122 replies to this topic

[coloradodawn]

My stomach hurts thinking about it, but, I'm convinced after reading the forum. I have the kit, now, I need to take the plunge. One question: How do you know when it's time to switch between the grades of the kit? How can you tell? Thanks.
**Update: 2/20/2010: I used the kit and it worked. Inside and out. Inside was very tricky and had to re-work through the levels a few times. Whew!

[Uwila]

If you live in the EU, ou can buy a micro-mesh kit from here:
http://www.svsp.co.u...anopy_parts.htm
They're nice people and I'm sure they'll post outside of the UK. I've used the kit for repairing a glider canopy on a vintage glider.

Cheers, Chris

[TisTam]

Saw these on the net - would they be useful for anyone wanting to polish the inside of dome ports?

http://www.sylmasta....ndi_Files_.html

They've also got the micro-mesh kits:

http://www.sylmasta....ng_Kits_34.html

(UK company)

Edited by TisTam, 26 August 2010 - 02:08 AM.

[MichaelG]

Well, i didn't buy all the different sandpapers separately but i ordered the Micro mesh kit mentioned in the first post.

cheers, Udo


Udo, where did you order the Micro-Mesh acrylic restore kit? Seems hard to find inside the European Community, which i think will be the cheapest way to get it, due to taxes shipping and exchanging fees.....

Thanks again in advance!

Kim! :-)

[Panda]

I posted this elsewhere but it probably should be in this thread as well.
Ikelite 8" dome, Micro Mesh NC-78-1 kit

[Paul Mac]

Great Video

Waiting for my micro-mesh kit to arrive so I can polish my dome

Thanks!!

[edonnolley]

Well, i finally did it! I plucked up the courage to run a piece of sandpaper over my dome port.

I didnt use the branded "micromesh kit", instead opting for a Micomesh Soft Touch Pads kit.

I watched Panda's movie, and after many deep breathes, delved right in to the outside of the port.

The first grade 1500 removed the majority of a fairly deep (maybe 1mm deep) scratch about 2 inches long. Completely gone by the time finished the second grade 1800.

It IS a little daunting to see the port turn into a diffuser, but rest assured, even a beginner could do this!

The hard part was removing a similar scratch on the INSIDE of the port. I had an accident a while ago where my lens came off inside the port and left a nice size scratch which would show up in pics faced towards light (the sun). ANNOYING!! So i decided to have a go at removing this also. The soft touch pads are much smaller than the full micromesh papers and make things a little easier when working on the inside of the port. Granted, my fingers were still sore after working on the inside of the port for an hour, but in the end, my port is now completely scratch free and taking photos like the first day I received it.

Australians - There is an ebay seller by the name of The Sandpaper Man. Easiest place to order your goods

I cannot give enough THANKS to rschrager for starting this thread and to the many who have posted their words of encouragement!

[wheeliebloke]

From reading this thread it's apparent that acrylic domes are loads easier to repair than glass. I couldn't help wondering if the kind of resin they use for fixing car windscreens could be used on glass domes. Nobody has mentioned it so just thought I'd ask.

[Ktay1111]

I never knew such a product existed! Thanks for the post. I think I might pick up a kit even if at the moment its not needed.

[ileiman]

I had a few annoying dents on my Ikelite 8" dome from crashing against some rocks in strong current.
To get rid of them, I first tried the Novus Acrlylic polishing kit that is sold at Backscatter.
But even the "#3 heavy scratch cream" did nothing to the dents.

Then I found a set of "Micro-mesh touch pads", with all the grades from 1500 to 12000, from a local woodworking shop. These are soft pads that have micro-mesh papers on both sides.

With the 1500 grade pad and water I was able to get rid of the dents in just a few minutes.

However, it does look like a diffuser after the grinding:

After this I applied all the pad grades, one by one, all the way to the finest 15000 grade. After each grade I rinsed the dome with plain water. And on each grade I buffed to one particular direction, and changed the buffing direction 90 degrees on the next round.
After this I dried the dome and used the Novus acrylic polishing creams, starting with #3:

Then #2 cream and final polishing with the #1 cream.
After this it looks like brand new again:


The whole process took about 30 minutes.
The micro-mesh pads can still be used for many times over, and I have plenty of the Novus cream left. So I can do this many times again, if nescessary.

[Alex_Tattersall]

Good stuff!

[wbk]

well, understandably this is kina a long thread and forgive me if i missed someone else saying it but i do think i saw Orca mention it... Brasso... it is cheaper and does a fanctastic job!

