ABS Paste Problem.

[A Master Builder]

I applied abs paste for the 2nd time of my build to cover all the repairs that came along, when trimming. For my shims, My abs paste ate up my kidney pretty bad, its literally driving me up the wall. As for my right ear, I tried to add abs paste to it as well, once I sanded it down, it started to eat up some of the plastic on it. Can someone please tell me what to do so this won't happen again. Novus isnt really working to get the gloss looking back. 

 

Thanks

 

Brenton

[Snaps[TK]]

How thick or runny is your paste? You want to add acetone a little at a time. It literally took me about 2 or 3 hrs to get the abs scraps to melt cause I wanted to make sure it was right and not to runny to melt the areas where I was applying the paste.....

Edited July 2, 2014 by Slangen

[A Master Builder]

Its like icecream on a sunny day. Not too runny, not too thick. 

[Snaps[TK]]

Sorry, see my edited post....I hit submit before I was done lol

[Snaps[TK]]

I did find it was better to have it a little thick and sand it down...

[usaeatt2]

Brenton,

 

When I made my ABS paste, I kept messing with it until it was about the consistency of peanut butter - it took an hour or two of stirring and adding small scraps of ABS until it was smooth and thick.  My thought is that your paste has too much acetone, and is therefore eating into the area adjacent to the repair.

 

Also, I didn't know any better, so I made some modifications on my faceplate, then sanded with 80 grit sandpaper.  On the face.  In a HIGHLY visible area.  Gazmosis said it's a sin to use anything rougher than 100 grit.  Trust me, it took forever to polish those areas.  I had to LIGHTLY work out the scratches with progressively finer sandpapers.  100, 240, 320, 400, 600, 1000 and 2000 grit papers.  THEN, I started polishing with Novus #3 on 4000 grit paper.  I progressed to Novus #3 and #2 on flannel.  My faceplate and helmet look like acrylic capped armor now.  About twelve hours worth of polishing total.  A boatload of work, but ultimately worth all the elbow grease because I can't find the repairs and I know exactly where to look.  I'm my own worst critic and I'm quite pleased with the results.  Trust me, I'll seriously hesitate before using anything rougher than about 400 grit from now on.

[A Master Builder]

Aaron, so pretty much it is possible to bring the gloss back into ABS after using sandpaper? The paste is off my right hear, its just a bland unshiney white from the sand paper. Thought I was the only one that screwed up. Could you suggest the brand of sandpaper to buy. please. thanks.

[I'm Batman[501st]]

Gazmosis said it's a sin to use anything rougher than 100 grit. 

 

So, you're telling me I shouldn't have used the grinding wheel on my 5inch grinder?

 

Seriously though, the first time I used paste, it was black, dirty and there's no way it was coming clean. Lucky it was mostly on the underside of my helmet near the ears so not very noticeable. I put it down to not using a clean container, so it had months of garage dust accumulating in it. If the paste isn't perfectly clean, then no amount of sanding/polishing will get it clean

Edited July 2, 2014 by Sith Lord

[usaeatt2]

Ian,

 

LOL, yes, try to refrain from using a grinder on your armor.  I made some serious modifications with a heat iron and, of course, I chose the most obvious place to experiment with my first attempt.  I didn't see any "try in an inconspicuous area first" tags.   Definitely clean everything before mixing ABS paste.  I even made sure there were no pencil marks on the pieces of ABS.  Call it OCD if you must.

 

Brenton,

 

I bought a pack of "micro" sandpaper at Michael's near the model paints.  They had "Alpha Abrasives" micro sandpaper in an assortment pack and they also had squares glued to a foam backer.  The stuff with the foam was more expensive.  I bought the micro sheets and a sheet of 3mm thick "fun foam" in the kids section and made my own sanding pads.  I glued the sandpaper to the fun foam with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.  Then I cut out many different shapes and sizes.  In all, I think I ended up with at least twice as many micro sanding pads as the more expensive stuff.

 

Tough to see well in the pictures (I wasn't trying to get a good image of the scratches, but rather the modification) but here is a comparison.  The red area is where the 80 grit sandpaper scratches are located.  The yellow and blue areas are where you can just barely see some heavy scratches.  The blue area is where I made the modification.  All the sanding was from blending in the modification.  The second picture is after polishing.  I tried to take the second picture from exactly the same angle.  There's absolutely no gloss inside the red area in the first picture, but you can easily see the gloss in the second picture.  It looks much better in person.  I just kept polishing until it shined like the TK's I saw from the Midwest Garrison at the Chicago Entertainment and Comic Expo.  There's hope - it just takes a lot of patience and determination.