that sticky deposit on things

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I'm sure this has come up on here before, you know that wonderful grip enhancing surface coating on plastic items that over time starts to go very sticky? Well this is a new twist on that. We have for our Talking newspaper well over120 Ram sticks, all fully working and all half a gig that we distribute the weekly recordings on. They have suddenly, after some years all begun to go sticky with this nasty problem. These are of the swing arm type, which is made of metal pivoting on the plastic case, which makes it very difficult to actually get at the body where the problems are. It seems stupid to throw them away if they still have some life left in them electrically. Can anyone suggest a reasonably labour free way to get rid of the sticky? It would take a lot of work to remove the arms, unclip the cases and put them into some kind of solvent, and then reverse the process. Is this stuff part of the case, or merely a treatment added later on that might be removable from the bit you touch most with a drop of magic fluid? Maybe painting them with something might seal it in? Brian

[Peter Able]

Leave them in the open on, but not flat on, a surface. That's what works here.

PA

[Andy Burns]

Put them in a rock tumbler?

[Chris Bacon]

I was just about to suggest, it's a pity you can't put them in a tumbler witha a lot of absorbent pellets dampened with acetone or similar. They might go fluffy, though, or the plug end get full of crap.

Is it hard to get the metal off? Might be the only real way, unclip it, rub 'em up with a cloth dampened in whatever, put clip back on. Repeat x

120.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Brake cleaner.

[Max Demian]

I've got several hard plastic objects that have gone sticky after a few years. I think it's a failure of the plastic itself, not any coating, so I don't see how you can treat it in any way.

[GB]

Retail, the sticks are £2 each. Wholesale, maybe half of that?

Have you tried a couple of solvents? Soap and water possibly?

[charles]

Talcum power seems to work.

[Theo]

+1. That's what I've seen recommended for removing this 'soft touch' plastic. Not tried it myself. Also automatic transmission fluid, which is probably more expensive than brake cleaner.

On the other hand, 115 half-GB sticks are £136:

or 50 for £72: So it depends on the tradeoffs involved, and how fiddly they are to clean.

Theo

[Peter Able]

Incidentally, rather than being "that wonderful grip enhancing surface coating on plastic items" it smells to me to be a plasticiser leaching out of the plastic.

New car smell. Pretty carcinogenic, some of those plasticisers.

PA

[Scott]

I had a DAB radio that went the same way. More than £2 to replace! The manufacturer (Pure) disowned responsibility.

I tried a damp cloth but not acetone as we are always told not to use organic solvents on plastic.

[Jeff Layman]

+1

Cheap, and can be used several times as the sticky stuff comes through.

[Another Dave]

Iso-propyl alcohol, kitchen towel and elbow grease.

Another Dave

[N_Cook]

+1 excellent for document repair where someone has used "selotape" ,remove with a hair drier warming , and then dust the sticky with talc.

[GB]

Unasked-for advice alert:

Is this problem with the sticky sticks a reminder that many of your users can probably download the data without needing to have a USB stick sent to them at all?

[Brian]

I assume you are describing items which had a mat, almost thin rubber like, coating originally?

If so, I had this problem on a Pure One Flow Radio. They had this type of finish over a normal, plastic, case.

I used meths and a lintless cloth to remove most of the finish. A few patches remain but, while unattractive, they aren?t tacky. I assume they will go soft eventually (as they deteriorate like the other areas) and I will remove them. The radio is used in the potting shed so it doesn?t need to be pristine.

Avoid acetone, it will attack the plastic but meths should be ok.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

If you are right then one might expect the inside to be the same, but dismantling one seems to prove that there its hard like normal plastic. It probably is some kind of plasticizer, used in the coating. Not noticed any smell to it;. There must be millions of these out there somewhere, and if it caused cancer, surely we would know by now. Its just that our listeners find it very unpleasant to handle. When you say lay them out I think this would take an age, and for how long. We have a box full of them now and all the topmost ones are just as sticky as they were when they came in. It seemed to happen over about 3 months to the complete batch about four years after starting to use them. They come of course from China sealed in little cellophane bags in a polystyrene moulding. We have a newer batch and are using those but there is no guarantee these won't go the same way in time of course. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

One might suspect that the usb or internal electronics might not survive that. It did occur to me that a mini sand blaster might work, if such a thing exists, but I think all that would happen is the sand wooed stick to the sticky!

Another thought to fined something elastic that fits below the clamp hinge and can be used as a grip, but this may cause the clip to be unable to close to protect the usb in the mail. Brian

[Clive Arthur]

That certainly works well, but does need many applications and much elbow grease. I've done it for a night vision scope and the result was good.

For a low value item where the appearance isn't so important, I'd stick with (!) talcum powder.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes nobody is volunteering, maybe we can float it as a job for naughty youths or felons. No my most ideal suggestion thus far is a source of very short but wide elastic bands put over the main sticky area and ignore the little end bit. Anyone know of a source of such things?

And no very small condoms might not be appropriate either, I know how minds operate on here!

Brian