Everything Else

Where did you get 50% hydrogen peroxide?

This industrial bulk chemical place down the street.

And this stuff is mean too...

How much for the liter?

It was $23.00 for a gallon. Not real cheap, but it will go along way.

Three (3) Hour Progress Report:

It has only been three hours, and the results so far are AMAZING!

Left Half Treated

Left Half Treated

Top Half Treated & Compared to Brand New Face Plate

Top Half Treated & Compared to Brand New Face Plate


It's not quite there yet, but it's damn close. What an improvement!

Very nice. Do you notice any difference in the surface texture of the plastic - has it retained its prior shine? Also, have you taken any steps to prevent water from accumulating behind the metal shielding on the inside of the lid?

The texture has not changed in anyway.

I am not sure what you mean when you say "prior shine", because I would call that a side effect of aging. Think how dull and flat leather is when it's new, but it becomes shiny when it is old, dirty and worn. The brand new piece (face plate) is very flat, almost "powdery" finish. This process has restored that look. It looks proper, not dried out or damaged. I am about the most OCD, nitpicky person when it comes to perfection, and this gets my seal of approval!

I did not take any steps to prevent water from getting behind the metal shielding. This is my test piece, so I was going to see if I could mess it up. It has been completely unaffected from the process, despite Hydrogen Peroxide being an oxidizer. I can just blow excess water out with an air hose.

What did oxidize, were the two metal clips that lock the case down. Not badly, but I would remove those before doing a good case.

I am now seeing what happens if I leave it in too long. So far, it still looks great. I don't know if the solution has become ineffective or if there is nothing else on the case to react with. Either way, I am coming up on 6 hours and it is pretty much perfect.

I am going to pull it out in a little while and see if there are any side effects after it dries over night.

Looks great! I did start removing the metal shielding from inside my case because i saw a few rust spots on a piece - very small, but considering some of the others were looking ugly before even being treated I took them off to be safe.

I finished the front and back of the case but after reattaching the front to the metal part of the case (which never changed color) I think I want to treat them for a bit longer.

Are you talking about your Apple? or have you started on an SGI machine?

Well its done.





Comparison shot with the new face plate before treatment.


Just to see what happens, I took a broken bottom piece and threw it in and went to bed. It was in the solution for about 12 hours. It appears to be unharmed. Perhaps the solution was weakened, or it only reacts with the yellow film.


My next project:

It is in the solution now.

I would recommend you be careful with your eyes when using U/V... for example high intensity U/V is used to erase eeproms or as an bacteriacide AND IT CAN CAUSE PERMANENT EYE DAMAGE. get some u/v blockers while you do this stuff, seriously.

apparently,
3% drugstore H2O2 works just as well with a different version, and reduces the risk of seriously decomposing the plastic like what is possible with stronger peroxide... found it here http://www.flickr.com/photos/66071596@N00/3822230561/

UPDATE...

After about a month in the solution, I have some impressive results. Some good, some bad...

The good news is that the yellowing has been almost 100% knocked out, the bad-"ish" news is the plastic has definitely taken on a "bleached" appearance.

As you can see from the pics, the final product is considerably lighter then a normal perfect condition keyboard.

My conclusion is that it is an effect of the sun damage, because the bottom, unaffected from the sun, still retains the original darker gray color.

So, the good news is that the solution only bleaches out the yellow portion, and does not bleach out undamaged plastics.

Here are the pics:

Did you notice any change to the silk-screened logo on the upper left?

Very, Very Minor.

But, I never eyed it very well before starting.

It is a bit thinner, but nothing shocking.

That looks pretty good. Do you think it might be possible to partially restore the original color by immersing the plastic in a highly diluted dye solution of some kind? Say, for example, breaking the contents of a navy blue marker into a tub of water and letting it soak overnight?

Also, you mention that the bottom side of the keyboard bezel was not bleached by the solution. Was it exposed to just as much UV light as the top side?

that almost going in some sort of home improvement direction ... like it

i used to take window cleaner to scrub my keyboards. worked fine so far

Yea, both the top and the bottom were equally exposed. Only the sun damaged parts "bleached out". The bottom label was not even effected. So, maybe the sun bleaches the plastic as it turns it yellow. I don't know about dye, I really don't think that is something that would work well with this granite color.

To resurrect this thread again. I played with this a bit a couple of days ago trying to figure out if I could reverse the UV damage to my o2 i'm selling, so I experimented with the broken cdrom bezel off my parts o2.

I unfortunately didn't take any pics, but what it boils down to is that I don't recommend using this on dark colored plastics. While it was working and did get rid of the yellow, the lightening was towards the white (I.E.. bleaching) rather than back to the bright blue the o2 was originally(after almost a 2 hour soak). I don't know if this is from UV bleaching from age, or if it was the retrobright mixture responsible.

I also tried a normal beige pc case blank that was almost brown, and it turned it a nice white again(after an 8 hour soak). So I think the lighter the original color the plastic was, the better the results that can be had since the bleaching is less noticeable.

The mix I was using was pretty mild as well. 1.5 - 2% hydrogen peroxide, so I don't think the bleaching result was due to too strong of a mix.

Just figured i'd share my findings.

My findings were the process removed the yellow caused by the sun, if the plastic was also bleached from the sun, you will end up with a lighter piece. My keyboard was lighter where the sun damaged it, and the same, unchanged OEM color where the sun did not damage it.

Also, My retrobright process did not bleach the teal Indigo case at all, it only brought out the strong original color.