Magic Scrubber?

On 16/03/2012 16:51, William Sommerwerck wrote:
Magic Scrubber?



Who is she, and why would she have any better ideas?

--
Peter

Magic Scrubber?

I meant Magic Eraser. Sorry.

Who is she, and why would she have any better ideas?

It's a he. Mr Clean.

In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Ye of little faith. I think it's cleanable because I've cleaned
similar sticky rubberish goo from plastic in the past, without much
difficulty. The difference here is that the plastic surface is
textured, and seems to be trapping the goo. Cleaning a textured
surface is a problem that I see all too often. However, my quest for
the ultimate solvent may be futile. What I probably should be looking
for is a better technique or tools. I'll be investigating brushes,
rags, microfiber, mild heating, and such today.

Possibly dunking it in a large ultrasonic-cleaner tank would help?
The scrubbing cavitation bubbles might be able to release the hardened
good from the surface texture.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:37:33 -0700 (PDT), Robert Macy
wrote:

stick with the STIFF toothbrushes, they have rounded bristles and
don't seem to scratch much

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently? I went
to two drug stores, and all they had was medium and soft. Hundreds of
brushes in the display, and nothing stiff. I settled for a stiff
laundry brush. Too soon to tell if it will work as I have customers
bearing checkbooks at the door.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:56:04 -0700, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

Possibly dunking it in a large ultrasonic-cleaner tank would help?
The scrubbing cavitation bubbles might be able to release the hardened
good from the surface texture.

Good idea. The cavitation under the rubber might help break it loose.
I don't have anything big enough, but know where I can borrow one (the
local electroplating shop). Hopefully, it's high enough in frequency
to produce sufficiently small soap bubbles.



--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:47:18 -0700, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

How about sandblasting the offending remnants?

That would probably damage the "textured" plastic finish. Sandblasting
soft materials, like plastic, causes the sand to imbed itself into the
material. I learned this the hard way when I tried to sandblast a
brass welding torch. The sand is now a permanent part of the handle.

Could you take it to a commercial blaster? Any of several techniques
might work: bead blasting, bicarbonate blasting, CO2 pellet blasting.
These ought not to leave a residue, and I'd think that bead blasting
could reproduce a consistent surface texture across the exterior.

I could do that, but I would need to blast all the covers in order to
make the surface finish match. There are also some smooth surfaces
involved, which would need to be masked. I don't know the price of
sandblasting, but I suspect it might approach the cost of replacement.

The real problem with things like sandblasting is that they will happily
etch away plastic which is not covered with adhesive or labels, maybe
faster than the sticky goo itself will be removed.

The result is that you get a "3-D" surface, where the places where the
labels used to be stand above the rest of the surface.

Isaac

In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:56:04 -0700, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

Possibly dunking it in a large ultrasonic-cleaner tank would help?
The scrubbing cavitation bubbles might be able to release the hardened
good from the surface texture.

Good idea. The cavitation under the rubber might help break it loose.
I don't have anything big enough, but know where I can borrow one (the
local electroplating shop). Hopefully, it's high enough in frequency
to produce sufficiently small soap bubbles.

Somehow, that reminded me of the time one of the programmers took
advantage of his ability to get into the building on weekends to de-gunk
his motorcycle engine in the vapor-phase board cleaner at Pertec, lo
those many years ago.

The manufacturing folks never found out who did the deed, but they sure
wanted to ...

Isaac

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently?

How about the multi-length brush on an Oral-B electric toothbrush?

On Sat, 17 Mar 2012 06:03:19 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently?

How about the multi-length brush on an Oral-B electric toothbrush?

I have some of those (the cheap model with the non-replaceable
battery). The bistles are a mixture of plastic and rubber. They are
quite soft and flexible. It's worth a try, but I don't expect
anything useful from massaging the plastic case.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
A past owner had embalmed the printer in layers of bumper stickers, pogs,
labels, and rubber cement. Most of this was removed by the vendor, but
I think he just gave up trying to clean up the printer.

I've tried alcohol, paint thinner, Goo Gone sticker lifter (citrus
power), Oops! remover, WD-40, ammonia cleaner, and 409. All of these
soften the gum and goo to various degrees, but leave enough imbedded
in the textured plastic surface to make the printer look filthy. I
hesitate to try a stronger chlorinated hydrocarbon solvent for fear of
destroying the ABS plastic.

I don't know if it harms ABS, but I've removed adhesive from ABS with
waterless hand cleaner, like Gojo or Goop. It takes a few minutes to
soften the glue.

