remove permanent marker

[<betty_bongo]

hi any suggestions on how to remove permanent marker form vinyl dolls

[Sam]

Is this adult full size fun dolls or Barbie type dolls?

Sam

[troubleinstore]

Nip into a £stretcher shop or a £land shop and purchase a CD cleaner kit. Init you will find a small bottle of Isopropanol (wood alcohol). Pour a drop onto a cloth and wipe over gently a few times and it should be removed.

You could go to a chemist and ask the Pharmacist for a bottle but they will charge you about £6 for 500ml.

This stuff has many uses. When all else fails, give this a try. I had some marks on the front wing and no matter how many times I washed it, they would not come off. Gave it a few light rubs with a cloth with Isopropanol on and bingo, like new now.

Hope that helps

By the way. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN and don't drink it, you'll go blind.

[Andy Hall]

Small point is that wood alcohol is the U.S. name for methylated spirits. Isopropanol, aka Isopropyl Alcohol is something else, but I agree that this should work.

Meths certainly has that effect because of the organic impurities, I'm not sure about Isopropanol, but not to be taken anyway.

Of course there are other things that one should tell children not to do in case they go blind.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Alistair Riddell]

Xylene is the solvent commonly used in permanent pens, acetone sometimes but not always does the trick.

IIRC nail polish remover consists mainly of xylene, you could give that a try but I have no idea what it would do to the plastic doll. "Test on an inconspicuous area" is the advice usually given in such circumstances I believe...

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Alistair Riddell writes

Nail polish remover is mainly acetone. Xylene is now thought to be carcinogenic, hence all the marker pens saying "xylene free".

Meths is the best thing.

[Mike Harrison]

[Grunff]

It is a very useful household solvent - so useful that I buy mine from a chemical suppliet, at £35/10litres (4 winchesters).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Wood alcohol is methanol. Methanol is not isopropyl aclcohol.

Pour

[Mark Trueman]

You can also try going over the top of the ink with the same pen and then rubbing with a tissue quickly afterwards, while the ink is still wet. This is how kids at my school were made to remove the marker from tables and other graffitied objects.

[Sam]

Methylated spirits is ethanol deliberately adulterated with methanol to make it undrinkable. Methanol attacks the optic nerve causing blindness. Isopropanol doesn't do this. I think it has similar effects to ethanol but longer lasting, not a good idea to drink it though I think. Interestingly one of the treatments of methanol poisoning is deliberate dosing with ethanol - about the only time getting pissed will save your life.

Sam

[geoff]

In message , Andy Hall writes

You can drink IPA, not to be recommended, but it won't kill you

I thought most of them know before you get round to telling them

[geoff]

In message , troubleinstore writes

Wood alcohol is methanol, not IPA

It's about £4 / litre

Again, that's methanol, not IPA

[Suz]

bung them in the fire and get a new one. My doll from the 70's still has ordinary marker deeply ingrained, let alone permanent marker. My mother being of the war era won't throw it out and now my kids play happily with the creepy thing.

Suzanne.

[Steve Walker]

I've seen this done on whiteboards where someone has used a permanent marker by mistake - just write over with a non-permanent marker and wipe off.

Steve W

[jerrybuilt]

"Organic impurities?? What are those, then?

I like a few pints, myself... however, no, a bit of isopropyl alcohol won't hurt... in fact about 25 years ago, the cops used to calibrate their brethalysers against this, so to have a bit in your system, for one person, anyway, produced an interesting result (and finding).

J.B.

[Marcus Fox]

Lots of solvents will do this, isopropyl alcohol, methylated spirits, nail-varnish remover (acetone), although *may* also mark the plastic. Using the proper precautions, maybe petroleum, turpentine, xylene. When I was studying chemistry at uni, we had loads of solvents that would dissolve/clean practically anything. Some of them were pretty nasty though. I remember having to remove a polymer experiment that went wrong "brown gunk" from some equipment using N-N-dimethylformamide. Now that's nasty stuff. Whiffs quite a bit, i'd say.

Marcus