Cleaning up the basement and rediscovered the triplets.

[Cam]

So I cleaned up some boxes in the basement, an look what I found.
Stil MIA is the keyboard, and the power adapters, but otherwise complete. Anyone have a solution for the sticky feeling that's built up over the years? I'm guessing it's from the degradation of the rubber coating.

 

[Iesca]

I aqcuired not too long ago some boxed G3 iMacs and with them an accessories box with a hockeypuck mouse that had gone sticky. Isopropyl alcohol was able to clean it up.

Conversely though, I tried rubbing alcohol on the rubber grip of an old digital camera and it  turned sticky, albeit temporarily (thankfully).

 

[splorp]

I can vouch for the use of isopropyl alcohol to help remove most of the stickiness from those Newton cases. It works 90% of time, based on my experience.

If you can’t locate the keyboard or power adapters, let me know. I have a number of spares that I can send to a new home for a decent price.

Also, what’s up with the screen on that OMP/MP100?

Is that a crack or a reflection?

 

[Byrd]

Yes wiping down rubberised plastic like this will only make it "more sticky", I find sometimes some use of the devices make them more tolerable, like a bit of oil and dust settles things

 

[Cam]

I can vouch for the use of isopropyl alcohol to help remove most of the stickiness from those Newton cases. It works 90% of time, based on my experience.

If you can’t locate the keyboard or power adapters, let me know. I have a number of spares that I can send to a new home for a decent price.

Also, what’s up with the screen on that OMP/MP100?

Is that a crack or a reflection?

Just a reflection.

 

[splorp]

Just a reflection.

Whew.

 

[MacUp72]

you have a similar problem with some 90s camera lenses, the rubber plasticizers desintegrate and the rubber parts get very sticky. This is a 'normal' chemical process over 30 years and almost nothing really helps, it is even dangerous to touch these desintrgrating rubbers.
I heard from a doctor this stuff can alter DNA. This is referring to these camera lens plastics of course..
the only thing that made them stop being sticky is talcum, as in baby powder. yes.

 

[François]

I sold my MessagePad 2000 because of this sticky surface. Yuck

 

[Cam]

you have a similar problem with some 90s camera lenses, the rubber plasticizers desintegrate and the rubber parts get very sticky. This is a 'normal' chemical process over 30 years and almost nothing really helps, it is even dangerous to touch these desintrgrating rubbers.
I heard from a doctor this stuff can alter DNA. This is referring to these camera lens plastics of course..
the only thing that made them stop being sticky is talcum, as in baby powder. yes.

The DNA thing is odd, but I don't have any plans to lick my Newtons, so . . .
I can see how baby powder sounds would reduce the sticky feel so I'm going to give it a try with a VERY small amount of powder.

 

[dcr]

So far, my Newton hasn't developed a stickiness problem, but I do have a Flip video camera that has. After having made something else stickier by using isopropyl alcohol on it, I opted to jump straight to powder. In my case, I used mica powder which is used in rubber stamp production. I used a soft bristol brush to apply and remove any excess. That pretty much resolved the issue. I would guess reapplications may be necessary as the rubber coating continues to deteriorate but for now it's holding up.

 

[Cam]

Interesting. I'm going to have to look for what colour of mica powder would work with the Newton.

 

[Juror22]

I'm going to have to look for what colour of mica powder would work with the Newton.

I have been using alcohol variants to successfully address rubberized coating degradation on several items (usually it works by removing the outer degraded coating, which is not desirable for all use cases), so I find this use of mica powder intriguing, not to mention that while looking further into that, I found another powder to experiment with, strontium aluminate glow powder!

It is used like the colored mica powder, but it glows in the dark. "Oh no, where did I leave my Newton?", turn off the lights, "Oh, there it is!".

 

[Iesca]

I did try cleaning the rubber-like surface of an early digital camera only to find that it went sticky with the isopropyl alcohol. Fortunately, it resolved on its own, but it does go to show that iso isn't always safe on all plastics.

 

[dcr]

I found another powder to experiment with, strontium aluminate glow powder!

Is that the one you have to be careful about getting wet? I remember when I was obtaining glow powder for some projects, there were ones that could not be mixed in with water-based paints because the water would do something to cause problems. They had glow powders that were encapsulated in something protective so they could be used in water-based paints.

 

[Juror22]

Is that the one you have to be careful about getting wet?

The one I found was this... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01K0SA5I8
From the web page it is pretty much the "wild west" regarding what it can be mixed with:

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Same issue plagues 90s era ThinkPads. Many of them coated the entire case in soft touch rubber, yuck!
I've never heard of anyone mentioning Mica powder. Will have to look into that.

 

[dcr]

The one I found was this... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01K0SA5I8
From the web page it is pretty much the "wild west" regarding what it can be mixed with:
View attachment 58208

If you want bright and long-lasting, try Ultra Glow.

 

[codingitwrong]

Just wanted to share that I followed the mica powder advice from this thread to treat the sticky rubber on a MP 2000 I bought. It seems to have worked great. I used black powder so it may be a little darker than it originally was.

 

[olePigeon]

If you want bright and long-lasting, try Ultra Glow.

Alternatively, Soul Glo.

 

[intric8]

When using black mica powder, does it come off on your hands later during use? Or sort of get absorbed into the plastic? The stickiness is annoying because it seems to attract lint that becomes hard to wipe off. But I wouldn't want to treat the case with black power and look like I'd just filled the air on my tire down with a dirty black compressor hose every time I used my device.