I badly scratched up my Sea & Sea dome port (it's acrylic) while diving at Cocos and Malpelo. Lots of current and lots of rock is a bad combination for a housing with a big dome port. A couple of fairly deep scratches (you could easily feel them with your finger) and some shallower ones (you could feel them with you finger-nail).

After doing some research, including some older threads on this board, I decided to try the Micro-Mesh NC-78-1 ACRYLIC RESTORAL KIT (Micro-Mesh) . It's made for taking scratches out of airplane windscreens. It cost $37 and comes with 9 grades of their Micro-Mesh papers (high grade wet/dry sandpapers), polishing paste, detergent, anti-static cream and pads and cloths.

Taking a good stiff drink first, I started the job with 320 grade wet/dry paper, went to 400 grade paper and then started using the Micro-Mesh papers. Each grade took about 3-5 minutes and the instructions were to sand in straight lines only, not circular, and then rotate the dome about 120 degrees for the next grade.

After the first sanding, the port looked like a diffuser (although when I flushed it with water before going to the next grade, it was clear). However, by the time I did the final polish, it looked new.

I highly recommend this product. $37 and a little elbow grease (actually, not much at all) is a lot better than a buying a new port.

Bob

Great info, Bob. Its a common question.

Now we need something that will work on glass domes too!

Alex

They do Alex. It's called a credit card.

Bob

I went to a local acrylic shop, TAP Plastics, and they recommended the following product and it worked great on my Aquatica 8" dome

Novus Plastic Polish No. 2
A liquid that took about 5-10mins of polishing to take out some good size scratches (not super deep)

Novus Plastic Polish No. 1
Nice finishing product looked like new.

This is what we use on Shear Water, and we've had great results with it. Jim Abernethy has been using it for a while (I got it from him) and a number of customers on our boat have also been happy with the results from it.

OMG this stuff rules!

About halfway through my Kona trip a couple of weeks ago, I noticed my Ikelite Dome Ports were getting pretty worked. I dive the D70 rig. I don't get it. I keep the cover on until I get under water and then pocket the cover. I cover it up on the ascent. I'm pretty much a nut about it. So I couldn't figure it out.

Then I noticed (on about dive 15 of the week) - when I'm clipping off the rig (when there's nothing to shoot, on a long swim, etc.) it would sometimes swing around and the domes would rub against the very tough webbing (I dive a BP) of my shoulder strap, waist band and was probably hitting the buckle.

Bottom line - I was trashing my domes. You could actually see the scratches in the pictures (especially on the 10.5 where I'm focusing on the dome its self.) So I get home and hit wetpixel - I'm thinking there must be a fix for it. I find this thread. Genius.

I go to the recommended site, and I pick up the Micro-Mesh kit. It arrived yesterday. Last night I dive into the 12-24 Dome (I use this one less than my 10.5 dome) and I figger if I kill the thing, its a cheap replacement (like $150-something to replace it.)

The kit is a 10 level polishing kit. 9 fabric sand papers (1500 - 12000 grit) and a finishing polish. Then an anti-static cream thingy.

I didn't think the scratches were severe enough to go to Home Depot and pick up some 300 or 400 wet paper - so I started with the enclosed 1500. After the first couple of fabrics, I also basically had a diffuser. But I could see the kit working - taking off just enough of the material to get to the deep scratches. By the time I got to the 6th level, it started to come together and I could actually see through the thing again. When I reached the 12000 grit, it was looking not just better, but almost NEW again. I'm serious - a 30 to 35 minute investment and my dome was fixed.

A little water with dish-soap in a spray bottle, a little sanding, a little buffing and they're all better. This is so liberating. I mean, now that I found the cause of the problem, and have now secured a way to repair the domes, its a complete relief.

I can't recommend this kit enough for Ikelite-type domes. The flat port was a little more challenging, as I can't get off the port with each successive pass - so I just used the finishing polish. Made a huge improvement, but its not in NEW condition like the domes. I may try the Nouvus on the flatty.

