Preparing The Acrylic Screen

The Factory Cut Acrylic Sheet
I finally decided on using a 4ft by 3ft acrylic screen. So i had to cut the 6ft by 4ft piece of sheet acrylic I had originally I had purchased. Luckily the place where I bough it (a local plastic fabrication company) very nicely cut it for free. Plus getting the sheet factory cut ensures so the edges are flat and the corners nice and perpendicular.


Sanding The Edges
First of all I sanded the edges of the acrylic with a plane sander. Starting with a 80 grain and building up to a grain of 320. A rigid plane sander is preferable to a sponge sander or just the paper in your hand as the suface must be as flat and perpendicular as possible.


Polishing with A Buffer
After the sanding was complete I busted out the plastic polishing kit I bought. It attaches to my Dewalt drill and rotates to buff out as many of the remaining small scratches with requiring too much elbow work.


Chemically Polishing The Edges
I used Brasso to remove a few layers of the acrylic and really smooth out the edge as much as possible. Just wipe on leave for a few seconds then wipe off with a clean rag. Any more and it can etch off to much of the plastic. Its officially a metal polisher but has the same effect on plastic and it can be bought off the shelf in most supermarkets.
Braso can also be use to remove scratches from ipod screens which is where I got the idea.