Hi,
Could someone please tell me which Novus polish is best to use to clean up my acrylic engraved ornaments? They have a little adhesive residue in the back, one has a thin scratch, and they have a kind of film in the front that I can scratch off with my nail but I don’t want to damage the engraving.
Thanks!
I don’t even know what Novus is, but to clean my acrylic I just use a mixture of water and white vinegar. I don’t use any particular ratio—just water with a generous splash of vinegar. If that doesn’t work, maybe Barkeeper’s Friend would.
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Novus polish comes in three grits: 1 (clean and polish), 2 (light scratch) and 3 (heavy scratch). I’ve only used 1 and 2. Mostly 1, for cleaning and polishing, and that’s the one I’d recommend for most of your use. If you have the complete polishing kit you could try #2 on that light scratch. But I always recommend trying anything on a scrap before taking a chance on ruining your good piece.
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I use toothpaste. 
But I also remove the masking before doing engraves.
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If it’s just the acrylic, rubbing alcohol works great on any residue/film (just dampen a soft lint free cloth).
Haven’t tried scratch removal stuff.
But for weeding, to avoid scratches, I’ve found wooden clothes pin works great as a scraper as soft enough not to scratch, but tough enough to get over any edge to grab/pull up the masking. Or rub over the area with cloth with bit of rubbing alcohol to dampen it, and roll off the masking… If it gets too wet though, then the paper comes off the adhesive and you end up with about twice the work).
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AAAACK, that causes crazy tiny cracks in acrylic when I try it – I’d experiment first on something you don’t care about!
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True, it can–especially clear. So it is better to avoid as a rule.
But I’ve not seen any issues on my white or colored ones after wiping with a lightly dampened cloth, though. Not to say it’s not there, but couldn’t see it. But I don’t do that very often, actually.
(But I do wipe down the pieces before I do any welding with a tiny bit of rubbing alchohol on a cloth, and I have used clear and translucents, and haven’t seen any cracking on them, either. Maybe just lucky so far?).
Acetone can really take care of sticky residue–BUT I once ruined some clear acrylic (sign holder I bought years ago), though I have cautiously tried it on some to get off the adhesive goo from masking, and it didn’t seem to harm it. But I avoid it on acrylic as a rule, too.
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Novus #1 is a plastic cleaner. It might help with your residue.
Novus #2 & #3 are polishes, with mild abrasives. Don’t use them on a nice new clear piece of plastic, or you could put haze on it.
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I did remove the masking on the front. The adhesive residue is on the back. The filmy stuff is on the front related to the engraving.
Toothpaste works great for that. 
I don’t know anything about Novus, though.
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so…just toothpaste on a clean cloth? Rinse it off with water after?
Yep! Bonus, it makes it smell minty fresh.
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This exactly. Pro acrylic fabricators would NEVER advise using any sort of alcohol product (this includes Windex)
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