Removing scratches from a dome port

This is the sort of thread I was hoping I would find here.

The acrylic dome port that came with my secondhand aquatech housing had a few deep scratches. Going off the recommendation of the people at aquatech I got the novus kit. it worked ok but I cant get it up to a perfect clear finish and it looks like it has thousands of tiny scratches in the acrylic. Ive spent hours trying to gently polish them out but its not working, somehow theres more scratches on the inside of the dome than out so Im thinking the micro mesh is the way to go here....

Has anyone else had this issue with the novus system Or am I doing something wrong?

This is the sort of thread I was hoping I would find here.

The acrylic dome port that came with my secondhand aquatech housing had a few deep scratches. Going off the recommendation of the people at aquatech I got the novus kit. it worked ok but I cant get it up to a perfect clear finish and it looks like it has thousands of tiny scratches in the acrylic. Ive spent hours trying to gently polish them out but its not working, somehow theres more scratches on the inside of the dome than out so Im thinking the micro mesh is the way to go here....

Has anyone else had this issue with the novus system Or am I doing something wrong?

I have the same issue as Luke. I used the Novus polishing kit to remove some scratches from my knekt dome for my go pro. It did an okay job removing most of the large scratches but left a ton of smaller scratches that are visible when looking into direct light. Is there any way to fix this other buying the micro mesh kit? Has anyone had great successes using the Novus kit?

Any insight would be very much appreciated.

This is the sort of thread I was hoping I would find here.

The acrylic dome port that came with my secondhand aquatech housing had a few deep scratches. Going off the recommendation of the people at aquatech I got the novus kit. it worked ok but I cant get it up to a perfect clear finish and it looks like it has thousands of tiny scratches in the acrylic. Ive spent hours trying to gently polish them out but its not working, somehow theres more scratches on the inside of the dome than out so Im thinking the micro mesh is the way to go here....

Has anyone else had this issue with the novus system Or am I doing something wrong?

Hi Luke,

The Novus product is made for flat sheets of acrylic or plexiglass... like that used in picture frames. So while it does an excellent job removing superficial scratches from these sheets it's not designed to remove the microfine scratches you're seeing on an optical port.

First, make sure you're using a soft flannel cloth and nothing else for the final polishing step. Next, go to this website: http://micro-surface.com/index.php/products-by-type/micro-finish.htmland go to the left side of the page and click on: Products by Type. That will take you to: Micro Gloss #5. This will remove 9 micron scratches. Next use their Micro Gloss Liquid Abrasive, Type 1 Cleaner and Polish, again with a soft flannel cloth (also sold here under Products by Type/Flannel Cloth). This will clean 1 micron scratches. Finally, use their Micro Surface/Micro Finish Polish to complete the job. The 2 oz bottles plus the flannel cloths will run you under $26 plus postage and these will restore your dome to it's original finish.

I tried the Novus products, which I've used for years to polish sheets of acrylic glazing for picture frames, and it left a haze with fine scratches that could be seen in a directional light. I also mistakenly used a micro fiber cloth, which I was later told to never use for applying the aforementioned polishing compounds by a Tech Rep at Micro-Surface Finishing Products.

You can be penny wise and pound foolish by trying to do this on the cheap... but if you want the best results I'd suggest the products mentioned above. I made the usual mistakes before finding this company online and I'm stoked that I did.

Lawrence

I recently had to polish out a fairly good scrape. I tried Novus liquid first but it was too deep so i ordered this sand paper kit from Amazon and went through the whole stack. Finished it off with Novus #2 and it came out great...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M6A7D9A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Toothpaste works well fo light scratches.

Great info here. I didn't see it in the thread, but I have a Nauticam 8.5 inch acrylic dome. It looks like the flanges are removable before polishing, but before trying that, I thought I would check to make sure they actually are before I ruin the water integrity of the my dome..

Great info here. I didn't see it in the thread, but I have a Nauticam 8.5 inch acrylic dome. It looks like the flanges are removable before polishing, but before trying that, I thought I would check to make sure they actually are before I ruin the water integrity of the my dome..

Could you get the shade of?

Also, if the scratches are not too deep, just many small ones, would you guys skip a few of the micro-mesh pads going straight to a higher number?

I would just go ahead and run through the whole stack. It may not be required to spend as much time on the roughest levels, but it won't hurt to start there.

I usually sit down in front of a movie for 2hours with a towel on my lap, bowl of water to wet and rinse the paper, and the dome. Use the Novus at the end to finish up.

Thanks for the info guys - been searching back and forth online for weeks re minor scratched. Should have tried here first

Hi everyone,

I will share my recent experience with scratch removal, as it my help someone. I got tons of good ideas from this thread (thank you for this!).

So two months ago I had a flood in my Salted Line A6xxx housing, while diving at 40m deep. How it happened it's a story for another topic... but the important is that I got a very nasty scratch on my 6'' acrylic dry dome port. It was deep enough that you could feel the level difference clearly with your nail.

