Claire Pillsbury wrote:
> [terrific suggestions for removing scratches in acrylic]

Another thing that helps in the removal process is to work
with the scratched area in such a way that a light source
casts a distinct shadow of the scratch onto a background.
You'll be able to see the scratch better by looking at its
shadow, even when polish is obscuring it, and by watching
its shadow you'll be able to rub exactly where the scratch
is and avoid the guesswork of rubbing the surrounding area.
The shadow becomes a good indicator of your progress, and
helps avoid over-working the area.

This shadow technique also serves as a good test. Under
indifferent lighting, you can polish out a scratch only to find its
shadow (and halo) appearing on the objects/labels/decks
inside a case once the case is installed and lit. Using this
shadow technique helps avoid that annoyance.

Note also: the direction of your polishing stroke is also important--
you want to make sure that you don't trap polish into the
groove of the scratch by "burnishing" the acrylic over the scratch.
Here again, the shadow technique can help check your progress:
though on the surface it may look as though the scratch is perfectly
smoothed, the shadow technique will detect any trapped polish.

Ray
***
"...only the shadow knows..."