1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,520 If there's one thing that really grinds my gears about computer components, it 2 00:00:03,439 --> 00:00:09,840 is their apparent obsession that their creators have with putting glossy 3 00:00:07,279 --> 00:00:15,040 plastic on all the places it really should not be. I don't know if how we 4 00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:20,320 still have this problem. I'll admit it hasn't really been as bad lately, but it 5 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:24,400 does still happen. Anyways, in a fit of rage after marking up yet another glossy 6 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:29,599 plastic surface, I ran to the store and assembled the tools I thought I may need 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:41,200 to transform glossy plastic surface into a beautiful brushed finish. 8 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:48,160 Intel's new 750 series SSDs utilize the NVMe standard, providing speeds never 9 00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:51,760 seen before on consumer storage drives. Click now to learn more. So, how do we 10 00:00:50,079 --> 00:00:57,039 make this transformation from a piece of glossy plastic to a nice brushed finish? 11 00:00:55,039 --> 00:01:01,520 I chose to tackle this in the best way I know how. Through scientific testing, I 12 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:08,479 assembled the necessary tools, sandpaper in 320, 400, 800, and 1,000 grit. I 13 00:01:06,159 --> 00:01:12,960 ideally wanted to feature 600 grit as well, but I wasn't able to source any 14 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:17,600 locally. I also grabbed uh grade zero and grade three steel wool and three 15 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:22,080 rough 3M stripping pads, the kind you'd use to scrub hard to clean things or 16 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:26,960 remove some type of thing off of a surface. They were labeled as heavy 17 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:30,799 contour surface stripping and final. Most of these were used individually, 18 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:36,079 but the sandpaper will be used in succession, starting at 320 grit and 19 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:40,960 ending at 1,000. Once I had these tools at my side, I found some surfaces with a 20 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:45,360 glossy finish. Namely, an original Nintendo Wii, the back of an ASUS 21 00:01:43,119 --> 00:01:50,000 monitor, and an old Seagate Goflex satellite. But Luke, you may be saying, 22 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:54,640 why ruin a perfectly good Wii monitor and Goflex drive for the sake of your 23 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:58,479 silly experiment? Of course, I would not be doing this with my own Wii. And to do 24 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:02,560 this test, the Wii that we're using is actually Linus'. You may have noticed 25 00:02:00,399 --> 00:02:06,719 its appearance to be fairly nasty with a bunch of marks and old sticky areas all 26 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:10,800 over it. Only a man with true disregard for his gaming systems would leave them 27 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:15,360 in this state. Plus, he's out of the country right now, so he probably won't 28 00:02:12,879 --> 00:02:19,760 mind anyways. Uh, let's see. Hey, Lionus, do you mind if we use your Wii 29 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:24,160 to test like scratching glossy plastic off things? 30 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,840 No answer means no problem. When it comes to the monitor, well, we decided 31 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:31,920 to use this monitor because the glossy portion is actually on the back as well, 32 00:02:30,319 --> 00:02:36,400 meaning that we could experiment with it. And if it came out looking 33 00:02:33,519 --> 00:02:40,160 absolutely terrible, I could just use it normally and never have to see my 34 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:44,319 massive failure ever again. And if it worked well, I could transition over to 35 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:48,720 the front of the monitor and change that side over to a brush plastic finish as 36 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:53,519 well with the material that I found to leave the most appealing faux brush 37 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:58,000 plastic finish. And the Seagate drive, well, I'm sure it was beautiful at one 38 00:02:55,200 --> 00:03:01,440 time, but nowadays it is pretty faded, a bit scratched, and covered in 39 00:02:59,519 --> 00:03:05,360 fingerprints. This device will be the last one that I use, and I'll use my 40 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:09,519 favorite method on it to see what it can accomplish on something like this. So, 41 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:13,760 with testing surfaces in place, I tape taped off sections for each material so 42 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:17,920 that I could compare the efficiency of each in a well organized fashion. This 43 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:21,920 may result in a weird look once I pull the tape off and will ultimately kind of 44 00:03:20,239 --> 00:03:26,560 ruin the aesthetic of these devices, at least at first, but this is a video for 45 00:03:24,879 --> 00:03:31,360 you guys, and I'm sure Lionus won't mind. So, here we go. I started with the 46 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:34,959 Wii. I portioned off one side of it for the three levels of 3M pad, and the 47 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:39,120 other side for the two varieties of steel wool as well as the sandpaper 48 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:43,599 combination. To my eye, it seems like the zerograde steel wool provided the 49 00:03:41,519 --> 00:03:47,760 best finish on the white surface of the Wii, but it was actually fairly hard to 50 00:03:45,519 --> 00:03:51,280 tell as the white brushed plastic doesn't really have the same shine we're 51 00:03:49,599 --> 00:03:55,519 accustomed to seeing on black brush plastic. In the end, uh they all seemed 52 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:59,040 pretty similar to be completely