Is there any way to restore sticky degraded rubber surfaces?
I have a MIDI controller keyboard that I have cleaned in the past with disinfectant alcohol wipes, which I know is a bad idea because it degrades the rubber over time.
Well, the rubber on the pitch bend and modulation wheels has indeed degraded, and the surfaces texture is awful, uneven and sticky now. My fault... I know.
So does anyone know of any way to fix, or even improve, this kind of nasty rubber surface degradation once it occurs? Sanding? Applying oils? Is there any way I can even slightly restore these controls back to their original soft-touch rubbery glory?
24 replies
303 aerospace conditioner is what we use for raft rubber. Works for tires and a lot of plastics if they're not too far gone (needs original structure, can fix texture). To be clear though it's basically straight PFAS so if that is a concern I'd probably just try to fine a replacement part. A lot of electronics get broken cords so if you can find a busted one on eBay that's maybe the better choice.
When the rubberized coating degrades off of something like a mouse, I'll use a scouring pad and alcohol to remove the rest of it. It usually leaves it a standard plastic finish. The material is breaking down, and will continue to do so, so I just remove it.
It depends, I had some success with using alcohol and talcum powder afterwards. (yes, really)
I just painted it with nail polish. Not longer soft, but at least not sticky and you can use different colours, paint on some designs, glitter or plain boring clear polish.
Haven't dared do it for movable parts, especially not ones that go into any unreachable mechanical areas, in case the movement makes it flaky in time. But as long as you can open and clean it out it might be worth a try.
Depends on how much work you want to do.
If you can get the pieces off you can remove the layer that is degrading, prep the plastic and use a spray on vinyl polymer to recoat it.
Stuff like spray on 'electrical tape' and plastidip can be found in most hardware stores for pretty cheap. If you're serious, they make a type of primer specifically for plastic, typically used for prepping before painting, but it serves to let the spray adhere to the plastic.
For degraded rubberized surfaces on computer peripherals (I'm looking at you, Logitech) I now use WD40.
I soak pretty much the entire device in it and leave it overnight in the open. Most of the WD40 will have evaporated, leaving behind a film of dissolved degraded rubber and other gunk. You then use alcohol-free wet wipes to rub all that off and leave the device to dry.
I found that this approach requires less rubbing and scrubbing, useful for bigger batches. Don't worry about the smell, it airs out in a couple of days.
WD40 evaporates?
Anyway, my go-to is paper towels, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol.
Alternatively, if it's a flat surface I may just stick it over with some tape. The glue will make additional mess, but that's a problem of future me, and at least I won't have to care about it now.
Yes. WD-40 isn't a lubricant. The "WD" stands for "Water Displacement" (the 40 means "40th formula"). It's intended to be used on rusty parts to remove any moisture before adding a lubricant. It has a tiny amount of oil in it, which does provide some amount of lubrication after it's applied, but come back in 30 minutes and it's back to being squeaky again. Always spray some penetrating oil after.
Wd40 has a small amount of oil dissolved in a large amount of volatile solvent.
So most of it does evaporate, and OPs method cleans up residual oil
A lot of compressed canned things are something suspended in a solvent, and when let out of the container the solvent evaporates leaving behind whatever stuff was dissolved in it. I can't speak if it's the solvent or something in the WD-40 that has the effect the previous poster is talking about.
I had a portable HDD, Pininfarina, that degraded. That was the last time I bought anything with that texture.
It's not a long-term solution but for things like this I add a light dusting of cornstarch. It gives the plastic a powdery texture instead but way more pleasant than a sticky one.
FWIW, it’s probably not your fault
It may not be you.
There's some polymer substance that was used to create "rubberized" coatings on a lot of consumer electronics some years back that degrades to a sticky mess over time on its own. I had a Grundig G6 shortwave radio that did it badly, as well as some other devices.
I don't believe that you can "undegrade" it, but if it's the same stuff, you can manage to remove it, just leave unrubberized plastic.
I used isopropyl alcohol and a lot of elbow grease, which eventually works.
This blog mentions it:
https://swling.com/blog/2021/01/getting-the-grundig-g6-out-of-a-sticky-situation/
They recommend "Purple Power".
These guys have some recommendations of their own:
https://www.ifixit.com/News/93833/ask-ifixit-how-do-i-fix-sticky-plastics
On a somewhat related note, simple green is the ducks nuts.
I was wondering if there is any kind of sprayable silicone based glue available that could work. There are silicone sprays available for leather and rubber, there are silicone glue tubes available but I've never come across sprayable silicone glue. Would be nice to have. Does silicone dissolve in any non hazarduos, volatile liquid?
If it is the soft-touch plastic, the answer is to use alcohol and just remove it. The hard plastics stand up over time but the soft plastics turn into a gummy mess. A common one is headphones.
Not sure if it's feasible with tiny textured things, but I covered my degrading bicycle handles with gaffing tape. Been good for almost three years now.
But yeah I always clean things with soap and water or all purpose spray from local bulk store. Alcohol is often to stronk for most things in the normal house. Also as others have said, it might not even be the alcohol, "rubber" surfaces often deglade like that no matter what you do.
Last time I looked into this the answer was no - it’s a permanent chemical change you can’t heal or stop or cover.
The best thing I’ve found was to keep using alcohol wipes to scrape away the gooey top surface every once in a while. ☹️
This reminds me of my body's strategy of eating as much and as many foods as it can until my stomach feels better.
The Volkswagen guys want to know the answer to this too
The explanation I’ve seen before is these are usually a soft-touch plastic and they’re made “soft-touch” by adding oils to the plastic, but they leach out over time putting a sticky layer on the now-harder plastic. The rubbing alcohol can help clean away the oil and stickiness but the plastic won’t be soft anymore.
I've had excellent results with Fantastik. I was told it's original intent was for belts and pucks on analog tape machines and was sold under the name "Audiosol".
I recently saw somewhere that gasoline can help. Might be total bullshit, or depend on the exact material. Might be worth trying on a very small area of the rubber surface. Outside in the shade. Gas fumes are bad.