I'm pretty fired up. Now that these things look great again, I can eBay these two domes and step up to Ike's new 8" mega dome.

Micro-Mesh rocks.

I've tried Novus, it's a lot of work and is best only for light scratches. I also have the mesh kit. Haven't tried it yet but my expectation, based on this thread is that it will work better/faster.

Peter - can you post a link for the Novus 3 step system? Micro-Mesh is great for a dome, but pretty worthless for a flat port with a lip - like the Ike ports. I need to try something else (unless there is a way to pop off that big black ribbed flange and just get to the 90 degree edge of the flat Ike port.)

Thanks!

Ken

(PS: been following your stuff for years and years, going back to my Oly days. You've changed the way a lot of us shoot.... for the good!)

Purchase Novus here.

http://www.spadepot.com/products/005novus.htm

Maybe Alex or one of the other mods could pin this topic - I just know I will be using this info sometime shortly

Paul C

I just placed an order for the Micro-Mesh NC-78-1 ACRYLIC RESTORAL KIT, I have some realy nasty scratches to restore.

And again Wetpixel saves me another day :thumbsup!!

I put a deep 2 inch gash into my Nexus Dome port. This wasn't small, this thing was visible at 50 yards! I gave it to Steve at Ocean Optics who passed it onto a contact. Result was I received the dome and it looked absolutely brand new - you can imagine my relief at not having to fork out for a new port.

If I do get another big scratch, I'll try the tips here safe in the knowledge that I know a pro if it all goes wrong.

Nice tips WP.

Hi there,
My story is similar to that ones of the members above, but i took images of my domeport in between each step which i want to share with you. Each picture is after a treatment with different grain size papers (1500-12000). Just for your information.

cheers, Udo

the scratch that caused it all
Click to view attachment

after the first treatment with 1500 grain size paper
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after 2400..
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after 3200
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after 3600
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...4000
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...6000
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...8000
Click to view attachment

...12000
Click to view attachment

...Finished
Click to view attachment

and finally after treatment with abrasive liquid and and antistatic treatmanet mounted on my housing.
Click to view attachment


cheers, Udo

Hi Udo!

Thanks a lot for sharing these pictures with us!

Did you just bought the sandpapers and added water in the polishingproces?

Best regards from Kim Meineche who also have a port with scrathces!

Yes, i used water with the sandpapers, but for the pictures i dried the port.

cheers, udo

Yes, i used water with the sandpapers, but for the pictures i dried the port.

cheers, udo


Ok.... sounds quite simple if the superfine sandpapers are common availiable!?

One more question: What brand/name are the abrasive liquid and atistatic stuff, mensioned at the last picture?

Thank you very much for your help!

Kim!

How long did the whole process take Udo ?

Well, i didn't buy all the different sandpapers separately but i ordered the Micro mesh kit mentioned in the first post. I don't know whether regular sandpaper would do the same job, you can give it a try off course, you always can restore it with the micromesh kit.
BTW, the abrassive liquid wasn't really nescessary anymore since the port was really shiny after the 12000 grain paper. Probably white toothpaste has the same effect.
In the kit all necessary parts are included and you're sure that it works. The kit can be used more then once.
The whole process took me about 1.5 hours, most of the time with the first paper.

cheers, Udo

Well, i didn't buy all the different sandpapers separately but i ordered the Micro mesh kit mentioned in the first post.

cheers, Udo


Udo, where did you order the Micro-Mesh acrylic restore kit? Seems hard to find inside the European Community, which i think will be the cheapest way to get it, due to taxes shipping and exchanging fees.....

Thanks again in advance!

Kim! :-)

I use a very fine abrasive (in England called wet 'n dry) that is used for car paintwork. Then I finish off with metal polish wadding called Duraglit. I'm sure you can find it in Dk. Check with Lars at DYK. Reckon to spend about 4 Euros.

