(Bangle 2) Polishing / buffing the screen, and screen protector?

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Is this possible? Has anyone done it? My concern is because it's a touchscreen, I don't want to do damage. This is clean, btw, I wiped it with the blue microfiber before taking the picture.

My job has me working with sodium hydroxide solution. I try to avoid dipping my hands into it and all, but I do occasionally get splashed or misted. Over time the screen has become slightly frosted.

I've used toothpaste to polish things in the past, but never a touchscreen. If anyone has polished or buffed their Bangle 2 screen, what did you use and how did the experience go.

Also, if anyone has a good recommendation for a screen protector for the Bangle 2, that would be most appreciated.

[gfwilliams]

Wow! I've never seen anything like that!

The touchscreen is a layer on the back-side of the glass. So actually you're fine to use whatever you want on it as long as it doesn't interfere with the ABS plastic case - toothpaste would be totally fine.

There was a good discussion on screen protectors on https://github.com/orgs/espruino/discussions/6371 - I think the upshot is Amazfit bip ones fit reasonably well.

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Word, thank you. I figured it was probably fine but it didn't hurt to ask.

And yeah, sodium hydroxide will etch glass. It doesn't look quite that bad when I look with my eyes, but I have 2 of those, camera exaggerates the glare. The stuff I'm using is in a fairly dilute solution, but it's usually hot and I'm spraying it out of a foam cannon on a pressure washer. The mist settles on the watch face, no matter how hard I try to prevent it. I've used this watch for like 2 years now I think. Honestly I'm surprised it's only as bad as it is.

Good to know I can polish it though. I'm going to the hardware store later anyway, I'll pick up some plastic polish...or maybe I'll just use basic toothpaste. I'll update you with how it goes.

[gfwilliams]

Good luck! Got to say if it does that to glass, I wonder what it does to skin!

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

The misty splatters get itchy. Larger splatters, as long as I wipe it off it's fine. I have had some bad accidents, once where I had a chunk shoot straight into my eye, and once I had a boil-over (sodium hydroxide gets hot when it dissolves in water), it splashed on the back of my hand and immediately took off a few layers of skin. That one stung a bit. I've probably developed an unhealthy tolerance to it :/

[stweedo]

I have used a thin baking soda and water mixture a couple drops at a time along with a Dremel rotary tool and soft polishing tip, followed by an application of oleophobic coating. It helps for small scratches and would probably help for the cloudiness you have. It did not help for deep scratches. Toothpaste should work similarly to baking soda.

Let us know how it goes!

Edit: If you do use a rotary tool, be sure to go at a slow speed with very little pressure to avoid too much heat and friction.

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

I did try a baking soda paste, just putting a bit on a microfiber then rubbing the watch against it. It helped, but either I need something with a little more oomph, or a lot more time. I haven't tried toothpaste yet, the stuff I have doesn't seem to work as polish so I need to get some basic dollar store stuff, I just haven't gone to the store yet.

I don't know if I want to dig out my rotary tool...but I have a drill which is significantly lower speed and should work fine. Just gotta find my polishing wheels...

[RKBoss6]

As for screen protectors, I use a soft one that fits the amazfit bip screen, cut it to size, and slap it on and it works pretty good! Took me a while to get the size exact, but it works like a charm now, and won't shatter/scratch the screen protector if a sharp force hits it.