Removing scratches from a dome port

You shouldn't work just one area, because you are grinding away material and the area you worked om would be thinner and theoretically optically different from the rest. Not sure it would actually be noticable tho.

However, as domeports are typically 8 or 9 inces in diameter (or smaller) it think it would be difficult to work a smaller area. It would also be difficult to get an "even" finished look as the idea is that for each level of abrasive that you are using you are removing the scrathes from te previous level. So it would be very difficult to be able to go over EXACTLY the same area as you did on the previous level. You would basically have to expand the area a little bit at each level to cover up the scratched from the previous level and with 8" or so of surface to work on, you would probably quickly expand to working on the whole area. So why not go the whole area at once and avoid the possibility of getting an uneven thickness in the dome.

It finally hapened to me: a boat guy put my housing on the flor with a dome facing down!!! The result is a 4-5cm scratch on a glass dome. Luckily i didnt notice any influence on the photos but it is still very distracting. At home i went to a local glassworker and he sad to me they can polish it out. Since the scratch doesnt affect the image i decidet to ask you what you think first.

It finally hapened to me: a boat guy put my housing on the flor with a dome facing down!!! The result is a 4-5cm scratch on a glass dome. Luckily i didnt notice any influence on the photos but it is still very distracting. At home i went to a local glassworker and he sad to me they can polish it out. Since the scratch doesnt affect the image i decidet to ask you what you think first.

Depending on the scratch, you may or may not notice it when you looking into a bright light source. I have a scratch on my 6" glass dome and I normally don't see it except under specific conditions. Namely, small aperture, close subject and looking into the sun. Then it sticks out like a soar thumb. I understand that I can polish it out with cerium oxide, but seeing how I have an 8" dome, I've never gotten around to it. Let us know how it works if you decide to have it polished.

Cheers,

Mike

If I look very closely at the acrylic I can just see some barely noticable abrasive marks that were not there before.

Ah!

No-one has mentioned phase 3 of the (cheap) British option: a final polish with toothpaste, after the "Brasso".

But glass...

Tim

Is a slight deformation on a flat port dû to a complete repolishing would affect the pictures ?

Great suggestion... I have also used an orbital polisher with very soft cloths and rouge and had great results. I still haven't had any luck polishing my glass port though...

Jill

I badly scratched up my Sea & Sea dome port (it's acrylic) while diving at Cocos and Malpelo. Lots of current and lots of rock is a bad combination for a housing with a big dome port. A couple of fairly deep scratches (you could easily feel them with your finger) and some shallower ones (you could feel them with you finger-nail).

 

After doing some research, including some older threads on this board, I decided to try the Micro-Mesh NC-78-1 ACRYLIC RESTORAL KIT (Micro-Mesh) . It's made for taking scratches out of airplane windscreens. It cost $37 and comes with 9 grades of their Micro-Mesh papers (high grade wet/dry sandpapers), polishing paste, detergent, anti-static cream and pads and cloths.

 

Taking a good stiff drink first, I started the job with 320 grade wet/dry paper, went to 400 grade paper and then started using the Micro-Mesh papers. Each grade took about 3-5 minutes and the instructions were to sand in straight lines only, not circular, and then rotate the dome about 120 degrees for the next grade.

 

After the first sanding, the port looked like a diffuser (although when I flushed it with water before going to the next grade, it was clear). However, by the time I did the final polish, it looked new.

 

I highly recommend this product. $37 and a little elbow grease (actually, not much at all) is a lot better than a buying a new port.

 

Bob

Great suggestion... I have also used an orbital polisher with very soft cloths and rouge and had great results. I still haven't had any luck polishing my glass port though...

Jill

This may not be the correct place to welcome Jill, but I didn't want to be remiss! Thanks Jill for sharing your experience and for joining this forum; which is honored to have someone with your expertise, professionalism and sensitivity on board!

Sincerely, Carol

Hi there

Sadly I just put a nice scratch in my sea and sea dome port and even sadder it shows in my photos.

I was reading the micro mesh comment on the first thread which said it used the aviation one - there is also a marine one for windows and acrylic. My question is would this one be better or not? As I have to ship this to Tonga I would appreciate if someone could let me know which they think would be better......

Sorry if someone has mentioned this before my internet is slightly slower so I sometimes dont get to read all the posts easily.

