Sanding Lexan

[carver]

I bought a small sheet of lexan from home depot to use for bills. It was about 1/8" thick. I sanded down the thickness of the bill on that portion that was not epoxied into the bill slot. It worked well, but sanding "clouded" up the top half of the bill.

Is there any way to get the clarity of the lexan back?....heat....or some type of compund I can rub in?

[Downriver Tackle]

Flow a thin layer of clearcoat over it.

[NoiseyCricket]

Regular PMMA-acrylic like Plexiglas is often polished with heat (like a acetylene-torch or similar) but Polycarbonate like Lexan needs to be polished to get shiney again. At work Im using a polish-compound specially made for Plexiglas, which is distributed by our local Evonik/Degussa/Röhm (Plexiglas) -dealer, but I dont remeber the brandname of it. Most polish-compounds will do the job quite well but make sure that you try it out on a spare-Lexanpart before you use it on your actual lure-part.

[Wayupnorth36]

If you have a Dremel, it usually comes with a polishing wheel and a small container of brick red polishing compound. This won't restore your Lexan to perfect clarity, but it will get you pretty close.

[carver]

Thanks for the quick responses. I will try both methods.

[carpholeo]

Also, before polishing, sand the area with the finest grit wet-or-dry sandpaper you can find.

[RiverMan]

Why would you thin the bill down......just leave it at 1/8th inch.

RM

[Lure--Prof]

You can actually sand it to full clarity. Hobbytown carries polishing grits to 12000. Once I get to 6000 I usually hit it with a felt polishing wheel in the Dremel, and then a little cotton wheel. Luthier supply catalogs like www.stewmac.com carry polishing abrasives also such as Micro-Mesh.

Dean

[Vodkaman]

Use a drop of oil with the last go with the fine abrasive paper, or soapy water, if you don't want oil near your lure.

Cutting compounds like T-cut (for cleaning up car paint blemishes) or brasso work well for the next stage. If you use the dremel wheel, go very careful, or you will end up with an uneaven surface, which will not look good. The dremel wheel works with brasso too, but do it outside, as it sprays everywhere, but it does work.