggy when dry but clean when wet. To make it clear up clear coat it with spray paint. Acetone would probably clear it up some but still be a little cloudy. Headlight restoration wipes might work but I think they are made for poly carbonate and not acrylic.
It's acrylic a wave a torch at it and it should clear up just don't melt it. Once finished hit it with a clear gloss enamel.
is there anyway to stop everything I use for resin printing to not be sticky? and thanks for all the great content
try clear coat it inside with a lacquer. it makes clear resin like glass. do it on one panel inside and out and see if it works?
When starting with new top you can apply a coat of plexus to protect the plastic. Or you can use Pledge furniture polish if you find plexus to expensive.
After sanding up to 1000grit personally use honing pastes from my hand plane sharpening strops (cheap red diamond paste from ebay and green strop paste that is aluminum oxyde if memory serves me). Buff all that with a rag and it works great.
Use a Dual Action car polisher and car polish, start with a course compound and work your way to finer compounds, I did I video on this around 18 months ago. Funnily enough the same compound your now using!
Try Novus plastic polish products for cleaning and polishing acrylic panels. It works really well at removing fine scratches and cleaning.
You can also use a paste mixture of lemon juice and baking soda to bring back the clear look, or a rag with acetone, and you could have avoided so much sanding
i think youd get some better results with a buffing pad when your applying the buffing compound
is there any ways to use heat with a heat gun? i know they use a blow torch when they restore stadium seats and i wonder if the material is similar .
Apologies if someone asked already (150 comments are a lot to dig through; great job on the video btw!)
Would the cloudy acrylic provide better protection from outside UV?
Cheers!
There is a method of polishing acrylic with a torch. Look up plexiglass edge polishing and you will find videos describing
Well I of course double gloved and was super careful about handling resin to make sure I'd never get any on my machines. Aaannnnd my machines are covered in resin hand prints, smears and even a blob somehow transported in to the bottom lip of my lid and spread out across the bottom. How does it get there? I was so careful! lol
Do you think if you hit it with a lacquer or varnish it will make it clear again? I've seen composites guys bringing carbon fiber parts to a glossy mirror finish with a coat of those thigs or more epoxy after sanding
harbor freight sells a cloth buffing wheel for a drill and use the stick compound they sell one id for plastic dont remember which color one but it works very well to clean headlights
I'm screeming at the screen "CLEAR COAT IT WITH POLY!!!"
I would be really curious to know how it would look if you sprayed gloss varnish spray on it.
You can stop at 1000 grit - anything higher and it'll make the plastic brittle. Use a soft polishing wheel on a grinder with plastic polishing compound - the red/brown sticks. That'll shine up the outside to near perfect clarity.
Could you explain what auto body compound is for non-US folks?
guessing the same stuff that clears up car headlights would work as well. maybe I'll try it.
A heat gun dose wonders, do as you have to get it smooth with sand paper and use a heat gun to dehaze after that. It only takes a few seconds in an area to get it to clear up
I'l have to try wetsanding. Mine are filthy, because my table is covered with printers so I sit the lid from printer 1 on printer 2, etc, and I'm handling them with gloves covered in resin as I pull prints. I have one machine that I'm trying to keep clean by only handling it without dirty gloves on, and it's such a nightmare. I don't know how people do that where you pull the lid off, pull the print, take the gloves off and put the lid back, put gloves back on and handle the prints, etc. SO much easier to just say to heck with it and let the printer covers get caked lol
I’d try two things: spraying on a clear coat (water-based acrylic, e.g.), and trying a heat gun or GENTLY torching (the way they heat-polish cut acrylic edges).
Use some heat. Dust over the surface with a small torch, things should just clean right up. They call it Flame Polishing. You make awesome vids BTW. Keep up the great work.
you should try clear varnish or clear epoxy resin. Makers doing epoxy decorative objects use this trick.
You can use acrylic floor wax. This is what was used in plastic models. It was called future but now called pledge
Would flame polishing help?
to protect against splashing on the inside of my printers i put clear packing tape all over the inside so if anything does splash its on clear tape and not the actual cover and its easy to remove!
Would you be able to take like a heat gun to it to get the transparency back?
I need to find a way to heal some cracks that occurred in my lid from a move. I have some Weld On I'm going to try.
Just sanding won't be see thru. You have to treat this like restoring headlights. You did most of it right, accept you need to clear coat to fill in the micro scratches to get a crystal finish again. No lt a polish/compound. That comes after clear
New video idea I would love to see. Comparing different resin types and their levels of warpage/ shrinkage. Which resin will get you the cleanest seams on multi part prints?
I need to figure a way to clean the turntable plate on my cure station. I had a fail that I cured so I could toss adhere between the "points" on the plate and now feels permanent. Any ideas?
Oh I have a turn table plate that is just nasty. Was debating on chipping away at it
@@UncleJessy I tried... but I'm afraid I might break it. was about to hit up Elegoo to see if I can buy a replacement
I made a copy of the platform in CAD that has hexagon holes so that UV light can reflect off the bottom. Whenever the platform gets dirty/ sticky/ foggy I just throw it out and print out another one. Works for me
@@dombthekid I'm not that savvy... but I like it!