Removing scuffs and small scratches from PSB 300

[Mikounette]

I just bought a used PSB 300 EQ jigsaw from 2014, and it isn't the prettiest looking thing (especially the sides). Does anyone have any experience removing scuffs and small scratches? I was thinking of polishing it with some type of polishing compound, but am a bit scared that the whole body will end up either matt/flat or gloss. Meaning I will have to do the whole thing so that it won't look daft.

 

[Locks14]

I just bought a used PSB 300 EQ jigsaw from 2014, and it isn't the prettiest looking thing (especially the sides). Does anyone have any experience removing scuffs and small scratches? I was thinking of polishing it with some type of polishing compound, but am a bit scared that the whole body will end up either matt/flat or gloss. Meaning I will have to do the whole thing so that it won't look daft.

You can sometimes flatten and hide scratches in certain types of plastic with a strong acetone. However my advice would be just to leave them, sort of like battle scars for the tool to be proud of, testament to the fact it's had a productive life and is still going strong. It's a tool at the end of the day, not an ornament.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I've tried many times to make used Festools look better, with only mild succes. A thorough cleaning is the best I could achieve.

I have also tried to remove scratches by polishing the plastic with my Rotex sander and Festool polishing compound, but it did absolutely nothing. You can make scratches look better by scraping their edges with a sharp knife, but I have found no way to make them go away.

Using a strong solvent like thinner or acetone also has no effect on the dark blue plastic because it is very resistent to solvents. I use thinner to clean the plastic, and that works very good, but it has no effect on the plastic itself.

If a tool looks really bad I prefer to simply replace the plastic shell (or part of it) with a new one. For some tools it's pretty cheap to order the parts, for others not so. For a PSB 300 it would cost about 30 euros, which is a bit costly to throw at a used tool.