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  • My attempt at retrobrighting

    From lemonlime@21:4/162 to All on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 12:32:18
    I'm a bit of a retro-PC collector and enthusiast (90s era mainly). Been
    working to build/restore a Pentium Pro 150 system and picked up a Plextor 50-pin SCSI CD-ROM drive that I wanted to use in the system. It was badly yellowed so wanted to give "retrobrighting" a try.

    I'm working on a blog post of my experience, but quite happy with the
    results! The below URL shows good before/after pics:

    https://twitter.com/vswitchzero/status/1184576679802523650

    The strong hydrogen peroxide cream that I used faded the plextor logo, unfortunately, but aside from that it now matches the case quite well.

    Here it is installed: https://twitter.com/vswitchzero/status/1184575805332119554

    Cheers,
    Mike

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Stellar Darkness BBS (21:4/162)
  • From Static@21:2/140 to lemonlime on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 15:32:16
    On 22 Oct 2019, lemonlime said the following...

    50-pin SCSI CD-ROM drive that I wanted to use in the system. It was badly yellowed so wanted to give "retrobrighting" a try.

    I normally just leave yellowed plastics out in the sun to bleach them if they look to be getting ugly. Takes days but it doesn't involve any chemicals.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Subcarrier BBS (21:2/140)
  • From lemonlime@21:4/162 to Static on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 20:30:36
    I normally just leave yellowed plastics out in the sun to bleach them if they look to be getting ugly. Takes days but it doesn't involve any chemicals.

    Someone else was mentioning this to me as well. I may give it a try the next round or for larger pieces.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Stellar Darkness BBS (21:4/162)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Static on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 15:35:46
    Re: Re: My attempt at retrobrighting
    By: Static to lemonlime on Tue Oct 22 2019 03:32 pm

    I normally just leave yellowed plastics out in the sun to bleach them if they look to be getting ugly. Takes days but it doesn't involve any chemicals.

    That seems backwards.. I thought white plastics would turn yellow over time after being left out in the sun.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Win32
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Spectre@21:3/106.10 to lemonlime on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 11:12:00
    The strong hydrogen peroxide cream that I used faded the plextor logo, unfortunately, but aside from that it now matches the case quite well.

    Erm, its a little late now, but one of the first rules is protect the logos or anything else you want to keep. Otherwise nice work. You see a lot of it on 70-80's systems.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/106.10)
  • From Spectre@21:3/106.10 to Nightfox on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 11:33:00
    I normally just leave yellowed plastics out in the sun to bleach them if they look to be getting ugly. Takes days but it doesn't involve
    any chemicals.

    That seems backwards.. I thought white plastics would turn yellow over time after being left out in the sun.

    Doesn't it. Apparently its diffuse light post window and with reflection that does the yellowing.

    There are presently two schools of retrobrighting thought. The first is the put it in the sun version. Which appears to use UV bleaching. Whatever the specific wavelengths that cause yellowing, theres sufficient UV to overcome it and lighten the plastics. Theoretically a sun lamp/tanning bed might
    acheive the same

    The chemical bleaching, usually H2O2... Peroxide bleaching, but there are others. I've been interested but not had the time or pieces to brighten, to wonder if some of the other timber cleaning combinations might work. Notably oxalic acid.

    However there is also some consternation as to how detrimental it might be over
    all to the plastics. Obviously UV light breaks down all sort of things and the fact its lightening something shows it is doing that to the plastic. The chemical the same, although its usually an attempt to suck oxidised material out of the surface.

    There is also the issue that over time it will yellow again unless kept in very
    controlled circumstances.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/106.10)
  • From Static@21:2/140 to Nightfox on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 22:16:02
    On 22 Oct 2019, Nightfox said the following...

    That seems backwards.. I thought white plastics would turn yellow over time after being left out in the sun.

    I don't see how it's backwards. The UV in sunlight bleaches most pigmentation, and it's not like your ABS-plastic-clad doohickey sitting indoors under a window is getting UVB. Glass blocks that. It's mainly a combination of heat
    and a lot of time that turns brominated plastics yellow. I've even got a few items stored in boxes that managed to go yellow just because I'd kept them
    too close to a furnace for years.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Subcarrier BBS (21:2/140)
  • From lemonlime@21:4/162 to Spectre on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 14:33:42
    Erm, its a little late now, but one of the first rules is protect the logos or anything else you want to keep. Otherwise nice work. You see
    a lot of it on 70-80's systems.

    Yeah, I was keeping an eye on the logo - at first it seemed fine and then it very quickly started to fade after several hours in the solution. I actually cut some clear tape to place over it once I realized what was happening, but
    it was too late by that point.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Stellar Darkness BBS (21:4/162)