On Oct 8 2004, 19:39, Jules Richardson wrote:
> Some plastics react badly with each other when left for extended
periods
> of time too and can stick together. Unfortunately there seems to be
no
> way of knowing which types (power cables and polystyrene don't seem
to
> do very well; we've also had an Amstrad PDA at the museum that had
> welded itself into its protective wallet...)
It's now my habit to clean all such cables with white spirit (light
kerosene) or turpentine substitute to remove the icky remains.
> Be careful with laser-printed documentation in ring binders too; the
> text has a habit of sticking to the underside of the binder's cover
for
> some reason - stick a blank sheet of paper in there to protect it.
Ditto for photocopies. It's the same problem as the power cable vs
expanded polystyrene, actually. Plasticisers in the PVC migrate into
the polystyrene or toner (which is plastic). A sheet of acetate film,
such as is used to make overhead projector transparencies (viewgraphs)
makes a moderately effective barrier.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Received on Fri Oct 08 2004 - 15:22:51 BST