second kitless -- first with clip, and finishing question

[duncsuss]

Today I made a barrel and cap from acrylic acetate to go with the ebonite section I made last weekend. I wanted a clip on it, so I went with ebonite finials on both cap and barrel.

The acetate is somewhat translucent, so tenons on the ebonite would have been visible through the red. I didn't like that idea, so I made the tenons on the acetate and drilled & tapped the finials.

I used Micromesh (the 2" square sponges) to polish it, but there are still some very fine scratches, barely visible but enough to annoy me.

Is there another step after the 12,000 grade micromesh that will get that "perfect finish"? (Buffing with tripoli compound or white diamond compound maybe?)

Thanks!

 

[BSea]

Very Nice. How long is the section? Everytime I make a section that long, the cap looks too long. Yours looks just about right.

As for finishing, I recently bought a beall buffing system with the 3 buffing wheels. I don't know that it will look better than MM, but it sure is a lot faster. You might try some plastix car finish.

 

[Brooks803]

You can try some EEE paste wax for taking out really small swirl marks. I use the tripoli and white diamond on the buffer after the EEE and MM. PlastX polish is also a wonderful thing!

 

[duncsuss]

Very Nice. How long is the section? Everytime I make a section that long, the cap looks too long. Yours looks just about right.

Thanks.

The section measures 28mm (visible -- there's another 6mm approx of threaded tenon hiding inside the barrel.)

When it's capped, the overall measurement is 154mm, of which about 68mm is the cap and 86mm is the barrel.

 

[duncsuss]

You can try some EEE paste wax for taking out really small swirl marks. I use the tripoli and white diamond on the buffer after the EEE and MM. PlastX polish is also a wonderful thing!

So your sequence is Micromesh, EEE paste, then buff with tripoli and white diamond ... where would you use PlastX if you were to add it to this line-up?

Thanks!

 

[Brooks803]

Very last is the PlastX. Usually the white diamond is enough though. Only if you think it needs it.

 

[duncsuss]

I managed to improve it greatly by hand-polishing (along the length of the barrel) with Hut's Ultragloss polish.

It took out nearly all the "blemishes" I could see -- now there are just the tiny pock-marks that seem to be a feature of this ebonite rod.

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice