The first thing I did was to look for a plastic that would dissolve in water and create a thick syrup. By looking at the end groups on the molecules (I was looking for HO groups) I was able to locate the right one. It turned out to be PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) powder. It comes as a dry powder. The key was finding the right PVA powder. It needed to be based on a polymer of just the right length to give me a syrup of just the right thickness that I could “load” with any microcrystalline superabrasive or even a compositional like walnut shells or a plastic abrasive. So I tested out some PVAs of different molecular weights and found the right one. Next I loaded it with some of the Glassite 497A. I still have about ten pounds of this powder. Did buy a fifty pound box from Universal Photonics before their lawyer told them to drop it. Then after loading the PVA syrup with the silica I was able to “paint” felt discs or coat them. It dried within a couple days. Became quite hard. So I put some soapy water on a new mirror plate and started polishing. The PVA dissolved in the water releasing the Glassite and worked very well. I guessed the coating would last a long long time. All I would need to do is apply water. The only problem I had was very light scratching. This cannot be tolerated. Remember this is the same powder/superabrasive that I used for SKRUB with no scratching issues at all. My thoughts were that the PVA was too hard or that the superabrasive had agglomerated. So I added a certain amount of glycerin to soften the PVA. Which did work. It did soften the PVA. I just have to test out this softer pad to see if the idea has eliminated the problem of scratches. If it has not then I will need to look into some other formulas. This will be a great product if I can get it to work. I dod know that Universal Photonics created a product very similar to this one time under the name Phantom X if my memory is doing ok tonight. The intended purpose was to remove scratches using water. I tested it out and discovered that it did release the cerium oxide. But it was not good enough so as to remove any scratches. Maybe it was my technique. If anyone would like to get some small samples of this product to try out I can look into it for you and get you the contact info so you can order some samples. I am also still working on the slow release product.
Henry
