Glass and Mirrors - light scratches in mirror

hi there, i was sanding back my dresser with a black n decker mouse sander and i hit some of the mirror, they are not too deep, the sand paper was quite fine there likt little swirls.......After all the good work I've done to restore this unit i hate to think i have to get more mirror? please help =)

We use a special buffing compound with a soft pad attached to a drill but usually this stuff is hard for the general public to buy. The only thing I can think of is try using some rubbing compound they use to remove scratches from cars. It's very time consuming depending on how deep the scratch is. If you can find a small buffing wheel,put it in a drill at slow speed add some rubbing compound and keep it moist as not to over heat. If you want my opinion, I would just replace the mirror.

The only thing I can think of is try using some rubbing compound they use to remove scratches from cars. It's very time consuming depending on how deep the scratch is.

Never tried it. Rubbing compound does not scratch glass?

If that is true, maybe that would also speed up getting out baked on water rings. I'll experiment on test glass. I'd be quite surprised if rubbing compound indeed does not scratch. I presumed that is why they also have polishing compound, because it is not as abrasive as rubbing compound.

You are right ecman51. Thanks for correcting me.I did mean to say polishing compound. We have a scratch removal kit that comes with about 5 different discs with a grit ranging from coarse to super fine. We first determine how deep the scratch is and use the appropriate disc to sand the glass and get the scratch out than we move up to the next coarse until we get to the super fine disc and than we use the polishing compound to finish it off. But like I said depending on how deep the scratch is it can be very time consuming. We had to remove a scratch from a heavy glass (1/2 ") shower door that had curved glass (very expensive to replace). It was about 2" long and it took 2 of us 4 hours to get it out.The scratch was very deep. When we finsihed removing the scratch it left a concave impression in the glass that was noticeable. So what i'm saying is if the scratches are very light they will come out with some polishing compund but if they are deep it will take a lot of work.

I have to get out water rings(that acid cleaner alone will not remove, to my dismay) from the huge glass panes at bosses house. Insurmountable amount of glass at his mansion. I tire more easily than when I was 23, for scubbing for hours on end.

And even if using a powertool, there still is not only a certain amount of effort - but whose neck is on the line, if, for some odd reason, one grain of sand got lodged in that buffer wheel, figuring each thermopane is worth maybe $200 or so, each. :eek: Who wants to chance scratching the glass? If I do indeed get the job of doing this, window by window, over the course of the summer (he said about doing maybe 3 windows at a time), that I wil have to make an accord with him that I will not be responsible for any scratches that might occure by accident.

I did notice a couple real tiny thin scratches where I spent about 1/2 hour hand buffing with a glass polish on a small section of window -and this got me thinking. How do you not know that even the polish itself may not have a foreign grain in it, here and there? It just seems risky.

If I do do it, I wil first thoroughly hose wash the glass before applying toweling, frames, and area surrounding the window, to get rid of foreign matter. And then to clean the glass, and throughly inspect for pre-existing scratches before I start.
Although, with the amount of water rings, that may be hard to tell.

That piece of advice though, everyone should keep in mind before ever altering anything. Always check first to see how something is, before you work on it! This applies to things even like plumbing. Like, did the water flow out slow out that faucet before you shut off the water, as opposed to only after you worked on the water? I have learned this over the years, to pre-check stuff, so you know what is responsible for the action