Cleaning Plastic

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_northernway.net>
Date: Mon Jun 9 14:08:15 1997

Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Sam Ismail said:

>Regarding "tape spooge" (what a great moniker, if not gross) this is the
>bane of my existence. I hate that shit. I went out and got some stuff
>called Goof Off from Home Depot which was supposed to do away with that
>stuff but it didn't work very well. I didn't try it on anything metal
>yet, but most of my problems are with people putting velcro with the
>sticky backs on plastic cases. I tried cleaning some plastic with tape
>spooge on it and it just melted the damn thing. Anyone have any ideas?

I have a great idea... I have been working on refurbishing several Tandy
200 laptops for a friend, and one of the laptops had about a dozen stickers
on it (including bumper stickers -- the worst! ;-( ) ... a few stickers
came off, but most left "sticker tracks".

I went down to my local hardware, and bought a quart of straight Naphtha.
=$2.79 locally= (It's a component of lighter fluid...) It is *highly* -- I
say again -- *highly* flammable. So flammable, *thinking* about having a
cigarette will touch this stuff off.

But: It doesn't melt plastic (well, maybe if you soaked it overnight or
somesuch foolish thing) and neutralizes tape spooge (one of my favorite
"words," BTW) in the blink of an eye!

The fumes are kinda harmful, and it evaporates so quickly it will suck the
moisture from your hands (those with sensitive skin, wear rubber gloves) so
don't leave the cap off for a weekend in the basement... you'll be greeted
with a highly explosive basement and no mo naphtha.

This is one of the few solvents that easily dissolves wax (candle,
paraffin, and others) and I learned about it while learning to make
candles. It works good for clear wax as well, but it won't get a stain from
the dye out, that I've ever seen. So it may work well on removing grease
pencil wax, but if the dye in the grease pencil has stained the plastic,
try another of the fine suggestions here.

Sam,
Regarding your post about L.O.C. (which stands for Liquid Organic Cleaner,
BTW, and was Amway's first product over 35 years ago) do you dilute it
first (as per instructions?)

L.O.C. mixed 1:1 (water:LOC) is also good at getting crayon off of walls
(as always, hope there's decent quality paint when kids are around) and
mixed 2:1 works great for getting the green gunk out of the grooves of your
golf clubs!

Hope this helps,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger       | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch_at_northernway.net  | *not* be your first career choice.
Received on Mon Jun 09 1997 - 14:08:15 BST

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