Polishing Crystalac

[Finleyville]

I just finished spraying two baffles with the super clear crystalac. Since I did not own the spraygun I had to spray all the layers on at once. Now I want to polish it to a mirror finish. How did you do yours? Where do I start grit wise? Should I just start with a car polish? Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[bob barkto]

I have a few questions...

How is the finish now? Is the surface smooth, any orange peel, dust specks, any other defects to be dealt with?
How long ago in hours/days is "just finished"?

[Finleyville]

I have a few questions...

How is the finish now? Is the surface smooth, any orange peel, dust specks, any other defects to be dealt with?
How long ago in hours/days is "just finished"?

Very good questions. I am sorry I didn't answer them before...

The baffle surface was sanded to a 400 grit before I dyed it. After following the directions on the can for sprayers, we got down probably 7 coats of the stuff waiting a hour between coats. (70 degrees about 50% humidity) It has cured for 5 days. The surface is very glossy with little orange peel. There are many tiny pin hole sized blemishes throughout the baffles. I can see my face in the baffles; it's just not mirror smooth. It reminds me of that special non glare glass they use for framed pictures. Hope this helps


Images not available

[PMazz]

Looks like you may need to sand it flat and slowly bring it back up to a gloss finish. You'll have to determine how low of a grit paper to start with based on the amount of irregularity. From the pics I'd guess 500. Use a random orbit sander and some mild soapy water sprayed on as lubricant. Keep this up with ever finer paper/pads until it looks flat and relatively glossy. Finish it off with polishing compound and a buffer.

Pete

[bob barkto]

I'll echo Pete's advise.

Additionaly, some of those pinholes may go all the way down to the wood so use a little restraint. Don't oversand with the coarser grits.

[Finleyville]

I found a solution!

At my local Woodcraft I found a set of 5" ROS discs from Micro-mesh. There are 9 discs from grits 400-????. You just start at the lowest grade and work your way through. Here are their grit #'s and the equivalent ANSI grades.

Micro-mesh ---ANSI grade
1500 --- 400
1800 --- 600
2400 --- (850?)
3200 --- 1200
3600 --- 1350
4000 --- 1500
6000 --- ????
8000 --- ????
12,000 --- ????

Each disc is somewhat padded and can be used with water as a lubricant. Pretty cool, huh? And the best part is that the whole package was only $16. Now I just have to decide on a ROS. :roll: