Glass Polishing

[carlos123]

Hi all.

 

Has anyone got a foolproof way of polishing watch glass to remove scratches etc?

I’ve tried several compounds and methods and none seem to work! Ive also tried various grades of abrasive paper with lubricant as well as scratch removers as well as a Dremel with polishing wheel.

 

If only it was as easy as Polywatch with acrylic glass!

 

Regards

 

Carl

 

 

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[AndyHull]

In my experience, if doing this by hand, it simply takes a long time. Dremel type tools are much quicker, but take a bit of practice to get the technique sorted.

With acrylic you can use pretty much any abrasive, including toothpaste if the scratches are light, and you will usually get results in only a few minutes.

With mineral glass, you require harder abrasives and more time.

With sapphire, you will need probably need to to use diamond pastes, and it will take longer still.

If you search this forum, you will find a number of good threads on the subject.

For glass and sapphire, you can polish by hand, but it takes forever, you will almost certainly need to use a Dremel or similar.

If you are using polishing disks in a power tool, you need to run them at a relatively low speed.

There are a number of youtube videos about this too, most of which are trying to sell you their whizz bang product, but the technique is the important point in these videos. The brand of the abrasive is not really important.

Edited October 29, 2019 by AndyHull

[carlos123]

Thanks, do you have any recommendations for normal glass, the latest one I’ve tried is Autosol scratch remover. The Dremel didn’t seem to do much, although I was also conscious over overheating the glass.
It may just require more elbow grease and time?

Cheers

Carl


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[Lwayslate]

There is a Polywatch diamond paste polishing kit available for glass. I bought it locally for $17.90CDN. I usually just replace crystals if I can get the size because they are relatively cheap, but I came across a Fossil with a very thick single-dome crystal and thought I would try this and it worked very well for even deep scratches.

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[jackie01]

I polish mineral glass with good result only using water paper and cerium oxide powder. You can see result below.

 

 

 

 

[carlos123]

I polish mineral glass with good result only using water paper and cerium oxide powder. You can see result below.
 

 

 

 

Blimey what a difference! How long did it take you?


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[jackie01]

Something about 1h

[vinn3]

19 minutes ago, Lwayslate said:

There is a Polywatch diamond paste polishing kit available for glass. I bought it locally for $17.90CDN. I usually just replace crystals if I can get the size because they are relatively cheap, but I came across a Fossil with a very thick single-dome crystal and thought I would try this and it worked very well for even deep scratches.

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  for$ 17 you could buy a stack of "wet or dry" paper and a few sheets of "diamond paper".   vin

[clockboy]

5 hours ago, carlos123 said:

 

Hi all.

 

Has anyone got a foolproof way of polishing watch glass to remove scratches etc?

I’ve tried several compounds and methods and none seem to work! Ive also tried various grades of abrasive paper with lubricant as well as scratch removers as well as a Dremel with polishing wheel.

 

If only it was as easy as Polywatch with acrylic glass!

 

Regards

 

Carl

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

This subject has been covered many times in this forum. Just put it in the search bar and you will find lots. Personally I find it too long a winded a process and I have had mixed results. If it is a deep scratch removing the scratch and still keeping the optics OK I have found difficult. Far easier, quicker and in real terms cheaper to just change the crystal.

[jdm]

8 hours ago, carlos123 said:

I’ve tried several compounds and methods and none seem to work!

What is your issue exactly?

[carlos123]

What is your issue exactly?

I’m not making any progress in getting rid of minor to deep scratches using various methods.


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[jdm]

Just now, carlos123 said:

I’m not making any progress in getting rid of minor to deep scratches using various methods.

Cut a 5-6cm round from a credit card. On top of it place a round of 280 grip wet paper if there are deep scratches or dings. This is held on a mandrel in the rotary tool. which is much better if is hold horizontal by some support. Place a cup of water under the work and dip often. Set low speed. Better to keep the glass in the watch otherwise you risk it to fly away and chip it. Keep the watch as much as vertical as possible, Look well where the wheel is grinding. You want it to go where the scratch is, by including the watch just a little but, not just anywhere around. As you practice, you will be able to recognize when grinding in the right spot , as the white streaks (that is glass) shape differently on a scratch.

Replace papers as needed, like once or twice, it will be difficult to tell because the glass will be very hazed, but try your best. When sure all is gone switch to 600 grid and polish where you worked before, again no need to go all around. Glass will be still hazed, but less.
Next, do not waste time with finer paper, use an hard felt wheel, 50 x 15mm, and cheap oil diamond paste. This time you will be working with the outer wall, not the face of the wheel like before. For quick work you can use a single grade like 20, finer than that does not make much of a difference. The way you do it is to place a little paste toward you, and draw from that gradually with the wheel. Clean well with dish detergent. Very likely you will see more defects, in which case you will have to go back to wet paper.

It takes practice to do all the above right but in my experience the paper/paste combo is the faster and most effective method. but after you mastered all the steps you can bring a terrible glass to perfection in 45-60 minutes.

 

[carlos123]

Cut a 5-6cm round from a credit card. On top of it place a round of 280 grip wet paper if there are deep scratches or dings. This is held on a mandrel in the rotary tool. which is much better if is hold horizontal by some support. Place a cup of water under the work and dip often. Set low speed. Better to keep the glass in the watch otherwise you risk it to fly away and chip it. Keep the watch as much as vertical as possible, Look well where the wheel is grinding. You want it to go where the scratch is, by including the watch just a little but, not just anywhere around. As you practice, you will be able to recognize when grinding in the right spot , as the white streaks (that is glass) shape differently on a scratch.
Replace papers as needed, like once or twice, it will be difficult to tell because the glass will be very hazed, but try your best. When sure all is gone switch to 600 grid and polish where you worked before, again no need to go all around. Glass will be still hazed, but less.
Next, do not waste time with finer paper, use an hard felt wheel, 50 x 15mm, and cheap oil diamond paste. This time you will be working with the outer wall, not the face of the wheel like before. For quick work you can use a single grade like 20, finer than that does not make much of a difference. The way you do it is to place a little paste toward you, and draw from that gradually with the wheel. Clean well with dish detergent. Very likely you will see more defects, in which case you will have to go back to wet paper.
It takes practice to do all the above right but in my experience the paper/paste combo is the faster and most effective method. but after you mastered all the steps you can bring a terrible glass to perfection in 45-60 minutes.
 

Thanks for your detailed response, I will certainly give this a go!


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[carlos123]

Just purchased some diamond oil paste as I haven’t tried this option yet [emoji106]


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[carlos123]

Success!

Oil diamond paste landed, had a session on the Dremel with felt pad, took a while but managed to get the scratches out, to leave a light blemish that can just be seen at the wrong angle.

I was going to do a bit more to flatten the glass further but didn’t want to compromise the glass.

Time to practice some more [emoji846]

Thanks all!

Carl


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