I use a very fine abrasive (in England called wet 'n dry) that is used for car paintwork. Then I finish off with metal polish wadding called Duraglit. I'm sure you can find it in Dk. Check with Lars at DYK. Reckon to spend about 4 Euros.


Hi John!

Thank you for the info!

I googled "Duraglite" and found it to be the same like "Brasso" what is a wellknown product for polishing kobber and silver in DK!

I know Lars and will check with him for the details and the experience he has! :-)



Best regards and thank you again from Kim!

Just found some Brasso/Duraglit at home in a drawer where I keep the shoe polish.

I must say I was suspicious at this suggestion, so I searched round the house for some acrylic to test it out on - rather than my dome port. I selected one of my BSoUP runner up trophies made of some nice flat acrylic and set to work with a lump of wadding out of the tin. The smell of solvent and the tin warnings to keep it off my hands did not feel right.

After washing it off with water things looked very good indeed. If I look very closely at the acrylic I can just see some barely noticable abrasive marks that were not there before. However they were only just noticable under the right light.

I conclude that this suggestion seems quite good. All I need now is to scratch my dome port!

Nice pictures, Udo.

I've used the micromesh on a dome. It's worth noting that only the 1st coarsest mesh removes the scratch. The rest of the meshes remove the scratches left by the previous mesh, each mesh only goes so deep.

It's not a sandpaper, it's a fine mesh, the residue you've ground off comes through the mesh without clogging the mesh like normal sandpaper.

I screwed up a few times and had to go back to coarser meshes and start over. I did it in about 30 minutes on an 8" dome, bet I could do it in 20. I'm sure Udo was slowed down by drying and photographing. it's a lot of steps, but it's not a lot of elbow grease, it's not rocket science. The way it goes step by step, many fine steps, it's easy. The 2 step liquids may take more elbow grease to do the same job, I'm not sure.

The final liquid is also an anti-static paste, it helps the dome shed any dust and particles that might be left after the process. I think it helped and was more than toothpaste, just my opinion.

it's very well possible thta it's not sandpaper but something else, to me it only appeared sandpaper.
There are three liquids in the kit included: A Detergent, an abrassive and an anti static. The abbrasive liquid is probably less rough then toothpaste, which also works fine for cleaning copper and silver (like brasso etc. etc.) I'm sure supercleaner for your car is also something similar. But none of these products will easily remove deep scratches that can be felt with your fingernail.
But anyway, the micromesh acrylic restoral kit works great and i justed wanted to show you people that it's safe to use it. The largest part of this 1.5 hours of polishing was mainly for removing the deep scratch.
I ordered the kit via CIBO in Belgium, their web- or emailaddress is linked on the official micromesh webpage.

cheers, udo

As an ex high presicion engineer I had to work to very high grade finishes on some products that were just as smooth and clear as glass. I'm fairly sure the same method of using fine papers, then using brasso will work just the same on glass done ports as they would acrylic, all you need is a little more elbow grease.

Actually sometimes you don't need to go through all those different paper grades, though it does make the job much quicker. I would often just clog one of the papers up using a fine oil like baby oil, I found this works better than water!

now we need to find out how to remove scratches from multi-coated glass lenses.

Just joined Wet Pixel today and the first post I come across gave me some info I really needed. My Sea and Sea port has some very small scratches in it, but I didn't want to have to send it to the dealer. After reading the post and replies I feel confident that I can handle it with the info and products recommended there.
Thanks to all of you and Wet Pixel
Bill

This is a very handy thread. It is a very daunting task to undertake!

My second-hand Sea & Sea Compact Dome Port arrived with some light scratches on the inside. Any handy hints for how to best reach these?

Thank you ! It's really helpful but I must say taking the first step sand down the port w/ the roughest sand paper and see how it's 'destroyed' before getting better would be really hard !

