Sticky Binoculars

Dunno if it always happens with age, or just to items handled by certain people with a particular composition of sweat/grease on their skin ... my old mice wheels go that way if left for a year or two.

perhaps a dusting of talc or cornstarch would help...

My wife has 'lost' several pairs of shoes (some absolutely unworn) because the rubber soles have become sticky - a bit like chewing gum.

I think all of the shoes had been put away for several years, and kept in their original shoeboxes, which while certainly not air-tight, would have had very little flow of air through them.

I have a similar problem with a pair of PMR446 walkie-talkies, which now have sticky rubber cases.

The conclusion I have come to is that the solvent in the rubber has probably gradually evaporated, and being trapped in the box and unable to disperse, has reacted with the rubber (partially dissolving its surface).

I've since kept the walkie-talkies in a box with an ill-fitting lid, and I reckon the stickiness is slowly beginning to disappear. Maybe the binoculars would respond similarly.

s*it - you still have mice with wheels?

With scrollwheels - yes doesn't everyone? With balls instead of optical - no.

Talcum powder

Yes. Get a life.

I keep thinking I should try and find a bollocked rodent - optical ones seem to have a liking for dog hair, and wig out completely when it blocks the optics. At least this 'ere Dell mouse doesn't have a red glowing bum though, unlike its predecessor.

cheers

Jules

I've seen it plenty of times with rubber pinch rollers in tape drives, but it seems quite random and independent of use, storage conditions etc.

Sadly I don't think there's a cure - once it's started going like that it'll just get worse :-(

cheers

Jules

It sounds as if this could be a use for Sugru. See the thread in this group "Has anyone used/found a use for Sugru?" started two days ago.

Nick

Is this "rubberised" a thin coating for "soft touch" that was all the rage a few years ago? If so patience with a soft scraper (finger nail) will get it off. If it's a thicker bump protection then as Jules says it'll just get worse. I suppose talc might help a bit but the underlying substance is turning to a liquid...

Not really, its the demise of the material. I had some so called rubber soled shoes that went this way. You may be able to seal it for a while I suppose but the rubber eventually degrades to a kind of gooey liquid. Brian

There is a very well known make of cassette deck which was made by 3M Wollensack, which had self destructing pressure rollers like this. A sticky roller is not a good idea of course!

Brian

I think his mice also have balls.

Brian

Talc or diatomaceous earth sold in garden centres as organic snail discourager (don't breathe the dust). You want something to bind the stickyness and make it inert again at the surface.

My old Psion 3 went this way all over. I think the damage is caused by ozone breaking up the soft rubber polymer to shorter chains.

I don't know if you can ever really recover since the material is basically shot at this stage and not far off losing structural integrity.

Regards, Martin Brown

My old mobile phone had a rubber coating on the back. It became hard and shiny and grubby looking so I cleaned in with IPA. Which worked but it then went soft and sticky.

I've got the outer skin of a Nikon D200 in that state :(

You can get body armour for cameras

I removed the gunge on my rubberised binoculars with neat washing up liquid but it took me an hour or so of repeated treatments. I smeared the washing up liquid on and left it to soak in for about 10 minutes then rubbed it off with a cloth also soaked in neat washing up liquid, and kept repeating that until all the gunge came away. That was about a year ago, I have just checked them and they are still gunge-free.