Polishing Ultem

[domesticextremist]

I may have mentioned that I recently ordered an Oumier Wasp Nano RDTA, which duly arrived in all its 'gold-plated' and Ultem glory.

I don't have quite as visceral a dislike of Ultem as a few peeps, especially those who find it reminds them of wee. (Well, if my wee was that colour I'd be off to the Urology department of my nearest hospital).
Anyhoo, whatever feelings one might have about the colour, I think we'd all be a lot happier if it were not cloudy.

So I decided to see if I could polish it into some state of transparency and shininess.

In the past, I have used toothpaste to shine up some acrylic drip tips, especially those bought from the competitive end of the market which have been machined a bit coarsely. A few minutes of spit and polish can be transformative.

When I tried this trick with Ultem, I found it didn't even touch it. Worse still, close inspection of the tank and top cap showed that there were concentric rings of machining marks inside and out that would take some shifting.

Googling around yielded two kinds of answer:

i) vapour polish with methylene chloride. Smelly, but I was game as it is the active ingredient in Nitromors paint stripper - or at least it was until those faceless Brussels bureaucrats decided to ban it. The reformulated product now has none and is perfectly harmless for children, pets and, erm, paint. Nothing else will touch Ultem as one of its USPs is its resistance to solvents.

ii) various peeps asking about using toothpaste, beetling off to try it and never returning (now I know why).

So I had to put on my thinking head...

[domesticextremist]

Digging around under the sink, I found a tube of T-Cut Scratch Remover (used to get scratches out of car paintwork).
I gave that a quick try and it seemed to be making some impression, however, thse machining marks were not going away quickly enough.
With some trepidation and care, I managed to sand them away (mostly) using fine wet and dry paper. 400 grade, used dry only. It was easy enough on the outer surfaces but more tricky on the inside of the tank and top cap where there are convex surfaces.
The I got proper busy with the T-Cut.
After an hour or two and having consumed large quantities of elbow grease, I got tired and looked around for and easier way.

Found this:



Now this guy is using toothpaste and a drill to polish a polycarbonate cap, so I decided to take the idea and just substitute T-Cut for toothpaste and finished off my tank and top cap.

[domesticextremist]

After a short time, some washing and buffing I transformed this:



Into this:



The colour of a fine pale ale

Well, it is not completely transparent, and the tank is nowhere near the glass one, but it does look a hell of a lot better.

Certainlty fits in more nicely with a shiny drip tip and mod.



So there you go.

Simple instructions minus the blether:

1) carefully remove any machining marks with dry 400 grade wet and dry aper.
2) polish with T-Cut (TM) Scratch Remover using elbow grease and or power tools
3) wash and buff
4) save your toothpaste for acrylic, polycarbonate and a bit for your teeth

[DaveJ]

Top job domesticextremist. Big improvement.

I've heard that Ultem is hard/durable ... you've certainly confirmed that.

[decoy]

www.amazon.co.uk/Farecla-AG3-700-Advanced-Liquid-Compound/dp/B003J10S36
this stuff is like t cut on steroids i use it for polishing everything
it comes in diff grades from 3 to 10 with 10 being the finest and the stuff is meant for car paint but brings up crombe,cd,s ,ally and anything else you want to polish
would recommend treating the plastic you want to polish like you do the paint ie start with 400 grit and work way up to 2000 grit then buff de heck outa it with g3 and if you want it perfik do it with g10 after and you should end up with a mirror finish
ruddy good job on that top cap with tcut mind

[phtumshk]

Top job, amazing transformation.

[Pepperty]

I had the opposite problem, my festtech ultem panels arrived and they were super shiney, and i hated it so took a sheet of scotch pad to them to brush them somewhat (and I still hate them!)

[domesticextremist]

Update: got some of these, dirt cheap, fit a drill and quite hard wearing.



Makes polishing a breeze