Anyone Here Tried Retr0Bright...

[Franko]

Has anyone here tried making that Retr0Bright stuff for de-yellowing Amiga keyboards, cases etc...

Retr0Bright

I have been trying it myself and the results were diddly squat...

I bought some Hydogen Peroxide (6% vol) from the chemists and soaked some old A1200 yellow keys in it for the past 2 days, but it made no difference, they're still as yellow as ever...

I didn't want to make up a messy paste like it tells you on the RetroBrite site and thought it would work if I just soaked the keys in pure Hydrogen Peroxide with a little Oxy Cleaner thrown in but after 2 days, nowt...

I also didn't use a UV light, just sat them outside in the single ray of sunshine we get here...

Has anyone had any success with it and if so could you please share your "recipe" for the best results...

PS:found a place where I can buy Hydogen Peroxide at 17.5% or 30% vol, just wondering if it's worth having another go with a stronger mixture...

[Franko]

Retr0bright rox...
Tried it a couple of times and worked like a charm both times

Some testing here:
http://www.amibay.com/showpost.php?p=72256&postcount=222

Pretty impressive results from your pictures...

Bit surprised you didn't remove the keys from the keyboard first though. Reckon the main problem I had was not enough UV from the very poor sunlight here...

What strength was the Hydrogen Peroxide you used ?

Does anyone know if you need a proper UV light, like the ones used in aquariums that your not meant to look directly at or will one of those "blacklight" lamps used in clubs and things do...

[Franko]

Cheers everyone...

Seems that UV light is one of the most important factors involved here, I think I'll buy one of those "black light" fluoerescent light bulbs as I don't fancy having to buy and wear some special UV goggles that you need for a proper UV light...

Gonna order the 17.5% vol Hydrogen Peroxide and give it a try with the black light and see what the results are, hopefully it will work got 4 A1200 keyboards, 2 A1200 cases , 4 C64s and 3 Vic 20s that badly need reviving...

[Franko]

@RMK305

I had read somewhere that some folk had used it without any UV light and it had worked, but the strongest Hydrogen Peroxide I could get from Boots the chemist was only 6% vol, think this was to weak myself.

I'm going to buy either the 12% or 17.5% stuff online (5Ltr for about £25 to £30) as it's much cheaper that way and buy one of those "black light" bulbs for my desklamp and try out various combinations along with the oxy of course...

Looked at that "Sally Salon Services" myself but wasn't sure what stuff to buy as they have so many different products. Some sites said you must use pure Hydrogen Peroxide as some of those hair products contain stuff that damages the plastic, so I guess I'll just have to try again and see what produces the best results...

[Franko]

Be sure to get the 40VOL. Here is the one I used:

http://www.sallyexpress.com/viewProduct.aspx?pid=515713

Try it with the oxy before forking out £25 for 5 litres of the stuff along with a black light. I never experienced any blooming on my case and I did apply the stuff before going to work in the morning so it was on for over 8 hours at a time.

Thanks for that info, I would have bought the wrong one...

I'll buy that first and give it a try, one last question if I may, did you just steep the stuff in it with the oxy or did you make the paste and brush it on...

[Franko]

@ Xdelusion

Are you taking the piss here or giving it away...

@ tone007

If I do need some UV light there's not much chance of finding it from the sun here in Scotland (summer or winter). Gonna pick up one of those UV blacklights anyway, they only cost about 6 quid so it's quite cheap...

Who knows, maybe even get a wee bit of a sun tan from it or shrivel up altogether...

[Franko]

It's a thickish paste out of the bottle and after adding the Oxy I just layed the parts out on an old towel and brushed it on - I did not add Xanthan gum or Glycerine, it was thick enough as is. It would "foam" after being left for a few hours, but I presume this was the reaction with the oxy.

Cheers mate, just ordered a bottle of each of the cream & liquid stuff. I'll try pasting the cream on the cases and big stuff and try soaking the keys and fidely bits in the liquid...

No idea though how long it take them to deliver as nothing is mentioned on the website about delivery times...

@tone007

You could try some on your head then and see if it takes the redness away, or failing that move to Scotland and within a year you'll be as white as a ghost...

[Franko]

Hey Franko, if you're not in a hurry, send the parts over here! I'm sure that in 4 more months there will be enough sun light to get the job done. (Provided I don't over sleep, blink or forget to schedule that day on my calendar.):cool:
 
<------ P.S. Just noticed that this is my post number 444, that's kind of significant like 666 only 222 less!

Think it's the sun that caused the yellowing in the first place, all my own miggies are still white but all the stuff I bought of eBay are yellowed to one degree or another...

They must get sunlight down south in England...

