What to clean clear perspex/plastic with?

[Live2DieTrying]

I am soon to get a new phone, and my friend wishes to have my current one.
I said that I would clean it up before i gave it to him, and the plastic cover of the screen is pretty scratched up and dusty.
I think some of this dust is embedded in the plastic, because the last time i gave it a clean off nothing happened.
(The LCD screen itself is in excelent condition, just the casing is not so good)

Now what do i use to clean plastics like this?
I'm stearing away from acetone and metho (strong ethanol cleaners) because i've burned and stained plastics in the past with them.
I don't want to use anything abbrasive because that would scratch up the screen even further.
I was suggested to use toothpaste by somebody (cleaning power! And because it has teeny tiny little pellets in some...) I'm not sure if that is a good idea though.

If I could get my hands on some jewelers (rouge?) would i be able to use it to polish plastic, or will it leave a bad surface on the plastic? I've polished glass and brass with it, and achieved a great finish, i'm just not so sure about plastic.

[NCR600]

Toothpaste will indeed polish plastic, although test it on an unobtrusive area first, some plastics may not like it.

There is a product called Plexus available from motorcycle shops which is I believe used by the USAF to clean jet fighter canopies. It's a cleaner & wax, so it won't remove scratches, but will hide the smaller ones. Dipping the screen in Pledge One Go floor polish would do a similar thing, and be much cheaper, particularly if you already have it!.

If it's scratched up badly, the only way is to polish it with increasingly fine abrasive, like jeweller's rouge. I don't know much about jeweller's rouge, but I'll assume it's abrasive particles in some sort of paste to carry it.

If the paste is an oil based type, I'd steer clear of it for plastic. You can get very fine abrasive paper (called crocus paper) or lapping film which will certainly work, but there will be a lot of work to polish out deep scratches.

It's probably going to be easier to try to buy or make a new cover.

[Disturbed.Rider]

You do realise that a new case is like $5?

but other than that I would just make sure its a lint free cloth.




Sam

[danv]

Be sure there is no dust and crap UNDER the cover as well. It can happen. Otherwise get a new cover if it's easy to replace.

[|Matt|]

I use wipes from a company called "Rogge". The package is called TFT/LCD Bildschirm-Reinigungstucher. I can only assume this is a german brand.
They clean my phone very well, and they are also designed to clean LCD screens, so when my computer moniter gets grubby, out come the TFT wipes.

Cheers
Matt

[djdom]

I use wipes from a company called "Rogge". The package is called TFT/LCD Bildschirm-Reinigungstucher. I can only assume this is a german brand.
They clean my phone very well, and they are also designed to clean LCD screens, so when my computer moniter gets grubby, out come the TFT wipes.

Cheers
Matt

where do u get these from? my psp screen is looking like crap i might try tooth paste tho

[|Matt|]

where do u get these from? my psp screen is looking like crap i might try tooth paste tho

Im not sure, I'll ask dad when he gets home but I think it was Harvey Norman.

[Live2DieTrying]

You do realise that a new case is like $5?
The phone is a Sony Ericsson K700i and the cases are a minumum of $20, and that's on Ebay. If I wanted to get a new one from elsewhere I'd be looking at quite a bit of money.

Just googling 'crocus paper' it comes up with Emery paper, which may do the trick, (but I've just realised could leave the surface quite vulnerable to further scratching...) I might be able to ask for some really fine Emery paper from the jewlery room next to my class tomorrow.

NCR - The jewelers rouge i have used was sort of like what you said, it was a powder, and we mixed it with water and begun the polishing. I believe it also comes in little blocks, and these are just the same thing (crush them up, then use it like a paste)


Every time I've had the case off I've fully cleaned it of all dust/hair/any crud in there. It fills with dust really easily through the slot for the earphone.

[NCR600]

The phone is a Sony Ericsson K700i and the cases are a minumum of $20, and that's on Ebay. If I wanted to get a new one from elsewhere I'd be looking at quite a bit of money.

Just googling 'crocus paper' it comes up with Emery paper, which may do the trick, (but I've just realised could leave the surface quite vulnerable to further scratching...) I might be able to ask for some really fine Emery paper from the jewlery room next to my class tomorrow.

NCR - The jewelers rouge i have used was sort of like what you said, it was a powder, and we mixed it with water and begun the polishing. I believe it also comes in little blocks, and these are just the same thing (crush them up, then use it like a paste)


Every time I've had the case off I've fully cleaned it of all dust/hair/any crud in there. It fills with dust really easily through the slot for the earphone.

Unless you can pinch enough of the jeweller's rouge in enough grades to do the job, buying the abrasives could cost as much as a new screen/case.

Crocus paper is basically very fine emery paper.

3M do lapping film down to 3 micron (grit size), which should be good enough for a finish on something like that, but you need to start much rougher and work down in steps to the fine stuff.

See what you can borrow from school and have a crack at it, if you haven't spent anything, you haven't lost anything. At the very worst you'll have to buy a new case.

Tip. (you might already know this, but anyway) polishing is all about getting the scratches to go in the same direction at the same depth. Sometimes, this can hide deeper scratches, so you need to polish a second time at 90 degrees to the original direction, which will show up any deeper scratches.

see if you can find a bit of clear plastic scrap and have a practice first, you'll get an idea of how fine the finest rouge or emery you can get at school actually is, and likewise for the roughest. You'll also get a good idea of how much each step is gonna take, and some idea of whether you want to put that much effort in!

[ScottD]

Plexus, used for aircraft and marine purposes. A bit over the top for aphone though

[sawtell]

just use a 320 grit wet and dry, then a 600, then an 800, then a 1200, then what ever you can get.. after you think its as smooth as you can make it,get it on a buffing wheel... ive done this on many bits of perspex. .. Basically i would get the edges to look like an untouched bit of plastic, when it did have saw marks all through it originaly.

[Live2DieTrying]

I've worked with perspex, and it's a bit of a duty to polish it down/up.
I don't want to put it on the buffing wheel because it has a silver line around the outside, and i want to keep this shiny (it's plastic, and i think it's just paint) I'll tape it up before the job.

I don' really need to sand it in steps, as it doesn't have any major scratched, just a whole lot of little annoying ones. (the ones that show really well against a black screen)

I'll have a look around for some 3 micron stuff, and get some fine paper from the school aswell. Our school doesn't have any jewelers rouge at the moment, and the teacher arced up and told me that she wouldn't give me any even if they did have some (I'm not even that bad a guy.)