Flame Polishing

[Robert Lambie]

im far from any expert mate. infact far from it :lol1: . only dabbled in this but, is it not a case of using more of a point on the flame you use?
or, maybe going back over the same part?
that may sound daft.. coz i dont know how you are doing it.. i just used a regular blow torch & did the trick for me, but i wasnt looking for anything crystal clear 🙄

[Adrian Hewson]

Thanks Rob but

We are using a real flame polisher with a very very fine tip, but if we stray off the cut edge at all we are marking the face of the acrylic. The current job is using plexiglass satinice which is a frosted acrylic and the heat on the face of the letter is making the satinice go clear.

Anyone else got any ideas

Regards Adrian

[Mike Grant]

I think the trick is to use the correct part of the flame. You should use the middle of the flame not the end of the flame. It is a hard thing to explain on here so use off cuts to experiment on with the different flame settings.
Also you shouldn’t go over the same place twice, get it right first time or you can over stress the material. Also do not use extruded acrylic and don’t paint or glue the edges once polished as it will start to crack and craze the surface.
Some colours also don’t like the flame polisher, they will change colour. 😮

[Andy Gorman]

I always find it is a good idea to polish at a consistent speed so the flame doesn’t linger too long on one area. Takes a bit of practice but gives a consistent finish. I would think a satin finish acrylic would be a bit tricky to polish because the satin would polish to clear quite quicky.

[Rodney Gold]

Degussa (rohm) , who supply Satinice (an extruded product) have a CD out detailing how to machine it without geting edges you have to flame polish , they also supply special special tools to cut it without having saw/router marks. the alos supply a gel when applied to rough cut pex edges totally hides the saw mark and gives a polsihed edge affect.
We flame polish with the covering on (we always cut with it on).
Bear in mind flame polishing puts huge stress into the material , if it comes into contact with solvents or near solvents (like pex glues) it WILL stress crack, I recently attended a workshop held by degussa on satinice and other products where they spent a great amount of time on fabrication , glueing etc. They have this on a CD too. Ask your supplier for this and their bulletins on the correct glues etc. Their glues are marvellous!!!.

[Lee Jones]

Please excuse my ignorance, but this all sounds very interesting.
Just ” what is Flame Polishing”

[Adrian Hewson]

Once again many thanks Rod I done know what I would do without you.

Hi lee

When you cut acrylic with a saw or a router it leaves a rough edge at the cut. By running over this edge with a very hot flame you make the cut go very shiny (as you have melted the plastic). This is flame polishing.

REgards Adrian

[Lee Jones]

quote signco:

By running over this edge with a very hot flame

Many Thanks Adrian,

When you say a hot flame are we talking about some kind of butane /propane torch or hotter as in acetylene ?

[Adrian Hewson]

Hi Lee

Flame polishing should be done with a Flame Polisher, this is a stand alone machine which generates gas from an electrolytic solution which is then mixed with ethanol (dont ask me any more than that). The flame produced is very clean (no carbon deposits) and very small so that you can accurately polish your cuts

REgards Adrian

[Mike Rogers]

At my last place of employment the lads used a small palm held flame torch (about 6″ high and 2″ diameter) purchased from machine mart for about £18. With a little experience the effects were more than satisfactory

Mike

[Andy Gorman]

You can use the little micro flame thingies that are used to remove bubbles from dome resin. OK for small amounts of polishing.

[Lee Jones]

quote big G:

You can use the little micro flame thingies

Thanks for all your help, think I have enough info to give it a try sometime when needed, will give the micro flame thingy a go first as we have a few of these knocking about. Thanks again