Things people will do to get rid of scratches.

[Candycab]

Novus II plastic polish.

Bingo !

The bottom line here is definitly not rocket science bye any means, all you need a is a mild abrasive compound of some sort and the knowledge to apply it correctly { from the inside ring straight out to the edge ,never both ways or sideways }

None of this is terribly new since many people have been rubbing out acrylic fish tanks forever { myself included } Its sort of suprising that more people dont think about what is used on acrylic for scratches and apply that to cd polishing

Go to any acrylic shop and ask them what they use and youre all set

[drwily008]

You can not buy a GOOD disc resurfacer for less than $1000.

The best thing to do is this: Call up all of you local rental & game stores to see if they have a disc resurfacer. If they do ask to speak to the manager and ask him how much he would charge to resurface several discs.

Most of them will do it for a flat fee (probably discount for several CD/games).

Anyways worth a try and I wish I had done it before I sold my Snatcher (Sega CD) for so cheap!

[Haoie]

I'm very keen on keeping this topic alive.

Are there instances of resurfacing in fact making the disc worse? By which I don't mean lookswise, I mean in the playing. As it worked before gingerly, but now stopped completely.

[drwily008]

I'm very keen on keeping this topic alive.

Are there instances of resurfacing in fact making the disc worse? By which I don't mean lookswise, I mean in the playing. As it worked before gingerly, but now stopped completely.

None that I've ever heard of. Once again though, all the experiences I've ever had with SUB-$1000 machines has not been good.

[Haoie]

Good piece of advice when you go to do a pro resurfacing at stores. Ask for a discount when in bulk [the more discs, the better]. I saved $20 today because I did, very nice.

[kirin jensen]

cool.. i'm gonna try some of those methods, i might burn a CD and scratch it just to try some of those... peanut butter? toothpaste?

That's IT! Peanut butter flavored toothpaste!

(goes off to make a million dollars)

[Slate]

How is the work on the machine going? I'd like to see a pic of it when it is finished.

[Dimitri]

Are there instances of resurfacing in fact making the disc worse? By which I don't mean lookswise, I mean in the playing. As it worked before gingerly, but now stopped completely.

I once ended up with a PS1 Diablo disc off eBay with some rather...disturbing...matter on the data side. It booted up but wouldn't load into the game. Tried cleaning it off and polishing it, and it refused to boot at all.

Eventually I let the disc float in shallow water, data-side down, for a couple hours. This loosened up what remained on the data side, I cleaned it off, and the thing loaded perfectly.

[Wonder_Hamster]

Question: what's the best way to prevent your discs from getting scratched in the first place? I ask this because I was flipping through my Sega CD/Saturn collection the other day and noticed that a lot of them were looking worse than I remembered, and I haven't even played some of them yet. Can they really get scratched up just from sitting in a CD notebook? Last week, I found a very nice haul of Saturn games at the flea market, and the discs are in mint shape, and I would like to keep them that way. I would be grateful for any help here

[jonjandran]

It's really not that hard to polish out the scratches on a disc, I've been doing it for years.

All you need is a high speed car buffer. You can get one for $50 at almost any automotive store. A high speed buffer, NOT an orbital.

Then you use a wool pad for light scratches and a foam pad for deeper scratches.

Just turn the buffer upside down, turn it on and lock it on. Then hold the CD/DVD frimly and apply pressure downward on the buffing pad. Apply more pressure as needed for deeper scratches. Turn the disc a 1/4 turn at a time until you're done.

Works perfect and I haven't found a disc I couldn't return to a perfect / brand new finish.

That's basically all the professional machines are, a spinning buffer and a foam pad.

[Kitsune Sniper]

It's really not that hard to polish out the scratches on a disc, I've been doing it for years.

All you need is a high speed car buffer. You can get one for $50 at almost any automotive store. A high speed buffer, NOT an orbital.

Then you use a wool pad for light scratches and a foam pad for deeper scratches.

Just turn the buffer upside down, turn it on and lock it on. Then hold the CD/DVD frimly and apply pressure downward on the buffing pad. Apply more pressure as needed for deeper scratches. Turn the disc a 1/4 turn at a time until you're done.

Works perfect and I haven't found a disc I couldn't return to a perfect / brand new finish.

That's basically all the professional machines are, a spinning buffer and a foam pad.

That sounds... creepy.

A local video rental store had one of those buffing machines once. I have a few DVDs that are all scratched up due to lousy packaging, so I asked them how much would they charge me to resurface them.

They said $10. The DVDs cost me $3! To hell with them.

[Rikimaru]

Question: what's the best way to prevent your discs from getting scratched in the first place? I ask this because I was flipping through my Sega CD/Saturn collection the other day and noticed that a lot of them were looking worse than I remembered, and I haven't even played some of them yet. Can they really get scratched up just from sitting in a CD notebook? Last week, I found a very nice haul of Saturn games at the flea market, and the discs are in mint shape, and I would like to keep them that way. I would be grateful for any help here

I wouldn't think that they would become worse merely sitting in the case, although I don't have any Sega CD game/cases so I don't know how close the cd sits in the case next to the...umm sides or whatever{Thus becoming scratched upon moving. Only other thing I can think of is dust may have gotten in there and moved around scratching things? That or the hamburgeler comes in late at night and is entirely mistaken with his rambunctious misdeeds!!!!






wait what!?!??!

[Wonder_Hamster]

So are they safer in their original case than they would be together in a 200+ capacity cd notebook?

[Teknik_SE-R]

I have used rubbing compound and polishing wax for cars, toothpaste (which actually does have some mild abrasives, but I'd rather use rubbing compound), but mostly I use chapstick. chapstick works great to fill in really tiny scratches. if I have big scratches, I break out the rubbing compound and wax for the final finish.

I have recently seen disc covers that adhere only to the hub and outer rim of the disc, but not the data surface. They are only like 4 mil thick (they stay on even when in use) and you can remove and replace them whenever you want. don't ask me about the price tho.

my question is what if you scratch the top of your discs? that is my vice and I don''t think it can be done. The reading surface is cake to fix.