Toothpaste for polish?

Don, I've used toothpaste for decades as both a paint polish, and as the next-to-last step (before final buffing) when polishing flaws out of clear parts. I tried one of the fancy jewelers polishes back in the 70s, but read about toothpaste in an IPMS hints and tips section, and never looked back.

Back in the day one had to avoid gel type pastes...since they were supposedly lacking in any real abrasive...but more recent experience suggests that the current gel formulae usually have sufficient abrasive to work reasonably well. That having been said...I mostly just use the plain white Colgate I use for my teeth.

No real 'technique' involved; just a soft clean cloth or cotton swabs (whose low-abrasive fibers themselves work really well with the paste). And when you're done, everything rinses clean with water.

Hi Gregbale!

 To sum up my info and procedures. DITTO on the Toothpaste.

I don't anymore. What was sold as toothpaste 25 years ago surely cannot be what's in the tubes now. My father used a brand of borax but I now see "borax free" is a marketing term.

I use Novus and it works well for me.

Also for last layers a nappy washcloth works well.

Yes,  use plain old Colgate.   The new fancy gel-types won't get you anywhere

I squeeze out a dab and polish with my fingertip.   No need for brushes or polishing cloths

Yes, tooth paste sometimes, then follow up with Formula 1 Scratch out. The tooth paste cuts faster than the Formula 1 but leaves a slight haze the Formula 1 takes out.

FWIW - not specifically as a polish here, but....  Recently discovered a ring from either a wet cup or maybe a contact lens bottle, that was on a polished granite vanity. I used a little arm & hamer dental care toothpaste, has baking soda and peroxide in it on the stain and I was finally able to remove the stain. However, bc it was polished stone, this particular area is now not as shiney as the rest......

Yep, regular toothpaste still works as the next to final step in polishing.

PLUS, your work will smell all minty and fresh!  

MrchntMarine;

    Do you have a stone work shop near you? You know Grave stones? You should be able to get a polish from them or a home supply store. A soft pad on you polisher or polishing disc will be sufficient at low speed to bring the shine back. I used to use a Palm sander with a home made polisher on it and use Automobile Fine Compound on Corian. It worked every time.

Tanker-Builder

MrchntMarine;

    Do you have a stone work shop near you? You know Grave stones? You should be able to get a polish from them or a home supply store. A soft pad on you polisher or polishing disc will be sufficient at low speed to bring the shine back. I used to use a Palm sander with a home made polisher on it and use Automobile Fine Compound on Corian. It worked every time.

 

Dont know Grave Stone.  My builder used some scoundrals called Med Stone....  Anyhow when i had a guy over repointing the shower grout i showed him and he said he would have to wet polish it....   blah, blah, blah.  No way jose i say.

gonna try your idea one day when i iget relly bored.  tks!

Don,  I highly recommend the Tamiya polishes. You can get them on Ebay. Since I started doing more car and truck models I took the plunge.   If you have to get just one get the fine.

I have also used toothpaste, but these Tamiya polishes are terrific.  It also takes a very small dot of the stuff to work so they should last.  I was reluctant to buy from Japan at first but there were no problems. 

I have tried different products and Novus is the best i have found at getting rid of orange peel and glossing the paint to the max. Click on the picture for a closeup.

My 2 cents goes with Bill and Ernie.

Novus works far to well for me to experiment with anything else. Stuff is like magic.

Cool if toothpaste works out for you guys, though.

Hi Greg:

 I will have to Ditto you three. I have used toothpaste( Colgate), but it was years ago. I too now use the Novus System. Why? Well, working in the museum I found it best to re-polish the Lexan shields on the operating Displays.

 You know the clear fences we have to put up to keep small children from touching the scenics and moving Model trains. Doesnt, seem to matter where we get the plastic, but the stuff looks awesome after the Novus.

I've been using a Novus kit to polish scratched MFD screens in older Cirrus aircraft, which ultimately saves my customers about $1500.00, so I started using it in modeling.  Works really well for polishing model canopies after removing the parting line down the center, as well as giving a nice, smooth, shiny finish to the insides of intake tunnels after they've had their seams filled and gloss white paint applied.

Eaglecash867

 Works really well for polishing model canopies after removing the parting line down the center.

 

I forgot to mention about polishing canopies with Novus. I polish all my canopies with Novus using a Q Tip and an old soft cotton T shirt to improve clarity.

Like you said, it's great at final polishing after getting rid of the center molded canopy seam mark on some models like some F-14s. The only time I use Future on the canopies is if it has a really bad scratch that Novus failed to completely remove, the Future helps in hiding it.

I've used the Tamiya polishing compound and it works well. 

For those of you using the Novus products, are you using the #1 (Plastic clean and shine), #2 (Fine scratch remover), and #3 (Heavy scratch remover) treatments or just the number 2?

When I'm using Novus, I start with #3 and work my way to #1.  I usually use cotton gloves to apply it and do the polishing.  The gloves make a great polishing cloth, and also serve the purpose of keeping you from getting fingerprints on parts of the area that you've already polished.

UnwaryPaladin

I've used the Tamiya polishing compound and it works well. 

For those of you using the Novus products, are you using the #1 (Plastic clean and shine), #2 (Fine scratch remover), and #3 (Heavy scratch remover) treatments or just the number 2?

 

I only use #2 and works great every time.