Thanks

Karen

"Polishing out" a scratch in a dome port is more critical on the interior of the port rather than the exterior surface.

A port with all surfaces free of scratches is always best, however water will fill in the scratches on the exterior

surface while submerged and will minimize the visibility of the scratch in photos.

"Polishing out" a scratch in a dome port is more critical on the interior of the port rather than the exterior surface.

A port with all surfaces free of scratches is always best, however water will fill in the scratches on the exterior

surface while submerged and will minimize the visibility of the scratch in photos.

Speaking of which, i noticed a relatively shallow but inch long scratch on my 8inch port on the interior last week.

Im gathering this is going to be very difficult to remove and wondered if i should use the above procedue, or does anyone have any other tips?

Ive heard of things like Wet sandpaper and toothpaste working but havent found anything useful yet.

Cheers

Evan

Speaking of which, i noticed a relatively shallow but inch long scratch on my 8inch port on the interior last week.

 

Im gathering this is going to be very difficult to remove and wondered if i should use the above procedue, or does anyone have any other tips?

 

Ive heard of things like Wet sandpaper and toothpaste working but havent found anything useful yet.

 

Cheers

Evan

I actually polished the inside of my 174mm dome last wekend. I basically used the micromesh pads wrapped over a piece of folded lens cloth to give a bit of padding around my fingers. As I only had minor scratches on the inside, I started from #6000 grid and worked from there. Not at all that hard to do.

I still need to do the outside as well, but so far the result is looking just fine.

timo

I've got a ding on my dome and was told it is too deep even for the Novus 3 heavy duty scratch remover, so I picked up some 600 grit paper...do I need to use circular or straight strokes? Should I just concentrate on the scratch or sand the whole dome evenly?

Thanks for your help!

Mike

We use this product applied with an old rag (you know, old underwear that I was able to save from my girlfriend´s audit...). Theoretically, for cars, it should be applied using a rotary polisher but I have polished many domes manually:

http://store.carcareeurope.com/product.php?productid=505

A friend bought it and shared it with everybody and it lasts forever. It works very well and it is also very easy to use.

Hi,

I have bought a micro mesh kit on eBay from a seller in UK. Price was cheap.

I used it on a used 8" dome I bought for a resonable price but had some little scraches.

Using the micro mesh it was like new.

It takes some time but it is very exciting to see a new dome coming up.

Very simple to use.

The polish cream is also good to renew the rings... good for womens ;-)

Good product for scratches is a car product, crome metal polish.

Used to use it on headlamp lenses for bentley and aston and worked a dream.

Tend to use now for car windscreen and double glassing/ glass.

hope this helps

Thank-you for keeping this topic pinned! I've known it was there and last week I set about taking care of my ports, I spent time going through this topic, reviewing the posts and responses.

The micro-mesh worked very well and I am set for my next dive trip.

Thank-you to all!

Stuart

.

Glass port scratches are as problematic as they are inevitable. Fortunately, it is possible to remove scratches in glass ports if the scratches are not too deep. Stephen Frink suggested to me I use "jewellers rouge" which I found on Amazon. I used a Dremel which has a power cord (when I tried with battery packs, ran out of juice before finishing) and a whole bunch of felt polishing wheels (catalog #414). It took a long, long, long time. Perhaps an hour but the minor scratches did disappear. I went through a number of felt wheels. It is a long and boring process but gives one time to reflect on the dangers of rocks attacking poor defenseless dome ports and to be more protective in the future. I write this now as I am preparing to attend to another session of polishing, which I hate as much, if not more, than cleaning the camera's sensor (also necessary this weekend). While you are out diving and having fun, think of a tiny wheel spinning round and round and be thankful if you have acrylic domes how much easier they are to repair.

I can't guarantee this process will work for everybody but so far it has done well for minor, hairline scratches and little dings. I hope this advice cuts into the sale of replacement Seacam domes, Harald is doing far too well these days.

Good luck!

I used the micro mesh kit to remove 2 big scratches on the outside, and a scuff from the lens on the inside. It worked well, although the inside is much harder, it is doable. It is important to dry well between grits so you can see better, as I found I had to go back a couple of steps at the end to touch up a bit I missed.

Did anyone ever answer Karen's question in this thread? Is the marine mesh kit preferrable to the aviation kit?

ANy difference?

Best,

Timbo