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(Fairly) Easy Dustcover Polishing Scheme

I found a decent, lazy-man's way to polish turntable dustcovers. We had been using the Novus 1-2-3 system in our SoCal shop on restoration of fine-art pieces with good results. Using the Heavy Scratch remover (#3 - white) on a surface the size of a dustcover required way to much hand effort to be practical though.

The inerwebb reviews of the Mother's PowerBall Polishing Tool were mixed, but it seems designed to apply polishes that require a gentle touch. On this dustcover I was not trying to achieve perfect, glass-like finish- just a B+ grade, for a friend who'll use the table occasionally.

This cover was a mess- no deep gouges or chemical burns like some but it had been in a stack of dirty junk for years, apparently, and literally was pulled from a dumpster by a friend.

DeWalt set at the lowest speed (#1), apply the #3 Heavy polish liberally to about 1/3 of the dustcover top and spread it using a very slow speed to avoid splattering all over. (It splatters some regardless.) When the polish is spread evenly and the splattering stops increase speed and bear down, circulating in overlapping S's, then at 90 degrees another string of overlapping S's. Repeating this about 4-5 times, all evenly, reduced the visibility of most of the scratches, leaving a few but overall the impression is quite good (from 2 yards away!) Wash and dry the PowerBall and follow with Novus #2, one pass, and clean with #1.

You can spin the ball at high speed in the driveway to dry it faster; it holds a ton of water. I soaked it in Simple Green to clean it- less suds.

I think that a few more passes with the #3 would have taken out more scratches but the process is somehow exponential and double the effort might have moved this from a B+ to an A-, so choose the degree you want to achieve.

The table, a cheap Technics, worked perfectly after cleaning and lubrication and came from the dumpster with a good, cheap AT P-mount cart. Total cost of project = $0, well maybe a couple bucks for the polishes.



Edits: 07/31/16

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Topic - (Fairly) Easy Dustcover Polishing Scheme - mr.bear 12:06:04 07/25/16 (5)

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