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Polishing Glass: The wrong & right way

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Danny Baronian
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Polishing Glass: The wrong & right way

Post by Danny Baronian »

After completing a set of glass doors for a local brewery, I realized the masking had lifted in a section that was supposed to remain clear.

Not having time to remake one piece to meet the opening, I opted to take it to a local shop that bevels glass where they could polish the slight frost out. Before loading the glass into the truck, I realized the polishing compound used on the wheels is cerium oxide, the same material Rick supplied in his angel gild kits, and thought I'd try polishing it out.

Pulled the cerium oxide out and chucked a 1" sanding disc into a right angle die grinder. Applied double stick tape to some sheet cork and adhered it to the disk, applied water to the frosted area and sprinkled on cerium oxide. Within 5 minutes i had the 1/4" wide x 18" frosted area completely clear.

It seemed that when the water was almost gone, the glass seemed to polish better. After stopping to examine the area, I saw steam rising off the polished area.

If you have a similar problem, especially with those scratches and abrasions that always appear from nowhere after you've gilded or painted the glass, remember this - when polishing, make sure water is on the area you're working on. If you use a air die grinder, turn the pressure down. A die grinder at 90 psi runs at approximately 20,000 rpm. Watching someone doing brilliant carving, I'd guess the speed of the wheel is more in the area of 500 - 1000 rpm.

If you decide to polish until the water is gone, and you see steam rising off the surface, don't add more water - until the glass has cooled down. If the glass finally looks good, don't try and make it better - like I did. That's when the cork decide to give out and the arbor loosened so the metal arbor extended beyond the fiber disc, scratching the glass. After tightening the arbor, using plenty of water and cerium oxide, and turning the pressure down, the glass was again clear, delivered and installed.

After all was said and done, I realized Sara King had given me a 3" felt pad mounted on an arbor available here: http://www.stainedglassltd.com/newsite/ ... ser=892471

Next time it'll go faster... doing the job properly, and with the right tools the first time.
Danny Baronian
Baronian Mfg.
CNC Routing & Fabrication
http://www.baronian.com
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