I have the J Flint Mr. Hardwater system and have only tested it out on a couple windows and it works fine. I am finally going to try it out on a glass shower door of my customers. I was wondering about how you put any pressure on a shower door as they tend to pop open with a little pressure. Plus if the hard water goes edge to edge you would have to open the shower door anyways, so then are you just propping it up against a chair? and then if you have to do it in the open area of the bathroom you’ll be shooting slurry everywhere, too.
shim the door at the bottom. I usually have just used a regular shim or even a wand it to open a little more. to provide pressure opposite to the pressure I’m applying. poorly explained, but hopefully you get what I mean. I also put up a dropcloth sometimes to catch the slurry. Usually though I haven’t found I need to do much besides move peoples stuff and put cloths on the floor. Its not a lot of cleanup after that. Plus you dont usually need to do much on the outside of the door.
Has anyone got a photo of such a set up? It’s starting to irritate me and was just about to ask the same question as Shiny Windowz. Actually, today I experimented with my knee at the other edge of the glass to keep it from swinging out but that’s not sustainable for very long!
I did my first one the other day, I sat inside the shower and put a folded up rag in the door so it wouldn’t close all the way. Then I moved the rag up and down as I was working so the pressure of the polisher wasn’t causing the door to flex. I also mixed my powder to wet and it made a huge mess, sprayed on the ceiling even. It cleaned up fine, but was messy none the less. So don’t mix too soupy.
Joe
I used the J Flint products, Mr Hardwater, I did the job and the lady called TWICE to tell me how great it looked and she has another shower to be done next week and referred me another job. The kit paid for itself already.
Joe
I have tried all three machines. The rotary, random oscillating, and oscillating. The rotary is the most effective but throws slurry. The oscillating has a square pad/base. It can be fitted with a hard felt pad. Also square or rectangular. Goes into corners real well. And absolutely will not throw slurry. In fact you might try using a thick cerium compound instead of a slurry. Wet the glass, then apply several drops of compound to the pad. Next put it up to the glass and polish away. Makes for a much easier clean up. If the stains are not really really intense it might work. Always helps to have a few different tricks in your bag.
I was browsing through and found your unanswered question.
From what I understand there needs to be a certain RPM to get the best results, I’m not sure exactly but I think the Mr. Hard Water polisher runs about 1300 RPM. Best to double check that.
Also in this post Henry mentions that a fixed rotary polisher will work better than the oscillating/random oscillating polishers which has been my experience as well.
If you’re looking for a cheaper solution (assuming you already have a drill) you can get a backing plate that attaches to a drill and whatever pad necessary to put on said backing plate to use with the cerium oxide or whatever solution you want to use.
TL: DR probably not, chances are it won’t rotate fast enough
This all be true. There are many different systems out there of course. And no one system is great for every problem. When I was playing with the square based random oscillator rated at about 12,000 OPMs, I pealed off the synthetic felt and glued a thin sheet of plywood to the flat metal bottom. Then I glued a piece of hard felt to the wood. This worked really good. No spray. You can work right up to a quarter inch of another piece of glass and get nothing on it.
Some guys will use a grinder up to 3,000 RPMs. This would be a fixed (nonoscillating) rotary machine. They use this with cerium oxide slurrys. Which are VERY effective. But you must be very good with your technique otherwise there will be problems. I am not leaning toward any commercial kits because the technology of scratch and stain removal is quite diverse. I sincerely don’t believe anyone can come up with a cure all kit.
Once again I would like to show my Wobble Wheel video. This is a fixed rotary light drill motor operating around 1,000 RPMs. You can see from the video that the compound is not being sprayed so much if at all. Much easier to control. This is a six inch wheel. I also have developed a two inch wheel for small windows and corners. And am working on some disposable thin pulp wood slow release cerium disks now. Just peal off, throw away, and reload. In theory I should be able to use many other superabrasive particles other than cerium. Such as SiC or diamond.
I always remove the door. I covered 2 X 4’s with carpet and support with saw horses. I don’t mess with most shower doors because after the homeowner uses the cocktail of grocery store products to “clean it” before they call me, it is usually cheaper to replace the door.
I am inclined to agree with you. Especially for cheap doors. It depends on the time to completely clear it. Our time is worth something. If it is a one step thats one thing. But if it is a two or three stepper, thats another.
I use the Mr. Hard Water powder and nylon pads. However, I do not use the polisher that he sells; too expensive. I purchased a variable speed polisher at Harbor Freight for about $38 that works great. So far, I’ve got almost three years out of it and it’s still going strong! I like the look of Henry’s wobble wheel, though!
Just a quick word on machines. Makita. I have a store on my route that does repair work on all kinds of machines including grinders and polishers. They told me if you want one that will keep on working and not break down buy a Makita. I figure they probably know what they are talking about cuz they work on everything. And are completely unbiased. They repair they don’t sell.
