Last week we went shopping for some chemicals that were needed for our flame polisher. None of our local suppliers had MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) in stock, so we settled on using acetone instead. Acetone is also part of the chemical ketone solvent famliy and produces similar results.

We had to fill the machine with a distilled water and hydroxide solution, which is used in an electrolytic process to produce combustible oxygen and hydrogen gas. This gas is fed through a second tank where the acetone will evaporate and add to the mixture. This gas mixture will flow through the small nozzle of the hand gun when the knob is turned and can simply be lit with a lighter. The machine is very easy to use and it requires about 30 seconds before it’s ready for use.

The flame polisher can be used to smooth the edges of CNC machined acrylic sheet with a small and very hot flame.  This process is very quick and clean when compared to manually sanding and polishing the edges. Another advantage is that you can easily polish pockets and those hard-to-reach spots of very detailed objects.

Below is an example of the result that can be achieved with this small machine. We used some scrap CNC machined acrylic sheet to test and practice flame polishing. The left part hasn’t been treated yet and the right part got a quick polishing treatment, you can clearly see the difference! Check out more pictures and a movie of the machine in action at our Flickr PhotoStream: Flame polisher set.