Basically any slightly abrasive polish will do the job for you; silver polish, brass polish, even car wax stuff works. Theoretically it should even work on glass domes and ports but it will just take you one heck of a long time to polish, maybe if someone has an orbital sander with a buff pad and a fair amount of time on their hands they can try it.

The other kits sound great and if it is a really deep scratch then the sanding method save some time but for a general clean up i would stand by brasso everytime! nothing like the good old ways!!

[icyman61]

I badly scratched up my Sea & Sea dome port (it's acrylic) while diving at Cocos and Malpelo. Lots of current and lots of rock is a bad combination for a housing with a big dome port. A couple of fairly deep scratches (you could easily feel them with your finger) and some shallower ones (you could feel them with you finger-nail).

After doing some research, including some older threads on this board, I decided to try the Micro-Mesh NC-78-1 ACRYLIC RESTORAL KIT (Micro-Mesh) . It's made for taking scratches out of airplane windscreens. It cost $37 and comes with 9 grades of their Micro-Mesh papers (high grade wet/dry sandpapers), polishing paste, detergent, anti-static cream and pads and cloths.

Taking a good stiff drink first, I started the job with 320 grade wet/dry paper, went to 400 grade paper and then started using the Micro-Mesh papers. Each grade took about 3-5 minutes and the instructions were to sand in straight lines only, not circular, and then rotate the dome about 120 degrees for the next grade.

After the first sanding, the port looked like a diffuser (although when I flushed it with water before going to the next grade, it was clear). However, by the time I did the final polish, it looked new.

I highly recommend this product. $37 and a little elbow grease (actually, not much at all) is a lot better than a buying a new port.

Bob

Awesome info, ty

[jefdriesen]

Does polishing also works well for acrylic macro ports? I can imagine the acrylic surface is harder to "reach" than a dome port that is sticking out more.

[Viz'art]

Does polishing also works well for acrylic macro ports? I can imagine the acrylic surface is harder to "reach" than a dome port that is sticking out more.

I possible, I would see where removing the port lens would help, typically a flat port lens is fairly economical and I would consider replacing it, whatever the case, if you polish an acrylic flat port lens, make sure the polished surface is in contact with the water and not internal, water and acrylic are pretty, pretty close to identical and the micro marks left usually fill up with water and won't show up.

[Stewart L. Sy]

Was mentioned briefly in page 2 of this thread but a quick field repair is to use tooth PASTE (not gel) as those contain a mild abrasive (especially the ones that say "Tooth Whitening"). My 6" Aquatica port side swiped an outrigger on my last trip in October, left a 1/4" x 1/2" scuff. 30 Minutes with about a pea sized blob of Crest Whitening toothpaste and the port looked as good as new.

Cheers

Stu

[Longimanaus]

Was mentioned briefly in page 2 of this thread but a quick field repair is to use tooth PASTE (not gel) as those contain a mild abrasive (especially the ones that say "Tooth Whitening"). My 6" Aquatica port side swiped an outrigger on my last trip in October, left a 1/4" x 1/2" scuff. 30 Minutes with about a pea sized blob of Crest Whitening toothpaste and the port looked as good as new.

Cheers

Stu

This trick worked for me too on an acrylic dome. Lots of elbow grease using my bare finger and a cotton cloth after dinner while we watched a movie in the lounge (except I used Colgate). It polished the deep scratch to a point where when filled with water, there was minimal disruption. Saved the trip. When I got home I hit it with the Novus 3 step and it is as good as new.

[wbk]

a handy tool for using when trying to polish flat ports, espcially for getting to the inside if using a camera lens cleaning pen. Gives you the reach and makes it nice and easy for some high speed movement if you roll it between your two hands.... Works for dome ports too but not on the inside!

[Sir_H_Crrap]

Hey Guys,
was just reading up about this topic because the same thing happened to me except it was my boss's camera dome and i had about half an hour to fix it before a dive and not a clue how to fix it, nothing quite like the power of google and it turns out that whitening tooth paste actually removes scratches! it was one particular scratch that was coming up in the middle of the frame in good sunlight when i was finished after a good 10 minutes of polishing and buffing with soft cotton rags (gently at first to see the effect, but quite a bit of elbow grease when i was confident that it wasn't making more damage) 100% success.
the great thing is even if your on a dive boat somewhere your quite possibly have some toothpaste lying around so your trip isn't cut short because you left your professional dome cleaning kit back at base camp.

note: i don't know if normal toothpaste is as effective but for sure the whitening toothpaste left the dome in mint condition.

Sir H Crrap

Edited by Sir_H_Crrap, 09 August 2011 - 11:52 PM.

[RoyN]

Oh no! I used one of those cheapo sand paper, polished it, but still see scratch, is there a way to save the dome?