(PS: if I did sent them maybe I could hide in the package and get a free holiday to the states, do you have Fish & Chip shops there...

(PPS: You've been here since 2004 and only posted 444 times, what ya doin, I post that many times in a month... )

[Franko]

I'm guessing that's not all that they get considering things tend to roll down hill.

Yup that's where all our oil went, ruddy tea leafs the lot of em...

Now we just flush our lavies and let that roll downhill instead...
 

We have fish, but you have to bait your own hook! Chip shops went the way of the dinosaur, but there is always Digikey or Sparkfun.

Tried fishing once with me squirrels, but the poor buggers nearly drownded...
Still, once I tossed them on the camp fire they soon dried out...

Do Digikey or Sparkfun do salt'n'vinegar on there chips, cant have chips without loads of salt and vinegar...

Well, when it comes to catching up with you, I've got two things working against me...
 
1. Most of my posts, I drafted up way back in 1987 but didn't have an internet to post them on. So I quit writing any more posts in 1994.
 
2. I read too many of your posts.  (Perhaps, a new support group is needed.)

1. What did you write them on in 87, was it a stone tablet...

2. So you're the one who reads all this rubbish...

[Franko]

Got the Hydrogen Peroxide in cream form (hair bleach) and a low energy 11W "BlackLight" tube for my desk lamp...

Tested some old very yellowed Amiga keys yesterday, just brushed them with a mixture of the cream & some OXI laundry cleaner. Sat them for 10 hours with no UV light. Result... Nothing... not even a slight change whatsoever...

So tonight Im testing the same mixture but this time with the UV/BlackLight...

The pics below show an old and very, very yellowed VIC 20 case I got from eBay last week and some key caps from and old A1200 I also got from eBay, which once again was very yellowed. The A1200 trapdoor panel in the picture is from one on my own A1200s and is just to show how the colour of the plastic should be...

Start of Test... Normal Light


Start of Test... With UV/BlackLight on...


Gonna give it another 8 to 10 hours and see if I get any results this time...:nervous:

[Franko]

I'll take some pics after the 8 or 10 hours is up and post the results here. The first test I did without the UV light were for the biggest part of the time sitting in daylight but as I say it made no difference to the keys at all...

I noticed that after the UV light had been on for only 15 minutes on the second test that there was a lot more foaming of the mixture. So hopefully this time it'll do something but I'm not sure as the peroxide is only 12% and I reckon I should have gone for the 30% stuff...

Only time will tell...

[Franko]

Ok... The results are in...

After a 10 hour soak in the Retr0Bright mix and under the "BlackLight", this time there has been quite a difference...

Results of a very badly yellowed VIC20 case (right half only)


Result of some very yellowed A1200 key caps
Notes:
The N key is how all keys looked originally ...
The 9 key is taken from a brand new keyboard from AmigaKit for comparison purposes...


While there has been quite a difference the results aren't the best, could be the mix wasn't strong enough or due to lack of not using direct sunlight (bit of a problem here, cos we only had about 1 hour of sunlight today).

Myself I reckon I need to make a better "paste" as the foaming action was very patchy and inconsistent. It's quite difficult to get the Oxy powder to dissolve properly without watering it down too much and thus weakening the whole solutions strength.

Having said that I did choose the worst cases I could find (pun intended). Going to try mixing up another batch and try this time to get a more consistent foaming action and redo the above pieces and see if things can be improved a wee bit...

[Franko]

@ Tone007

I bought a litre of liquid H202 as well (12%/40Vol) as I preferred the idea of submerging items myself rather than the paste method. The daft thing is like you say, trying to find a shallow tub that's big enough to submerge things in without having to use too much H202 and allowing enough UV light to get to all the parts...

(although it would be pretty costly to try and submerge the computer cases...)

Still looking around the house just now to find something suitable...

@ AmigaEd

Yeah, not perfect yet, gonna try mixing the Oxy powder with almost boiling water this time to try and get it to dissolve better, but the hotter you make the water the quicker the oxygen evaporates and thus kinda mucks things up a wee bit...

Believe it or not even being a miserable tight fisted Scotsman I left the heating on all night as I had considered the temperature issue...

Ah well, time for another go and see what results I get this time...

[Franko]

@ Krashan & AmigaED...

You shouldn't really give me ideas you know...

[Franko]

Just a quick update on how things are going...



The 9 key is from a brand new keyboard, The N key is how all the keys looked at the start...

The L,S and Enter Keys are after a 10 house coating

The 1, - and Spacebar keys are after a second 10 hour coating and are as good as new again...

Reckon so far it really depends on just how yellowed the keys are in the first place. The paste mixture seems to work well and it really just seems to be more a matter of time before you see the results...

(Still testing various mixes etc... post more results soon...