Another Business Opportunity?

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RAdams

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A good friend of mine recently mentioned how badly his video game discs were scratched up. When i told him that i could make them almost as good as new, He didn't believe me. I took the worst disc home with me and buffed it with trip, and white diamond. When i returned the game, he accused me of replacing it with a different disc.

I then offered to buff the scratches out of all of his games. When i returned the games, He tried to pay me. Of course i turned his money down.

BUT, it did get me to thinking. We, as penmakers, spend alot of money, time and energy getting rid of scratches. Why not offer this alone as a service. I have buffed expensive dvd's, games, computer software discs, music, and standard burnable discs with great success. In fact, the only thing i have had any problems with are the blue discs from playstation 2, and accidently letting go of the disc during the buffing process. When it hits the wall, it becomes compact disc vapor.


Anyway, This all led to me thinkng about buffing and how many other people buff CD's.
 
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I have read where people actually chucked the disc on to the lathe and essentially wet-sanded it, with good results. Were you using a buffing system, i.e. Beall?

With the latter, there is certainly a higher risk of flying saucers (um, discs)...
 
I had never thought about doing this. I have a bad habit of taking CDs out of the CD player and laying them on the passenger seat of my car. I have found more then a few CDs lately scratched. I may have to give this a try.

Jamie
 
I've (repaired) sunglasses with scratch remover. I re-furbished the wind deflector (3 pc) on my truck. I re-surfaced the plexi-glass in my storm door, after the dog stopped scratching at it. Never did a CD.
 
I tried this with some of my kids dvd's that got mauled in the van, and it took the scratches out, but they still wouldn't play. I don't know if it was someting I did wrong or if it is just something with those dvd's. I simply hit them with WD on the old lathe/buffer and the wiped off the excess, and tried them. May have to re-evaluate the process. All cd/dvd cleaning instructions say to wipe in a straight line from center to outside edge, so that's how I buffed, I wonder if actually putting the disk on a faceplate or something to that effect and polishing while spinning would work better? Hmmm, interesting question. I think I will call the guys at coakley that do all the media production for GE Healthcare and ask them what the best method is. They burn several hundred thousand dvd's a year in small batches for us, if anybody knows disk care and feeding, they would.
 
I turn the lathe up to HIGH. Get that bad dude spinnin for real!

I use a beall buffing system. I have buffed about every type of disc imaginable. I dont put anything on them first, just the high speed buff with trip, and white diamond. If that doesnt cure it, i may use a bit of Plast-X. Every now and then i get one that doesnt work after but i am bating about .850 so i am happy, and the people i do it for are super happy! Some of the games i buff are $60 each!
 
Ron,
I am going to admit that I thought you were completely cracked when I read your post yesterday. But I kept that idea in the back of my head, and when we got home from the library with some DVDs, it clicked. Those disk's are always messed up, I figured I would chuck up the buffing wheel and give it a try. Well, it worked like a charm. I used the white diamond wheel and it removed all the scratches save the really nasty gouges. Thanks for the tip.
 
yup! no problemo!!:biggrin:

That is part of what we do in my opinion. finding things that we can use our shop to improve. I am all about making paper towel holders, or wooden hot pot coasters, or wodden washers, or wooden hammers... whatever. I use alot of my "pen making tools" for weird odd jobs around the house. My wife LOVES CA glue, and acetic cure silicone now!!

there should be a whole thread of handy things we can do with our junk:eek:.... i mean tools:biggrin:!
 
Wodden here, wodden there ....

RAdams said:
There should be a whole thread of handy things we can do with our junk:eek:.... I mean tools:biggrin:!
Click to expand...

'Junk' you say... way to expensive to be junk. I just refer to these things as 'stuff' since we can't have enough 'stuff', but we surely can be overwhelmed with 'junk' as we are often reminded by our better half.

BTW, what is a wodden washer? ... it's posted in your reply ...

Now, just where is that 'bracelet clip?' I just had it a second ago ... If I find it I am sure I'll know what the heck a wodden washer is!! :biggrin:
 
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I use CD scratch remover for all my acrylics and I only paid $5-6 for a large tube of it compared to twice to three times as much when labeled for "Pen Making"
 
I have been cleaning my CD and DVD discs for years. I use MM 6000 wet, going from the center out. Most of my discs are DVD-R and DVD+R. I have also used MAAS metal polish with good results. Whatever you use, do not polish around the disc, the laser pickup might try to read a stratch as a data track.
 
Fred said:
"Ron, quick while it's lit ... Here, man, it's your turn ...' :cool:

'Junk' you say... way to expensive to be junk. I just refer to these things as 'stuff' since we can't have enough 'stuff', but we surely can be overwhelmed with 'junk' as we are often reminded by our better half.

BTW, what is a wodden washer? ... it's posted in your reply ...

Now, just where is that 'bracelet clip?' I just had it a second ago ... oh yea, and my cookies, and brownies and drink as well!. If I find it I am sure I'll know what the heck a wodden washer is!! :biggrin:
Click to expand...



Dude.... Really? Cmon.... A wooden Washer.... you know.... A washer, only instead of being flat and metal, it is a bit thicker, and wooden. :biggrin: You werent thinking simple enough!:biggrin::biggrin:
 
Here's an example.
Not the worst example I've done, but the one I took pics of. One track on the disc wouldn't play before.
 

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GaryMGg said:
I don't have a Beall buffing system; how would you do this without one?
Thanks.
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neither do I.

I went to sears and bought a buff kit for $12 I think. has 3 buffs in different sizes and a couple compounds, and a "mandrel" that holds the buff with a nut. I put it in my drill chuck and put the tailstock against it to prevent the possibility of it coming off.

I will be trying it in my drill this weekend on my headlights.
 
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