Sanding ABS armor - need advice!

[DJ138]

Hey all - 

 

The set of armor I got is relatively decently assembled, but the fella I picked up the suit from, in my opinion, cut a bunch of corners when assembling. A lot of the edges of the armor or kind of sharp and could very easily be uncomfortable to wear. he also made quite a few less than perfect ABS "welds" (the acetone/abs paste mixture). My question is - what grits/grades of sandpaper should I invest in to address these issues? Before I bother with putting snaps and attachments and all that sort of thing to the armor, and before I even consider doing any sort of painting, I'd like to get it all smoothed out in the rough spots. 

 

I did some searching to see what folks have been using, but I seem to be coming up empty.

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

 

[Tolo[TK]]

I used 1000 grit and wet sanded.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[DJ138]

Cheers!

[Snaps[TK]]

I can't remember the grit numbers, my apologies, but it used light grit the get a smooth edge and then the lightest grit to finish it off. I picked up packs at a local hobby store and hey worked fine. This worked when I had to add ABS in between my kidney and abdomen plates and use ABS paste to cover up the seams. You can get Novus applicant to fix up any extra small scratches. I also rounded off sharp points that I know would dig into me.

 

Hope that helps.

[DJ138]

Absolutely! I just ordered a few different grits of paper and watched a few tutorials for wetsanding ABS. Once the materials arrive I'll begin my foray into fixing these things. 

 

I'm excited (and nervous) to begin!

[Snaps[TK]]

We all can understand being nervous lol. I just finished my first armor a couple of weeks ago and was nervous. Just take your time, and remember that excitement. FISD is always here and people here are more than willing to help and give advise....

 

Good luck!

[Palpatine1977]

For me I used some 60 to really get it even, a higher grit will make it smooth sure, but it will still be wonky as hell, so i use a 60 to get it perfectly even, then a 200 to get rid of the roughness, then use a 1000 to get it perfectly smooth, without even wet sanding all the corners of my armour were as smooth as the face of it

[DJ138]

You know...I thought I had tossed a few 200 grits in my cart as well, but I musta backed out of that part of the order. Oh well, I have Amazon Prime, so I'll just order some of the heavier grit papers too right quick. Good looking out...that was my plan initially, I just got excited jumping back and forth between tabs and forgot! lol

 

 

For me I used some 60 to really get it even, a higher grit will make it smooth sure, but it will still be wonky as hell, so i use a 60 to get it perfectly even, then a 200 to get rid of the roughness, then use a 1000 to get it perfectly smooth, without even wet sanding all the corners of my armour were as smooth as the face of it

[gazmosis[501st]]

Anytime I see someone using sandpaper courser than 180 it makes me cringe. Any sanding to achieve a smooth surface should be done progressively. For armor, all shaping can be done with 180, then move to 220, then 320 or 400. At this point you move from sanding to polishing. 600-1000-1200. Wet sanding here is a really good idea. At this point I go to liquids. Rubbing compound until a gloss is achieved. Then polishing compound. A little elbow grease here is required.

[DJ138]

If my ultimate goal is to weatherize for a sandtrooper build, do I want the armor highly polished?