Cleaning and Polishing Plastics
Dynalab Corp custom plastic fabrication department machines products for
use in laboratories, industry, education and even the home. The
cleaning and care of plastics is serious business in our Fabrication
shop since customers expect to receive their projects clean of any
finger prints and scratches.
As illustrated below, just spray a foaming plastic cleaner and wipe clean. Then polish plastic with a clean, dry
cloth. Safe on all plastics and cleans without leaving film or residue. Slide FOAMACTION(TM) Plastic Cleaner is ideal for cleaning plastic parts, and helps
remove mold releases prior to secondary operations.
Polishing Plastics
 Flame, buff, solvent, and diamond polishers, are some types. Extruded Acrylic flame polishes beautifully. A Bernz-O-Matic torch works well, and for a professional finish a hydrogen/oxygen torch is preferred. The hydrox flame is wet and doesn't allow oxidation.
• Cast acrylic needs to be buff polished with a soft cotton wheel and a good compound.
• PVC buffs well with a soft compound.
• Polycarbonate is a good candidate for solvent polishing. Solvent polishing is accomplished by exposing an edge to the solvents' vapors or actually wiping a solvent soaked rag along an edge.
Diamond polishing is a mechanical operation in which a diamond chip attached to a wheel is spun at a very high RPM and run along an edge. Whichever method is employed you should definitely try it on some scrap first.
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A plastic cleaner such as SLIDE Plastic Cleaner foaming spray effectively
removes oil and dirt marks from all plastics, even sensitive
polycarbonate.
 Acrylic is being flame polished above by melting the surface to create surface tension. This smooths the acrylic surface.
Operator skill is critical with this method. When executed properly flame plastic polishing produces the clearest finish. This is especially true when polishing acrylic.
 Buff Polishing Acrylic is also an effective finish for clarity. First you need to prepare the edge by sanding all of the saw marks from the surface of the edge.
Scratches in many other plastics can be removed with a liquid scratch remover such as Novus® #2.
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