this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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There are devices which sand the top layer to take away the scratches. Mixed results.
Link is first what I found. Sorry it's amazon
Get the battery powered one, and get a 9v 1amp wall wart (it can run on batteries or the wall wart).
Also buy spare sanding wheels, at least 3, preferably 6.
Source: I have one. It takes 2 minutes to do a full pass. One wheel will do about 100 discs before being too worn out.
Of the ~200 unreadable discs I've run through it, perhaps 5 were still unreadable afterwards (and those may have had a copy protection failure, I'm not really sure). I do know pretty much all were readable afterwards, when they weren't readable before.
Edit: the spray is just water with a drop of dish soap. Use lots of water - when I hear it slow down I know it needs more water on the disc, so give it another shot of spray.
I thought the spray was just distilled water, no dish soap.
I suspect the water is for the friction. You don't wanna melt the plastic
Back when they were common toothpaste was supposed to be the best way to get scratches smoothed out.
OMG I remember doing this. It never worked for me though! Not even once. lol
Toothpaste only really works if you apply it to a buffing wheel, and at that point you may as well use an actual polishing compound.