Removing stains on an acrylic bath?

[Matty F]

I polish my acrylic handbasin and shower base with Brasso. But you'd better wait for more comments in case there's a better way.

[Tabby]

If you really cant find any info on google, the following clean many things off: paraffin ammonia caustic soda various acids, eg sulphuric, HCl, etc cream cleaner

NT

[.newman]

My champagne coloured acrylic bath has a couple of dark stains, probably caused by hair dye. I have tried bleach and other household cleaners without success. Anything else I could try?

Regards

[Owain]

Hair dye.

You leave it on long enough to remove the previous colour, but not long enough to re-colour.

Of course it might make things worse.

Owain

[Frank Erskine]

Angle grinder.

[Spamlet]

Interesting technique to have discovered, Matty.

I seem to recall 'making' 'brasso' with just cotton wool damped in white spirit with a dash of ammonia. I'd have thought you'd typically need something acidic on those items - unless you are in a soft water area I suppose, but if there is a little mild 'grinding paste' in the real Brasso as well, that might explain it.

S

[Spamlet]

Thinking about it: don't people treat their hair with peroxide first? In which case you may find that will bleach your dye stains too. Our 'pound shop' seems to have surprisingly large amounts of peroxide in all strengths - some of which I thought were explosive! - next to its range of hair dyes, so I reckon it would be worth a try.

S

[Tabby]

Does the dye pack will say what the solvent in it is?

NT

[Owain]

I don't know, I don't use the stuff.

Owain

[Matty F]

I used to make patterns out of Perspex. I would make the desired shape by gluing pieces of perspex together, and machine and sand into shape. Then I would polish with Brasso to get a high gloss and pour two-part moulding rubber over the pattern. I could then cast epoxy in the mould and got a very polished finish. So, I assume Perspex is the same as acrylic. What I do know is that if you polish an acylic shower base with Brasso, it will resist dirt for a long time.

[Spamlet]

Hmm, Wonder if it's worth trying to polish my ancient plastic spectacle lenses with it...

Cheers, S

[A Plumber]

Brasso's the best thing m8, do the whole bath with some elbow grease, you'll think you have a new one

[Spamlet]

And will it work on plastic spectacle lenses too?

PS: as it happens, the missus had left some shoe dye in the bath, so I put some peroxide on it. One, it would not wet the dye, and two, even when scrubbed with it, it did not bleach - but that was shoe dye not hair dye, so may be OT. Will try the Brasso next.

Cheers,

S

[js.b1]

Silver polish is actually finer than brasso - at least where spectacles are concerned.

If you have a stuffed anti-reflection (AR) coating, Etch All can remove it with care. Silver polish > Brasso polish >>> Toothpaste re spectacles.

However polishing out scratches of any depth may affect the prescription re distant text reading. You can pick up new glasses with

1.67 lenses (ultra thin) of non-bifocal with "traditional gold frames" for =A347.50 delivered from onestopglasses and similar places (eg, Solo 10 at that website are =A312.50 for the frames, -4.50 lenses will push you to ultrathin so =A335 extra). Worth delegating an old pair for DIY use.

[Matty F]

I doubt that plastic lenses would polish well enough to see through. I have used cerium oxide for polishing glass but it's hard work.

[.newman]

Thanks to all. I tried Brasso first and the stains are much reduced. I will continue with more treatment and hopefully the stains will be fully removed.

Regards

[Spamlet]

Ah: shame - as it's the only pair I have that work (ish) I'll leave that experiment for now.

Cerium oxide is not something I've come across: how did you come to be working with that?

S

[Spamlet]

If you have a stuffed anti-reflection (AR) coating, Etch All can remove it with care. Silver polish > Brasso polish >>> Toothpaste re spectacles.

However polishing out scratches of any depth may affect the prescription re distant text reading. You can pick up new glasses with

1.67 lenses (ultra thin) of non-bifocal with "traditional gold frames" for £47.50 delivered from onestopglasses and similar places (eg, Solo 10 at that website are £12.50 for the frames, -4.50 lenses will push you to ultrathin so £35 extra). Worth delegating an old pair for DIY use.

Yes I've used toothpaste as a mild grinding paste on other things. It is about time I got some new glasses (actually has been for a number of years - but we've all been through that thread before. I'll get around to it; probably some time after I get around to seeing the dentist... ;-)

S

[Matty F]

I use it to polish windows. I can polish out the scratches caused by a missing windscreen wiper, and some of the scratches caused by morons who use sandpaper near the edges of the windows of heritage vehicles. It's not easy - it could take half an hour to polish a small area using an electric drill with a leather pad. And then that area could heat up and crack.

[dennis]

You can buy it from telescope manufacturing suppliers. I have used it in the past to polish mirrors after grinding them with carborundum (sp?) grit in grades from 60 to 1000+. The pitch lap with a nylon shirt on it works wonders for polishing mirrors, knocks hours off.