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Here’s a little trick I just figured out to renew the plastic deflector on my face shield. Perhaps I’m getting too cheap for my own good, but I don’t see any reason to waste money. Besides, I didn’t want to wait for a replacement to come in the mail, and I’m saving for my Conover Workshops turning class coming up next month. Mostly, I just like to be as frugal as possible because the more money I save, the more project lumber I can buy.
I spent some time this past week at the lathe. I like to wear a face shield to keep chips out of my eyes, but more importantly to deflect dust while I sand. I’m allergic to sawdust (imagine that) and the fine dust thrown into my face while sanding at the lathe really bothers me. My face shield was a Christmas gift from my brother many years ago. In fact, it predates my Unisaw, most of the shops I have inhabited, and most of my experience. The first month I had it, I was out in the shop cutting some stock on the Sears contractor saw I had at the time. Some weakness in the stock caused it to blow apart, sending some of the fractured wood flying into my face. Instead of breaking my nose, and doing who knows what other damage, the fragment only split the shield in two – leaving a large splinter of broken wood embedded right in the center. Thank God I decided to test out that face shield. That was better than fifteen years ago and the replacement deflector is the very same one still in my face shield. However, it is very much the worse for wear. At least it was.
Now, safety purists will probably say that a scratched face shield deflector should be replaced rather than renewed, and perhaps they are right. If I were doing this as a business – which I’m not – or running a professional shop – which I’m not – I wouldn’t hesitate to keep a supply of replacement deflectors on hand. Polishing my face shield is a decision I made as a devout recreational woodworker and this article is meant as a diary of my discovery, not an official product maintenance bulletin.
Furthermore, the product I used to renew my face shield cost as much as a replacement deflector. So how did I justify that cost? Well, I already had it in the house so I really didn’t need to purchase anything. Now that I have sidestepped a few nasty emails, I hope, let’s get to the point, shall we? I really am a longwinded son of a spindle turner, aren’t I?
It’s probably best to start with some photos. Here is a shot of me holding the face shield. I should point out that I haven’t quite figured out how to photograph scratches on a clear surface so you’ll have to bear with me. Here is another shot, looking through the deflector. The objects in the background are in focus even though they look fuzzy. That fuzziness is solely because of the scratches in the plastic. Lastly, here is another shot, the shield close to the lens showing how things look as I see them while using it. Hazy, right?
Let me tell you a little story. "Oh my God…", he hears in the background. It’s short – I promise. When we had this house built, the builders scratched the you-know-what out of our big, new soaker tub in our master bathroom. After a quick internet search I discovered that the recommended product to remove these was Meguiar’s #10 Mirror Glaze, available at my local automotive store. Well, I couldn’t find #10 but I did find #9 mirror glaze (not a big difference and they apparently make it in a number of grades). To finish the story, it polished the scratches out of my bathtub at very little cost (around $9 I think) and with just a little elbow grease. It was much cheaper than hiring it done.
So I’m sitting in the shop last week, wondering what the heck to do with this scratched up face shield. My mind wandered, as it is often wont to do, and my scratchy bathtub came to mind. Called to action by the promise of renewed, clearer vision, I retrieved the mirror glaze from the house and began polishing.
The outcome? Well, for the sake of you, dear reader, I polished the right half so that pictures could be presented here of the before and after. Taken no more than a few seconds apart here is a picture of the polished right half of my face shield, and a picture of the left half, after washing with soapy water but before polishing. As I said, it’s hard to photograph scratches, but I think you can see the improvement right away. Obviously the large scratches are still there. If you wanted to try a version of the mirror glaze with a heavier cut you may be able to remove them. I was happy just improving my ability to see fine details without the hazy deflector ruining it for me.
Meguiar’s #9 or #10 Mirror Glaze should be available at your local automotive shop. I guess they use it for polishing paint, but if you ever see my truck you’ll understand I have no knowledge of this. It works well on bathtubs and face shields. As I said before, the mirror glaze cost $9. Oddly enough it is about the same price as a replacement deflector, but I just happened to have it lying around. It seems a handy thing to have in the house and it has saved me much money already. I doubt the face shield will last another fifteen years, but I won’t hesitate to renew the polish on the next one a lot sooner than I did for this one.
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