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Polyurethane polishing/buffing


koco

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Polyurethane polishing/buffing

 

What can be done to highly polish a polyurethane finish? Can it be treated like laquer?

 

I intended to work down to 1500 grit or so and then polish with a pad and compound.

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wet sanding down to 1200 ( or even 2500 to make buffing quicker), then buffing with Meguiars #3, #7 usually does the trick. Get all the hardware & eletronics out of the way. Clean off the sanding grit & compound residue before you re assemble.

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Originally posted by ThomasD

Poly finishes can have very long cure times, especially water based products in a high humidity environment. Be sure to wait long enough before final polishing otherwise yo may be wasting your time.

 

 

This is good advice. I'm not using a water based product, but it still seems to be a bit gummy 10 hours after coating. I'm waiting extra long plus baking the coats in the sun for a while. Also heating the poly makes it flow better, but I'm not sure if it will de stabilize it too much.

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Originally posted by koco



This is good advice. I'm not using a water based product, but it still seems to be a bit gummy 10 hours after coating. I'm waiting extra long plus baking the coats in the sun for a while. Also heating the poly makes it flow better, but I'm not sure if it will de stabilize it too much.

 

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, you should proabably let the finish cure for a good two weeks before final polish, a month might even be better.

 

Finishes cure incrementally - the majority of the process occurs rather rapidly and the finish may be 'wearable' in a matter of hours or days but in order to get a high gloss from polishing you want that finish to be almost entirely, or entirely, hardened and that takes time.

 

It is unlikely that sun/UV exposure will speed the process significantly - unless recommended by the finish manufacturer I'd suggest avoiding it, conceivably it could interfere with the catalysis/polymerization and actually make the final finish softer.

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