I want to try my hand at making a set of liners for one of my knives and I ordered a sheet of 1/8" thick plexiglass. I know I'll have to thin the scales some and I'll be using a belt sander for that. However I want to thin the plexiglass as well so I won't have to remove as much on the scales. Can a belt sander work for that as well and which grit would be best for that if so? I also want to polish the edges of the liners, what would be the best way? I have a rotory tool with polishing wheels with green, gold and black compound or should I hand sand?
80 or 120 grit should be fine for stock removal to thin it down, sand the edges up to 600 or 800 grit before polishing. be careful about heat-- it gets soft pretty quick.
I've made plexi liners for my ESEE 3 and it's not the most forgiving material to work with. Use sharp drill bits and secure the plexy when drilling, it loves to develop cracks. Sanding it down... I don't know what to tell you, it goes soft and mushy really quick. For polishing, sand it as high as possible and then a simple buff with a towel brings it to a mirror.
I should've read this first lol. Almost as soon as I put it on the sander it started melting. So no thinning it out. But the sander sucks anyway so project is void.
