[Boatanchors] Cleaning Cigarette-Stained Plastic Knobs

[Rodger]

I am with Glen on this one.

The only thing I found better than scrubbing bubbles at lifting nicotine 
was a version of 409 that was labeled industrial strength.  It was sold 
at stores everywhere back in the mid 90's and had a very distinctive 
smell; I used it so much for cleaning vintage gear back then that I 
started associating the smell with old radios.  Unfortunately they 
seemed to have pulled this from the market and the current regular and 
"professional" grades of 409 are not nearly as effective.  However, one 
of our university tech support people says that the same stuff is 
available from another company at industrial cleaning supply stores and 
I am supposed to be receiving some soon.  If it is the same as the old 
industrial 409 I will provide the name of the company that makes it now; 
it was pretty incredible at removing nicotine and it never bothered any 
of the paint or panel labeling that I tried it on.

Rodger WQ9E

Glen Zook wrote:
> Try Formula 409.  I have had good luck removing nicotine stain with that.
>
> Glen, K9STH
>
> Website:  http://k9sth.com
>
>
> --- On Sun, 2/1/09, w0ng at comcast.net <w0ng at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Hello all - I'm in the process of restoring a National NC-303 receiver. The front panel plastic knobs are uniformly stained a light brown for about 3/4 of their outside surface. I'm presuming it's from cigatette smoke over many years.The remaining 1/4 portion of each plastic knob is still the original grey color. I've tried vinegar, ammonia, plastic polish, scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner, kaboom kitchen cleaner to no avail. I'm hesitant about putting them thru the dishwasher as it will probably remove the lettering on the center disk of each knob. Can anything you all know of remove the light brown stains on the plastic knobs? Any help appreciated. Tnx,
>
>
>       
> ______________________________________________________________
> Boatanchors mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>
>