Retrobrite indoors?

[JC8080]

I have an SE/30 case I've been wanting to retrobrite, and due to space and geographical factors, I don't have the ability to leave parts sitting out in sunlight. I've seen a couple videos online where people use UV lights indoors. One video I ran across a while back used a UV LED strip with some success, the kind you buy in a spool off Amazon. Since I would be doing the large back case the submersion method is impractical, so I was thinking of using the salon cream. My thought is this would take place in a bath tub, either on some sort of tray or in a plastic tub to contain any of the cream that dripped off. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[s_pupp]

I used a combination of fluorescent and incandescent UV lamps in 2012. There was some improvement, but it took a lot longer, and the results were not as impressive as the South Carolina sun.

 

[mg.man]

Not sure if you saw this thread...
- Post in thread 'Interesting Retrobrite Research Video' https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/interesting-retrobrite-research-video.38408/post-415917

I do all my R'brite'ing indoors... UK sunshine just too unpredictable. I use an immersion method - with Laundry "ultra-white" crystal additive and UV light. This is my rig...


One word of caution... I have found that "immersion" (at least my method which tends to take several hours or even days) does strip off the EM shielding on SEs and SE/30s - which have the silvery sort. It doesn't seem to effect the Classics (Is and IIs) which have a black / grey coating... So... be aware... YMMV!

 

[s_pupp]

Not sure if you saw this thread...
- Post in thread 'Interesting Retrobrite Research Video' https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/interesting-retrobrite-research-video.38408/post-415917

I do all my R'brite'ing indoors... UK sunshine just too unpredictable. I use an immersion method - with Laundry "ultra-white" crystal additive and UV light. This is my rig...
View attachment 33297

One word of caution... I have found that "immersion" (at least my method which tends to take several hours or even days) does strip off the EM shielding on SEs and SE/30s - which have the silvery sort. It doesn't seem to effect the Classics (Is and IIs) which have a black / grey coating... So... be aware... YMMV!

Nice setup. I used a surface treatment covered with saran wrap, a method that occasionally left wrinkle marks on the cases. Nine years later, the marks have decreased, but some of the yellowing has come back.

 

[mattsoft]

Peroxide and metal don't like each other, so it's always safe to remove any metal shielding before dipping your plastics into peroxide or you'll have rust to deal with.

 

[bdurbrow]

For shielded plastic (such as a Mac SE) perhaps spray paint the interior of the case first? Possibly with a clear coat can? You’d probably want to test your paint on some other scrap piece of ABS plastic first to be sure the paint adheres well and doesn’t get eaten by the hydrogen peroxide in the solution.

 

[JC8080]

Not sure if you saw this thread...
- Post in thread 'Interesting Retrobrite Research Video' https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/interesting-retrobrite-research-video.38408/post-415917

I do all my R'brite'ing indoors... UK sunshine just too unpredictable. I use an immersion method - with Laundry "ultra-white" crystal additive and UV light. This is my rig...

One word of caution... I have found that "immersion" (at least my method which tends to take several hours or even days) does strip off the EM shielding on SEs and SE/30s - which have the silvery sort. It doesn't seem to effect the Classics (Is and IIs) which have a black / grey coating... So... be aware... YMMV!

Thanks, no I hadn't seen that thread/video, it was quite informative. Your rig is similar to what I had envisioned, except using the brush-on method rather than submersion. Submersion definitely seems better since you avoid any chance of streaking, though it seems a bit more of a pain since you have to deal with a somewhat large volume of liquid. I was told by someone who used the brush-on method that the streaking is easy to avoid by frequently re-brushing the item during the process.

 

[pinto_guy]

I once saw a youtube video showing that heat is actually more efficient that UV in retr0briting. So my rig is just a large cooler with a 75W incandescent light bulb placed inside. This tends to keep the temperature in a 50-60C range. I use hydrogen peroxide (12%) with wallpaper glue as a thickener that I apply with a paintbrush. I still use a plastic wrap, but probably don't need it since it's a closed environment. Two hours was enough for a pretty bad 128k case. See pics below

 

[mg.man]

That does look nice... I have an original 512k that needs some "treatment"... been hesitating on the immersion technique, so might give this some consideration. As for "heat", I do usually use "hot" water when setting up a run, and also have an aquarium heater - but that tops out at about 33C...

 

[pinto_guy]

Earlier, I had bought some expensive UV-C LEDs and rigged up a similar cooler, with 6 LED's at the top. Tried overnight, with absolutely zero effect.

So I'm 90% sure that UV has nothing to do with it. It's all heat and H2O2. I also never found that oxi-clean did anything either.

 

[JC8080]

I once saw a youtube video showing that heat is actually more efficient that UV in retr0briting. So my rig is just a large cooler with a 75W incandescent light bulb placed inside. This tends to keep the temperature in a 50-60C range. I use hydrogen peroxide (12%) with wallpaper glue as a thickener that I apply with a paintbrush. I still use a plastic wrap, but probably don't need it since it's a closed environment. Two hours was enough for a pretty bad 128k case. See pics below

Very cool, thanks for the info, that seems like a pretty manageable setup.

 

[CC_333]

I once ran a somewhat yellowed Classic II bucket in the dishwasher to clean it off, and to my surprise, it came out noticeably less yellow than when it went in!

Apparently I had then discovered by accident that hot water + the Oxyclean I decided to use as a dishwasher agent did the job (it got a little overdone (it bleached the finish a bit), but oh, well).

c