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| Plastic cases that go sticky |
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| tooki:
--- Quote from: tszaboo on February 23, 2024, 02:03:59 pm ---I don't think there is a way. It's that rubbery material, often times when it's in contact with plastic, which is doing it. I think it might be the additives in the plastic, which is doing it not the plastic itself. --- End quote --- No, it’s just the synthetic elastomers decomposing with time. At work, I just threw away a half sheet of old (really old, like decades) 3M Bumpon rubber feet that had degraded from clear rubbery plastic into sticky goop, a clear jelly that felt like Vaseline. These had never been attached to anything, so it wasn’t migration from plastic, because it wasn’t in contact with it. Besides, plasticizer migration works the opposite of how you think: it migrates from soft plastics to hard ones and softens the hard ones. Plasticizer migration would result in the plastic going soft, not in the rubber going gooey. |
| Gyro:
Meths (Methylated spirits - UK name), works as well as IPA to remove the coating completely with plenty of kitchen towel and rubbing. It's cheaper here than IPA and safe with most plastics, including ABS. |
| jpanhalt:
Denatured alcohol is regulated. There are many acceptable recipes. As I said earlier, in the US, it can and frequently is mostly methanol That's for "Klean-Strip QSL26 Denatured Alcohol" Stuff sold for "fuel" can have even less ethanol. In Britain, it might be different, particularly if sold as denatured ethanol rather than denatured alcohol. Same rule probably holds in the US, but you won't find "denatured ethanol" at Home Depot. Of course, denatured ethanol is also available on Amazon (I think), but the price is outrageous considering E85 is about $3/gallon. I have tried E85 as a very cheap alternative. It's not as good as absolute ethanol, but it's a decent solvent. Unfortunately, it has a strong odor and fuel additives. |
| Gyro:
I just had a quick look at a bottle of DIY store stuff that I have in the garage. The caution label says "contains Ethanol UN1170" but no mention of Methanol or complete ingredients list. Yes, purple in colour with distinctive smell. Sold for spirit lamps / stoves, hard surface, and glass cleaning, de-greasing etc. |
| jpanhalt:
Do you have the equivalent of the US SDS or MSDS (safety datasheet or material safety datasheet). Virtually every "chemical" sold in the US must have one, including the white-out used in the days of the Selectric typewriters. Are IBM Selectric ball typewriters still used in Britain? :) Just search on its name & product number from a British site. |
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