Cheap retrobrighting.

[fossala]

Yeah, I have oxyclean in my house, will try tonight.

[Input Nirvana]

Nothing to lose. It's easy.

Maybe keep something out of the mix as a control and compare and check every 30 mins to see how it works.

And who knows. Maybe uv is a crucial component. It may very well be.

[fossala]

I'm going to do it in one batch so I don't end up with odd coloured keys. I want to get on it now, but that will only allow 4/5hrs before I go to bed.

[Input Nirvana]

4-5 hours should be enough, assuming the reactions don't need sunlight. Nothing to lose trying it.

I think most of the de-yellowing occurred in the first several hours.

[fossala]

OK it's in. How can I do the case? There are stickers on it for the leds and below the f keys.

[fossala]

May of put too much in, 2 scoops in about 1 litre. It says 1 scoop in 4 litres... Bubbles, bubbles everywhere.

[Input Nirvana]

Yea...I hate the stickers issue.

Are they paper stickers (shiny or dull) or plastic? And the printing...if it's plastic I've only seen them printed on the backside, so no issues. If it's paper...I've not thought about how to deal with that other than make the gel and cover the stickers with a piece of something lightly stuck on.

I've only done the Kinesis.

I'm no help with this, sorry

[fossala]

I think they are plastic, like the model M. If I submerge them though, won't they come off?

[Input Nirvana]

May of put too much in, 2 scoops in about 1 litre. It says 1 scoop in 4 litres... Bubbles, bubbles everywhere.

Sounds like you did 4 times the strongest amount. I did 10 times the strongest amount. Had no problems...but I used less strength each time just to save pennies.

[Input Nirvana]

I think they are plastic, like the model M. If I submerge them though, won't they come off?

If they are plastic they are probably nonporous. The only moisture contact will be on the edges. I doubt the adhesive is water soluble, but I don't know. If the adhesive is compromised you can always reattach using a common office supply glue-stick should work.

If the printing is on the surface of the plastic, I don't know if it will be affected. I think not/not much. The oxy will react with certain things and not so much with others.

[forcefollow]

it's 1 AM here, just submerged several badly yellowed ya-sheng BS caps in the solution (5 scoops in 500 mL), model M gotta wait.. not enough oxy-magic left for the whole case and caps.

left the room dark. and as previously expected, it still bubbles. I'm optimistic with the result. especially if the reaction time is limited, and the oxidation strength is not enough to mottle the plastic (which is the downside of using hydrogen peroxide for me).

considering the calculated price needed to bleach the whole board with oxy products, I'll find a cut-off concentration somehow.

EDIT: the model M I'm going to bleach is 1397000 122-key terminal, the label's paper, and already shown some sign of discoloration. will try water-tight adhesives to cover the label.

[fossala]

1hr in, nothing has happened so far.

[Input Nirvana]

I didn't monitor very closely, but I remember that I didn't notice anything the initial hour or two, but noticed the de-yellowing in the 2-4 hours range. It's a process.

I also had the stuff outdoors.

[fossala]

Yeah, I will leave it in until I go to bed. Don't want to leave it in overnight incase it ruins the keycaps.

[fossala]

Leaving it in overnight, nothing has happened so far.

[Input Nirvana]

Must need uv.

We never knew for sure. I guess we do now.

[fossala]

Must need uv.

We never knew for sure. I guess we do now.

Well we will definitely know in the morning.

[mintberryminuscrunch]

The one question we never answered because we spent all our yellow plastics on determining the oxy-only and oxy strength mixtures:

Will the oxy (or generic) work WITHOUT uv light?

Your clothes get white in the washing machine without uv light, but that's different in the fact you aren't replacing the bromine molecules...

i had no success with
oxy no sun
and
oxy no sun, heat from a aquarium heater

[Input Nirvana]

Then pretty sure uv is activator to cause the bromine molecules to be replaced.

Don't know how much uv. Sun, backlight, compact fluorescent...... I personally would use sun.

[mintberryminuscrunch]

Then pretty sure uv is activator to cause the bromine molecules to be replaced.

Don't know how much uv. Sun, backlight, compact fluorescent...... I personally would use sun.

I also had the experience that the type of plastic has a big part in the equation,
ABS!=ABS
vintage cherry has better results than vintage SP etc...

[fossala]

Been left in over night, nearly 12 hours. Nothing has happened.

[Input Nirvana]

Make a new mix and expose to sunlight/uv source.

Remember, the oxy is useless after about 6 hours once it has oxidized and will have no effects.

[fossala]

Take that back, now I've got home from work and not looking at it half asleep it seems to be a litle bit less yellow. Still yellow though.

[Input Nirvana]

Maybe they are just very, very clean

[fossala]

The board was clean before hand. It looks like it was never used, just left on a side. I would say it was never moved as the yellowing has a clear shadow on one side.

[IvanIvanovich]

The stuff I use also has aluminum oxide in it, so maybe add some aluminum foil if not using uv. It seems to work without uv light for me as I said earlier.

[mintberryminuscrunch]

brand?

[Input Nirvana]

Anybody doing any whitening? Results? Pics? Anyone? Anyone?

[pasph]

I tried with an UV lamp (25W).
Oxy Action (can't find Oxy clean in Italy) 3x strongest amount for 6h: poor results. i think sun is needed
Hydrogen Peroxide stable emulsion 40 vol 6h: some success but i think more time is needed
A mix of Hydrogen Peroxide, little bit of Oxy Action, a powder for hair bleaching with ammonia 9h: ehm...the white keycaps was nearly perfect, the grey ones was overdone, also it was a kind of foam difficult to spread evenly so there was still some yellow blemishes

[IvanIvanovich]

The brand of hair product I used was 'splat' developer. I used it to do the keycap on my Cherry Amiga 2000.

The keycap was as yellow as the casebody when I got it, and were returned to thier correct original color in about 6 hours for the light almond color key, and about 3 hour on the grey. It is a powder product, and I dissolved it in 3% peroxide until it was consistant liquid. Solution looks bright blue, so key need to be removed and rinsed to check it's progress.