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:39:40 -0700 (PDT), "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

I don't know if it harms ABS, but I've removed adhesive from ABS with
waterless hand cleaner, like Gojo or Goop. It takes a few minutes to
soften the glue.

http://www.imperialsupplies.com/msds0040210.shtml
Mineral Spirits
Propylene Glycol

I've already tried mineral spirits. It didn't work on the rubberish
goo imbedded in the textured surface. However, it can't hurt to try
Goop as I have some handy.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:39:40 -0700 (PDT), "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

I don't know if it harms ABS, but I've removed adhesive from ABS with
waterless hand cleaner, like Gojo or Goop. It takes a few minutes to
soften the glue.

http://www.imperialsupplies.com/msds0040210.shtml
Mineral Spirits
Propylene Glycol

I've already tried mineral spirits. It didn't work on the rubberish
goo imbedded in the textured surface. However, it can't hurt to try
Goop as I have some handy.

Another cheap household chemical to try: Hand Sanitizer. Basically
ethanol that doesn't evaporate (quickly), but all sorts of ingredients
(Ethanol, Propylene Glycol, Vitamin E). They (Infectiguard brand) say
it's not safe with all plastics.

I had a jam jar come out of the dishwasher the other night with
some old label residue, so I thought I'd double check my assertion
about a soybean oil soak. Overnight, and it didn't touch it. ;-(

Looking around, there was the hand sanitizer dispenser. Sliming up
the affected spot with sanitizer and waiting for a couple of hours,
it cleaned up the residue pretty well.

Chances are, it will still be a war of attrition.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:37:33 -0700 (PDT), Robert Macy
wrote:

stick with the STIFF toothbrushes, they have rounded bristles and
don't seem to scratch much

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently?


You want a typewriter or detailing brush. HF sells a set of three:
Nylon, brass & stainless steel that are quite handy around the shop.
They go on sale for 99 cents for the set of three, from time to time.


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:18:34 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:37:33 -0700 (PDT), Robert Macy
wrote:

stick with the STIFF toothbrushes, they have rounded bristles and
don't seem to scratch much

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently?

You want a typewriter or detailing brush. HF sells a set of three:
Nylon, brass & stainless steel that are quite handy around the shop.
They go on sale for 99 cents for the set of three, from time to time.

I tried a variety of brushes with what seems to be the most effective
solvent, Homax Oops. The stiff plastic brushes were ineffective. The
stiff brass and stainless wires brushes tended to scratch the plastic
surface, so I stopped before I destroyed the case.

I'm having some success with sodium percarbonate (OxiClean) and
hydrogen peroxide 3% bleaches. They're not removing the rubberish
goo, but are doing a fair job of lightening the color, making the case
more presentable.

I was also able to remove some of the goo using sticky packing tape.
The theory was that the glue would stick to the goo better than the
plastic. It removed some, but most of the goo is too thoroughly
embedded in the plastic.

I'm going to give up shortly, and swap plastic parts with my identical
office printer to make the customer happy. It's also time to start
working on my taxes.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:06:50 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:18:34 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:37:33 -0700 (PDT), Robert Macy
wrote:

stick with the STIFF toothbrushes, they have rounded bristles and
don't seem to scratch much

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently?

You want a typewriter or detailing brush. HF sells a set of three:
Nylon, brass & stainless steel that are quite handy around the shop.
They go on sale for 99 cents for the set of three, from time to time.

I tried a variety of brushes with what seems to be the most effective
solvent, Homax Oops. The stiff plastic brushes were ineffective. The
stiff brass and stainless wires brushes tended to scratch the plastic
surface, so I stopped before I destroyed the case.

I'm having some success with sodium percarbonate (OxiClean) and
hydrogen peroxide 3% bleaches. They're not removing the rubberish
goo, but are doing a fair job of lightening the color, making the case
more presentable.

I was also able to remove some of the goo using sticky packing tape.
The theory was that the glue would stick to the goo better than the
plastic. It removed some, but most of the goo is too thoroughly
embedded in the plastic.

I'm going to give up shortly, and swap plastic parts with my identical
office printer to make the customer happy. It's also time to start
working on my taxes.

Laser ablation! Of course, not something one would have sitting around
in the average garage workshop ...

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:39:31 -0400, Rich Webb
wrote:

Laser ablation! Of course, not something one would have sitting around
in the average garage workshop ...

No problem. We have various local tech shops that offer their members
the use of sophisticated and expensive equipment.
http://makersfactory.com
http://makersfactory.com/equipment/
They have a nice Epilog 10 watt laser.

Over the hill, in Silly Clone Valley, is the better equipped Tech
Shop.
http://www.techshop.ws

However, I question the efficiency of spending time and money getting
qualified on the laser, in order to clean up about $30 worth of
plastic parts. Of course, that assumes that the darker rubberish goo
will vaporize and not melt the plastic.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

...most of the goo is too thoroughly //embedded in the plastic//.

I think that "says it".