ok...here's the deal i've bought some plexiglass from a local retailer... they didn't know what kind it was... is was the only available plex in the area here it's clear, see-through and it's hard... it breaks when force is applied and gives a cracking sound when you try to bend it a little with hand (without heating) well... i thought *hell, let's start modding*... so i've soldered some 15 led's in and connected and blablablabla.... now...my question... how can i clean this plexiglass from scratches and stuff??? can i use aceton or should i be really patient and polish my arms of with toothpaste???
With aceton you're only making it worse, for aceton is making the plexiglas matte. It's a hell of a job to get rid of scratches in plexiglas. Didn't you protected the plexiglas with some protective layer, something like protectional tape (painters tape)? Anyway, I would even recomend to get a new piece of plexiglas and do it over, but this time protect the plexiglas to prevent scratches.
The plexi should come with a protective film on top, so just leave it on when you come to work with it and remove it once you are done.
Plexi can be cleaned with a standard glass cleaner (at least thats what I use) but to get rid of scratches is impossible. Always keep the protective layer on until your 100% done, and if it doesn't have one, don't buy it!
hmmm...so i HAVE to do it all over again :S???? i've cut it, drilled it, glued leds in and soldered them... tested the led's who all work...but i saw some scratches and stuff...which is pretty crappy cause i've engraved the whole plexi :S
Or you could sand the whole piece up, so that it is Frosted and the cracks are no more! Although i'm not completely sure in what intensity the engraved things would be visible after frosting.
While I was working on making a power button for an earlier PC, I did all this work to cut out a small plexi circle and jam it into a small copper pipe, with out it cracking, and got it to work, then while I was cleaning it I used Denatured Alcohol to clean the finger prints off It created some massive cracks that went all through the button. What I imagine happens (I aint no expert) is that the liquid gets into small cracks, imperceptible cracks, and then since it evaporates rapidly it will cause cracks to spread as it turns into a gas. But that is just my own thoughts, there is probably some more technical reason about why it happens.
Etanol gets into the pores of polymethyl methacrylate and acts as a solvent. This works quite like pouring acid on metal: Corrosion ensues. The alcohol lowers PMMA's fracture strength. The PMMA sheet has some internal manufacturing tension from polymerization. When the fracture strength drops below the tension, cracking happens.
