Polishing Acrylic Edges

From NUI Group

So you want to polish the edges of your acrylic?

Here's a quick tutorial (Please excuse the shoddy formatting ... the wiki software wasn't accepting the normal wiki Image formatting tags).

1. Get some acrylic. I'm using 3/8" thickness. Don't remove the protective paper until the last possible moment before you use it.
   

   

   Raw
   .
2. Get some tools. You'll need the following:
3. A scraper. You can use a real scraper:
   

   

   Scraper
   or a combination of a hacksaw blade and a file:
   

   

   Alternatives
4. Sandpaper: 150 grit dry, 220 grit dry, 400 grit wet:
   

   

   Sandpaper
5. A power drill for buffing:
   

   

   drill
6. Buffing wheel and buffing compound:
   

   

   buffing tools
7. Begin by scraping the rough edges using a scraper:
   

   
   Or you can use the hacksaw/file combination:
   

   
   

   
   .
8. Next, progressively sand the edge with the 150 grit:
   

   
   Then use the 200 grit:
   

   

   220 grit
   Then end with the wet 400 grit:
   

   
   It should be pretty smooth at that point.
9. Next, follow the instructions on the buffing wheel buff the edges to a mirror polish:
   

   

   buff
   .
10. Enjoy the nice mirror polish
    

    

    Finished
    . Christopher Baker