honest on white brush plastic. So, I think 53 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:03,200 you'd be pretty happy with any of these solutions. My favorite part of this 54 00:04:00,879 --> 00:04:08,319 procedure on the Wii was less giving it a brushed look and more just removing 55 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:12,799 the shine and fingerprint potential. The monitor was where we separated the men 56 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:16,400 from the boys, so to speak. The 3M contour stripping pad provided what I 57 00:04:14,959 --> 00:04:21,199 think was actually a pretty amazing brush look finish for a DIY solution 58 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:26,080 like this. If I hadn't been doing this for the test, I may have actually been 59 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:30,400 convinced that it came brushed from the factory without looking all that 60 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:35,199 closely. The runner up was actually a tie between the grade zero steel wool 61 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:38,720 and the 3M final pad, but it must be noted that it was much more difficult to 62 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:43,600 get a consistent finish with the steel wool as the material was much more 63 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:46,080 malleable in hand. And the pads provided 64 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:50,400 a nice solid base to push against and seem to provide the most even finish 65 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:54,800 overall without the need to do as many touch-ups, which can result in it 66 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:59,600 looking not as nice as more often than not touch-up require the need of even 67 00:04:57,759 --> 00:05:03,440 more touch-ups. Since the contour surface stripping pad performed the best 68 00:05:01,199 --> 00:05:07,120 on the monitor, I decided to use that for the Seagate drive as well. It 69 00:05:05,199 --> 00:05:11,600 actually provided a pretty amazing result to be honest and I think that the 70 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:15,600 new finish looks pretty darn sharp compared to the old glossy version. I do 71 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:19,520 think it was a little harder than it could have been due to the slowly 72 00:05:17,199 --> 00:05:23,840 stripping away the from the white logo, but in the end it was totally worth it. 73 00:05:21,759 --> 00:05:28,320 At first I tried covering that logo with tape to protect it, but in the end this 74 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:31,680 just looked kind of weird and it wasn't worth it. So I took it off and made it 75 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:35,600 look the same as the rest. So overall I think this experiment was a success. 76 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:39,840 While it isn't perfect, I was actually able to replicate the look of brush 77 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:43,840 plastic fairly well, especially with these 3M pads. I would definitely 78 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:47,280 recommend giving these a shot if you're planning on running this experiment for 79 00:05:45,199 --> 00:05:51,680 yourself or if you plan on converting some of your glossy plastic to a brush 80 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:55,759 finish on your own. Speaking of improving things, I'm excited to 81 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:59,759 announce a drop on mass drop today that you will certainly not see very often. 82 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:05,120 They're providing a build your own battle station setup featuring three LG 83 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:10,639 24 MC57HQ-P monitors, which are 1080p IPS displays, 84 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:15,680 and the Ergotech Freedom ARM, a triple monitor stand that has Murka written all 85 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:19,039 over it. Get it? Cuz uh Freedom or whatever. Anyways, if you want to beef 86 00:06:17,199 --> 00:06:22,639 up your display and set up a triple monitor battle station, this is going to 87 00:06:20,639 --> 00:06:26,880 be one of the more affordable ways to do so, thanks to Massdrop's group by model. 88 00:06:25,039 --> 00:06:31,280 You can check out this drop and many others in the link in the description, 89 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:34,479 drawlinisttips. That link doesn't really give us a 90 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:38,560 kickback or anything, but it does let them know that we sent you, which lets 91 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:41,759 them see how awesome the LT community is and makes the decision to keep 92 00:06:39,919 --> 00:06:45,280 supporting the channel a whole lot easier. You think you ever plan on 93 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:48,960 converting glossy plastic to a brush finished, or have you done so in the 94 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:51,919 past? Have you tried varnish? Uh, let me know in the comments down below or over 95 00:06:50,319 --> 00:06:57,600 on the forum. While you're here, like, dislike, favorite, share, subscribe, 96 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:59,039 follow, comment. Go in the comment 97 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:03,840 section down below to get a shirt that isn't from Twitch. Actually, it'll be from us, and we'll probably have some 98 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:07,919 kind of funny stuff on it. Over on the forum, you can click on the support us 99 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:11,840 link to do stuff like change your Amazon affiliates. Uh, install the Linus Tech 100 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:15,440 Tips notifier so that they can auto change your Amazon affiliate codes for 101 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:19,120 you. Uh, become a contributor to the forum because that helps us out a lot 102 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:22,240 and you get a cool little badge thing. Uh yeah, there's a bunch of different 103 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:36,540 ways to help out. Anyways guys, thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.