If you are in a country which do not have a Micro-Surface rep-office or office. You could contact the following person to order the items. I have done as the service is great... Now it just sitting down to polish the dome....



Debbie Abrahams
Inside Sales Mgr
Micro-Surface Finishing Products, Inc.
1217 West Third Street
PO Box 70
Wilton IA 52778
Phone: 563-732-3240, ext # 223
Phone: 800-225-3006
Fax: 563-732-3390
Email: debbie_abrahams@micro-surface.com
URL: www.micro-surface.com


Cheers...

Gwangi

Has anybody tried this on the inside of the dome port? I have an acryllic dome port that has some small circular scratches on teh inside surface due to a zoom ring becoming dislodged during a dive (?!).

Yes, I have and it's impossible to get close to the edges of the Dome port. I damaged my dome by trying to fit it without the extention ring after changing to a 12-24mm Lens. What happens is that the repair scratch area get larger each time you change the micro mesh. You have your hand half inside the dome and use your fingers to hold the mesh on the foam pad provided with the kit, whilst trying to keep even pressure on the pad. Unfortunately, the pad is flat and against the double inside curve of the port, only the edges of the mesh are in contact with the dome. I also tried to remove the dome from the port backing and failed - ended up buying a replacement port from Aquatica. Unless you can remove the dome from the backing plate your going to have a nightmare of a job. Also another point to consider is, if you only polish a small area you will change the optical properties of the dome and end up with localised distortion when looking through the port. This is a fact I have learnt from polishing aircraft canopies. Good luck.

I had the same problem as you and D200digitaldiver (scratches from a zoom ring being dislodged AND scratches from trying a lens that was too big for the port!)

the scratches were not a problem until I started shooting in clear, sunny, shallow water.

so I decided to use the mesh kit on the inside of the dome port. the scratches weren't deep, so I didn't start with the coarsest paper.

I never tried to removing my dome port from the backing. I did not use the foam pad, I used my fingers directly on the micro-mesh strips. It would not have been possible with the foam pad. I spent extra time with each micro mesh in the hard-to-reach areas of the inside of the port. it was hard on my fingers! overall the job seems to be a sucess, my images appear to be fine now. the very outer edges of the inside of the dome port don't look perfect, but I haven't noticed anything in any of my photos.

take you time and I think in the end you will be at least as well off as you were before, probably better off. good luck!

scott

May not be a big issue, but it came to mind:
Any thoughts on how repeated scratch-removal via abrasive polishing might possibly affect the depth integrity of the dome? It would seem that for every micrometer of plastic you remove, the dome would be weaker at depth - even if only by tiny fractions at a time....?

I've been shooting through some real doozies of dings & scratches, due mainly to rough shore entries/exits, and I think it's about time I looked into the solutions noted here.....

cheers

You are talking about very very small differences in thickness. If you had a scratch there, the material at that point is already compromised and structurally, its weaker with the scratch than with the surrounding material removed because the scratch causes stress concentrations there. In any even you are talking about such small differences even with repeated scratch removal.

Its hard for me to believe that anyone has had a housing fail because a domeport imploded because of pressure. Unless it was shattered against something. There has got to be so much conservatism on the structure of a housing. Housings leak because of seals and controls not structural failure.

Are the ports as strong? Are they weaker due to the material being removed? A new port may be cheaper than the port giving way and flooding the housing?

