[GreenKeys] Rubber Renue

Fri Jun 17 13:30:19 EDT 2016

xylene - ... areas include  the .. rubber .. industry, common component of
... rubber ...
ethylbenzene - ... solvent ... rubber adhesives
methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) - restoring the elastomeric properties
of old rubber rollers, especially in printers (no citation)

On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 10:45 PM, Rick Bensene <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:

> Hi, everyone,
>
>
>
> So, the platen on my wonderful 33-ASR has been giving me troubles for a
> while now.  It won’t grip the paper reliably to properly advance when the
> LINEFEED is received.  The paper just slips, and the printing ends up
> running over the top of the previous line, or it only spaces part way, and
> then overlaps the previous line.  Not good for clean copy.
>
> The platen had almost a glaze about it…kind of shiny looking, and just
> didn’t have much complexion anymore.  I didn’t know what to do.
>
>
>
> So, some time ago, I posted my frustration here, and someone suggested
> using DOT Brake Fluid (not the silicone kind, but the old-fashioned
> stuff).   I tried it, and low and behold, it worked.  But…only for a little
> while, and then the same issue started occurring again – after a few weeks,
> the symptom returned.  Another dose of brake fluid helped a little, but it
> seemed to have diminishing returns.
>
>
>
> I had read something on the Golf Ball Typewriter mailing list (e.g., IBM
> Selectric) that someone had used a product called Rubber Renue to resurrect
> the platen and power roller in an old Selectric typewriter.   I did some
> research, and although the product itself is rather scary, it seemed that a
> lot of people found that it did a good job of restoring rubber in a way
> that was fairly long-lasting.
>
>
>
> So, I ordered up a bottle of the stuff.    When it arrived, it came with
> no real instructions on how to use it, but a whole bunch of information
> about how dangerous it was, and a slew of warnings about no letting it
> touch skin, not to inhale any vapors, and that it some ingredients are of
> concern for causing cancer.   Kind of scary.  I pulled up the Material
> Safety Data Sheet for the product, and these concerns, along with others,
> were all verified.   So, after having it around for a few weeks, a few
> nights ago I decided to give it a try on the platen for the 33-ASR.   I
> decided I would treat the platen in place rather than trying to remove it.
> It would have probably been more thorough to remove the platen, but it
> involves taking apart some of the linefeed mechanism, and that’s something
> I just wasn’t willing to fuss with.   I’m pretty good with electronic
> stuff, but intricate mechanical stuff like this I’m not so good at.
>
>
>
> I followed all of the safety instructions.  I had two layers of nitrile
> surgical gloves, a long sleeve shirt, a respirator, safety glasses, and
> also opened up all of the doors and windows in the building to provide good
> flow-through airflow, and had the HVAC system running in “FAN” mode to
> further move air around.   I also opened the bottle of fluid outdoors, put
> a small amount of the fluid on a small piece of clean cloth outdoors, then
> closed the bottle leaving it outdoors.  I took the cloth inside, wiped down
> the platen while rotating it around to get even coverage across the
> entirety of the platen, and also wiped down the roller underneath the
> platen.   The instructions I found online (on the company’s website) then
> said that the fluid should be allowed to completely evaporate before the
> treated item is used.   I took the piece of cloth and wrapped it in
> aluminum foil, then placed it in a plastic bag and sealed it, and took it
> outdoors.  This, and the foil safety seal on the bottle will be taken to
> the local hazardous waste facility for disposal.     I then left the
> building opened up overnight and came back the next morning to check it
> out.  Even after evaporating overnight, and the building all opened up,
> there was still a detectable odor of solvent in the air, probably coming
> from the platen itself.
>
>
>
> I left the building opened up  as I investigated the platen.  I didn’t
> have the respirator on, but figured that after this much time, the
> concentration was  small enough to not be of much concern, and with good
> airflow through the building due to a fairly decent breeze outside, I
> wasn’t worried much about any possibility of problems from the fumes.
>   The platen was indeed different.  The shiny sheen was gone.  It also felt
> more like rubber…it had some flex to it, but wasn’t mushy or sticky in any
> way.   It had a complexion again…that kind of grippy feeling that good
> rubber platens should have…grippy, but not too grippy that paper would
> stick to it.   I wiped the platen down with a clean piece of cotton cloth
> (which will also go to hazardous waste for disposal), and a slight
> blackish-brown residue came off, but not much at all.   I threaded in the
> roll of paper, and a paper tape with a bunch of test texts on it, turned
> the machine to LOCAL mode, and started the paper tape reader.  Linefeed
> performance was flawless.   I then put it in ONLINE mode, and had it
> connected up to the HP 2000/Access Timeshared BASIC emulation running under
> SimH.  I logged in and started a long BASIC program listing.  Perfect
> linefeed performance…the paper advanced perfectly each time.  No more signs
> of the paper slipping.    The back side of the paper had no sign of any
> kind of residue from the treatment, and there was absolutely no sign of the
> paper sticking to the platen.   I had limited time in the morning, so I
> powered down the TTY, and closed up the building and headed off to work.  I
> got home and did some more testing, and all was good.  There was a slight
> solvent smell in the building, but I left it opened up through the evening,
> and by the time I closed the building up as nightfall approached, that odor
> had dissipated.
>
>
>
> So…although it isn’t a long-term report, I’m really very happy with the
> results.  Now it will remain to be seen if the treatment is temporary, or
> holds up over time.     This evening I treated the platen for an old Diablo
> Hy-Type II printing data terminal.  This time, the platen was removed from
> the device, and I did the treatment outdoors to avoid the fumes in the
> building.   The platen was pretty hopeless before the treatment..it had a
> hard texture with a lot of shine/gloss, and even some shallow cracks in the
> surface.  It was hopeless for advancing paper.  After the treatment, I
> think it’s going to be restored to usability.  It’ll air out overnight, and
> I’ll give it a try tomorrow evening or over the weekend.   If the results
> of the 33ASR platen are any indication, I think that this platen will be
> usable again.  It seems to be much better after the treatment, but it needs
> to evaporate completely before I re-install it and try out the terminal.
>
>
>
> All in all, good stuff, at least so far.   If you do end up using it, I
> strongly suggest following all of the safety rules and respect the stuff.
> Don’t let kids or animals anywhere near this stuff.  It is quite nasty.
> But, it does seem to do a good job, and if used safely and cautiously, I
> think that it can rescue platens and rollers in old equipment like this
> that is either difficult to replace, or expensive to rebuild.
>
>
>
> Good will to all,
>
>
>
> -Rick
>
> --
>
> Rick Bensene
>
> The Old Calculator Museum
>
> http://oldcalculatormuseum.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> GreenKeys mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>
> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive:
> http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:
> http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
> Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:
> http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to xyzzypdx at gmail.com
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20160617/7c66dd89/attachment.html>