Where to get cds buffed

First of all you can go ahead and make yourself an omelet and a banana split to keep you company during this project, as they do not really do a whole lot for repairing a CD as you may have seen on YouTube or equivalent. While some of you may have received positive results from using bananas and such, I have not, and I must say that the science just isn't there to back it up. The theory behind fixing a scratched CD, is similar to fixing scratched paint on your car.

The key is to polish out the deep scratches by using a substance that will create very fine scratches, and essentially polish the CD. To do this you can use any number of plastic polishes, rubbing compounds, and some have even reported good results with a metal polish, like Brasso. I prefer the good old standby of automotive grade rubbing compound, such as from 3M.

Admittedly, 3M polish is not necessarily a green product, it is after all synthetic in its basic composition, but you will need only a dab and quite frankly, there is no natural product that will even come close to the power of this stuff when it comes to resurfacing a badly scratched CD. The experts tell you to always polish in a straight line from the radius of the center to the outside, rather than polish in circles.

While this is good advice for the most part, since small circular scratches have been known to throw off the laser tracking system of a player, most tracking systems today are far superior to the ones we remember from the 90's.

So, if you are willing to let the rubbing compound breakdown to its final stages, circle polishing can work well too. When I refer to letting the rubbing compound breakdown, I am saying the rubbing compound formula essentially contains a grit that is designed to scratch the surface you are polishing, and wear down the deeper scratches until they are closer to the same height as the rest of the CD.

It does this by starting out with a heavy grit, which breaks down over the polishing course into finer and finer grit, until it eventually leaves a mirror polished surface. But this is only if you put enough elbow grease into it. I have found that circular polishing works just as well as radius polishing, but you can follow whatever advice you like, as this is simply a matter of opinion and personal experience.

But what if you need to fix a CD right away and don't want to travel out to your nearest store to grab a bottle of polish, in such a case, toothpaste works reasonably well too.

Toothpaste is designed much the same way as a rubbing compound, in that it is manufactured with a gritty substance, which gently scratches the enamel on the teeth, to clean and polish them. It can offer your CDs the same service, albeit not to quite the extend as the polish, but if the scratches are not too bad, it may just do the job.

Start with the most simple toothpaste you can find. I personally like Tom's of Maine Natural Toothpaste as it contains a basic enamel polish, without all the fancy gels, swirls, glitter, and bubble gum flavors. All you want is a good old fashioned white toothpaste. There is no need for frills here. Squeeze a smidgen of paste on the CD and rub it in using a straight sweeping motion with your finger from the center radius of the CD to the outside.

That's the transparent plastic of the disc, the surface prone to scratching. Taking care of your discs is clearly a good idea, so you should always put them back in the case when done. Also take the time to ensure the inside of the case is clean, too. Bits of grit can scratch the disc when it is apparently safely put away. Also, you should take care removing a disc that gets stuck in the DVD drive. This is another occasion when optical discs can be scratched or otherwise damaged.

However, if blemishes playback, there's a good chance you can fix the scratched DVD or CD and make it playable again. Several methods have been found to work. None of them require any special materials or skills, and all can be done with household items. If the disc has scratches preventing successful reading, you can try to repair them to make the disc playable again. Much of the time, discs we think are scratchedand therefore unreadablearen't all that bad. Often, the scratches are merely surface scuffs.

Rather than deep gashes that divert the laser in the disc reader away from the encoded data on the metal layer, some scratches might simply be dirt. The check this, clean the surface of the disc with a soft lint-free cloth. You can use a gentle detergent or rubbing alcohol if there are grease spots. Make sure there are no fingerprints or dust particles. Don't scrub too hard as you may do more harm than good this way. Incredibly, this is possible using a whitening toothpaste or some polish especially those used by opticians although Brasso also works.

But how does toothpaste fix scratches on your CDs? The principle here is simple: the toothpaste fills the gap caused by the scratch.

The laser is then correctly focused to accurately read the data on the disc. It is weird, about after an hour of polishing it may have taken me longer I got a scratched disk that wouldn't even load be fully operational. After my success I played the game for a while I bought it on eBay then got a refund because it didn't work , then I tried it on another game.

I got it to work a little better although it still is messed up after scrubbing for maybe 45 minutes. I am going to try to use PB then I will use lotion again if it doesn't work. Although thanks for your instuctable! Reply 10 years ago on Introduction. Well, I would appreciate it if you didn't, but you can send me some pics of how well it worked and I'll post 'em and give you credit? Ok, fine. As long as you give credit, go ahead and make the Instructable.

You have my permission. By videogamemaster Games 'n' Junk Follow. More by the author:. About: Well, I'm really big on at-home video game repairs that are cheap and actually work. I also like video game cheat codes, which you can view on my website. I also like making stuff outta K'nex, such as guns … More About videogamemaster ».

Your disc should look almost like new again. If it doesn't, re-do the process a couple of times. Did you make this project? Share it with us! I Made It! Answer Upvote. Mixedd1 3 years ago.