Just tried the Micro Mesh "for the giggles" this weekend fully expecting to have to puchase another dome port regarless of the "fabulousness" of teh product as I had some pretty serious (easy to feel with fingernails and certainly very easy to see) scratches. I used the Micros Mesh acryllic restoral kit and went thru all the grades. It ttok me 3 hours, tho I am sure I could have donne it faster if I wasn't so pricky about it. At the last "mesh" the dome looked nice, but not "band spanking new". However after having used the liquid abrasive - OH MY - it felt like I had performed a miracle! The darm thing could go back up onm the store shelf and pass for brand spanking new (well the dome itself anyway, maybe not the clack frame part). I felt so pleased with myself that I considered asking friends if I could polish their domes just for the pleasure of it... and I was showing of my clear restored port to my (non-uwphoto) friends until my roomie pointed out to me that she is not sure that they are quite as excited about the finer details of the "acryllic restoration project success" as I might think they are... Anyway. I recommend giving it a try even to those who hesitate about the probablilty of success as much as I did!!!

last week i just did the same thing with my brand new rig as for two years ago - when i swimed into a banister on a wreck and scratch the acrylic dome. I don't think it will affect the images noticeable, but it's really annoying.
What i don't understand is why the "sand paper method" involves grinding the entire dome
It looks scarry... Wouldn't it be enough to polish the scratched area ?

You shouldn't work just one area, because you are grinding away material and the area you worked om would be thinner and theoretically optically different from the rest. Not sure it would actually be noticable tho.

However, as domeports are typically 8 or 9 inces in diameter (or smaller) it think it would be difficult to work a smaller area. It would also be difficult to get an "even" finished look as the idea is that for each level of abrasive that you are using you are removing the scrathes from te previous level. So it would be very difficult to be able to go over EXACTLY the same area as you did on the previous level. You would basically have to expand the area a little bit at each level to cover up the scratched from the previous level and with 8" or so of surface to work on, you would probably quickly expand to working on the whole area. So why not go the whole area at once and avoid the possibility of getting an uneven thickness in the dome.

It finally hapened to me: a boat guy put my housing on the flor with a dome facing down!!! The result is a 4-5cm scratch on a glass dome. Luckily i didnt notice any influence on the photos but it is still very distracting. At home i went to a local glassworker and he sad to me they can polish it out. Since the scratch doesnt affect the image i decidet to ask you what you think first.

Depending on the scratch, you may or may not notice it when you looking into a bright light source. I have a scratch on my 6" glass dome and I normally don't see it except under specific conditions. Namely, small aperture, close subject and looking into the sun. Then it sticks out like a soar thumb. I understand that I can polish it out with cerium oxide, but seeing how I have an 8" dome, I've never gotten around to it. Let us know how it works if you decide to have it polished.

Cheers,

Mike

Ah!

No-one has mentioned phase 3 of the (cheap) British option: a final polish with toothpaste, after the "Brasso".

But glass...


Tim

Is a slight deformation on a flat port dû to a complete repolishing would affect the pictures ?

Great suggestion... I have also used an orbital polisher with very soft cloths and rouge and had great results. I still haven't had any luck polishing my glass port though...

Jill

This may not be the correct place to welcome Jill, but I didn't want to be remiss! Thanks Jill for sharing your experience and for joining this forum; which is honored to have someone with your expertise, professionalism and sensitivity on board!

Sincerely, Carol

Hi there

Sadly I just put a nice scratch in my sea and sea dome port and even sadder it shows in my photos.

I was reading the micro mesh comment on the first thread which said it used the aviation one - there is also a marine one for windows and acrylic. My question is would this one be better or not? As I have to ship this to Tonga I would appreciate if someone could let me know which they think would be better......

Sorry if someone has mentioned this before my internet is slightly slower so I sometimes dont get to read all the posts easily.

Thanks

Karen

"Polishing out" a scratch in a dome port is more critical on the interior of the port rather than the exterior surface.
A port with all surfaces free of scratches is always best, however water will fill in the scratches on the exterior
surface while submerged and will minimize the visibility of the scratch in photos.

Speaking of which, i noticed a relatively shallow but inch long scratch on my 8inch port on the interior last week.

Im gathering this is going to be very difficult to remove and wondered if i should use the above procedue, or does anyone have any other tips?

Ive heard of things like Wet sandpaper and toothpaste working but havent found anything useful yet.

Cheers
Evan