Hello again!
I recall seeing a post or two on my visor tutorial, so I want to give the best possible answer I can here, and perhaps others can chime in as well. Now, I'm not necessarily an expert in the sense that I've tested and tried many different polishing compounds and checked for clarity, but I have made quite a few visors that have decent visibility.
To get everyone caught up, let's clarify that when we polish a visor we use a polishing compound that essentially removes a very thin layer of the plastic and fills small scratches. Plastic polish is often found in the form of headlight polish in automotive stores. I cannot recommend a specific brand as I currently cannot recall which brand's I've tried, but any headlight polish will essentially accomplish the same thing.
As for the amount of time you need to spend buffing the plastic with a cloth or machine buffer, the general rule of thumb is to polish until it becomes clear. This will be longer by hand, shorter with the machine. I usually have to buff for no longer than 5 minutes. I use a micro fibre cloth and buff in a circular motion on
both sides of the visor until I can no longer see any polishing compound.
It's important to remember that this only affects defects on the
surface of the plastic such as small scratches. If you find that buffing doesn't improve the visibility of the visor, the poor visibility may be caused by something other than surface defects. Here are a few other reasons the visor may not be clear:
- Visors are often vacuum formed from thin plastic like PETG. If this plastic is heated very rapidly, there is a possibility that very small bubbles can form in the plastic. This will greatly reduce visibility and cannot be be fixed by polishing as the defects are inside the plastic. If you think this is your problem, you can try:
- Vacuum forming with thinner plastic, or
- Reducing the temperature and increasing the time the plastic is heated before forming
- Visors are often made by using a spray-on chrome through an airbrush to create a one-way mirror effect. Sometimes this chrome is splattered, creating an uneven coating with spots and splatches, greatly reducing visibility. There are a few reasons the chrome can splatter:
- There is not enough pressure in the air compressor. This means too much chrome is being sprayed for the amount of air carrying it, causing it to create patches. Try increasing the air pressure to around 25 psi, and use all the air pressure with less paint if you have dual-action control on you air brush.
- If you have a siphon-fed airbrush (not gravity fed) and you run low on chrome or tip the air brush too much to the point that the siphon tube is not fully submerged below the chrome, an inconsistent amount of chrome will be sprayed, creating patches on the visor. Make sure the reservoir is full and you do not tip your airbrush too much to fix this issue.
- When the visor is dyed, if the dye water is not dissolved and mixed thoroughlyor if the visor is not clean, the dye may not affect the visor evenly. This is evident if there are spots on the visor that have a deeper colour than the rest of the visor. If can also leave behind un-dissolved particles on the visor. Here are a few things to consider if you believe this is you issue:
- Dye needs to be submerged in hot water to properly dissolve. However, hot water can melt our visors. I find that keeping the dye solution at a temperature of 145 Fahrenheit (63 Celsius) is hot enough to dissolve the dye, but cool enough to not melt the visor.
- If you use too much dye and not enough water, the dye will not dissolve. Follow the instructions on the dye to see how much water to use.
- Make sure you thoroughly mix the dye into the water!
- Make sure the surface of the visor does not touch the edge of the container you are dying with. Although I usually accomplish this with careful placement, it is ideal to suspend the visor in the dye with wires of some sort.
These are the main problems that I've come across when making my visors. Unfortunately for most of these issues, there is no way to solve them after the visor has been made, rather require that the visor is made again. If you still think that surface defects from scratches are the main issue, but you already have chrome on the visor, you will have to remove the chrome, then polish the visor and reapply the chrome after.
Make sure the visor was made with spray chrome though! If you purchased you visor through a vendor like Branfur studios, if may be hydro chromed. This is a professional process that is very expensive to do at home. Although, hydro chromed visors are often the best in terms of visibility, so this is likely not the case for you.
It's also worth noting that the visibility in my visors is not superb, even with my best results.
The nature of using a hobbyist set up is you're not going to get supreme results. Even on my best visor, my visibility is limited to what may be comparable to a scratched pair of tinted safety glasses. Even sellers on Etsy often use equipment comparable to mine, and therefore you'll get similar results. It is good enough clarity to walk around without bumping into a wall, but it would be agony to read a novel through it. I have some video samples of what it looks like to look though some visors at the end of my cosplay visor video on YouTube, which is linked in the
405th visor dying tutorial that I wrote. If you're looking for premium results, I would recommend Branfur studios. I have seen a few of his visors in person and I must say the strength, visibility, and durability of his visors make them truly a premium product. Though, you will have to pay a premium price.
I hope this gives you some answers and some perspective on what your problem may be. As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll do my best to answer. I hope this post is useful to other folks who may be having the same issues.
Cheers!