I wasn't very eager to try removing it, as I had had bad experiences with other plastic domes before. A colleague recommended me the Novus kit and luckily I found it in stock on a store nearby. I applied it after reading/watching thousands of reviews. And it worked. Not perfectly...but enough to don't throw the dome in the trash can. It was possible to remove the heavy scratch almost 100%. I only see it now because I know where it was and how it looked like but the thing is: in the process of removing the heavy scratch you create a ton of lighter scratches. The solution number 2 is good to get rid of the heavy marks of the solution 3, but it leaves a lot of fine, smaller marks. The solution 1 has no abrasive at all... and that's where there is a problem. You don't have anything to remove the fine scratching. In this moment I resorted to tooth paste to do the finishing. It worked better than I expected.

It is far from been as clear as new, but the heavy scratch is gone and I honestly can't see much effect of the fine scratches in my photos. I suppose part of them fill with water and become harmless.

I would like to try the mesh kit on a next occasion... but actually, I wish I never had to remove scratches of a dome port again!

Bite the bullet and get the MicroMesh.  It will make the dome look like new again!  It only looks scary, it's really pretty satisfying to see the results after the initial shock of the frosted dome on the first pass.

I can only chime in and recommend this product. It takes some work, but the result is extremely good.

Best regards,

Henrik

I can't count the times I've used MicroMesh and the result is always outstanding. For scratches on my macro port I've created a velcropad for my Dremel and cut small round pieces to fit - that makes scratch removal SOOO much faster :-D

Hello,

What do you think about this guy technic to remove scratches from a dome port?

Seems very scary to me !

On 6/16/2005 at 10:00 AM, Alex_Mustard said:

....
Now we need something that will work on glass domes too!

 

Alex

GP14004 Fine Grade Glass Polishing Compound, Glass Polishing Solution 3.4oz buff the glass on my Zen dome: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AF8KE0S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used these in a drill press: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JIK72X0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It would take a long time to polish a real scratch, but I think a lot of times, it's just the coating that gets nicked, and this stuff cleaned it right up.

So I decided to try out the technique used by the guy on youtube a couple of posts before this one.

I have a pretty scratched Meikon dome which I was going to discard to purchase a new one. Since all the items used are readily available in our hardware store (I live on an island in the Caribbean) I decided to give it a go.

In short: DO NOT ATEMPT TO DO THIS! IT DOES NOT WORK!

Sure maybe I did something wrong but I can assure you I did exactly what he did and the end result is horrendous.

Here my scratched dome before doing anything:

Here is what I used: 3M wetordry 400, 600 and 1500 sandpaper and Brasso.... 

Here is the dome after the 400 sandpaper:

Here after the final 1500 sand paper:

And here after applying Brasso multiple times (not pretty at all):

I even tried the 1500 again for a couple of minutes and the Brasso again, no use. You can even see the difference on the lower edge where I could not really get to. There it is still OK:

So there you have it. Do it the proper way. This was just an inexpensive scratched dome so all is good, but you do not want to ruin an expensive dome with this technique!

Yours looks like my first attempt with micromesh. It turned out, that it really takes a long long time to sand the scratches out. Second attempt worked for me. Of course I cannot vouch for this particular product or method, but it’s important to do it correctly too. 

4 hours ago, hyp said:

Yours looks like my first attempt with micromesh. It turned out, that it really takes a long long time to sand the scratches out. Second attempt worked for me. Of course I cannot vouch for this particular product or method, but it’s important to do it correctly too. 

Thanks for your input. The initial scratches are gone. The surface looks very smooth and scratch free. Yet after the 1500 and the brasso the surface looks pale and mirky. I seriously doubt that it will improve with longer sanding and more brasso. Any suggestions or additional comments are welcome. Since the dome is at this stage I am willing to test further. 

Get some actual micro mesh.  It's nine grades from 1500 - 12,000.  And why in the world are you using brasso?  Also take off the Hood so you can access the whole dome.

Sit down with a bowl of water, a few towels, and watch a movie for TWO hours while you go through the nine grades.  It seems like you took a short cut with just three.  And get rid of the brasso, you don't need that.

https://www.amazon.com/SANDING-SHEETS-INTRODUCTORY-Peachtree-Woodworking/dp/B000H6HIK2/ref=asc_df_B000H6HIK2/?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=&hvpos=&hvnetw=o&hvrand=&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584345024990910&psc=1

Though I certainly had better results than yours, I was never fully satisfied with my results using things like micromesh, brasso, etc. My domes were usable afterwards but not perfect (still a tad hazy). More recently I purchased an inexpensive ($70) benchtop buffer and got near-perfect results (and with so much less effort). Just be sure to use a soft buffing wheel and a compound made for plastics if you go this route, and obviously keep the dome moving (buffing the same spot too long could lead to problems).