[Milsurplus] Natural rubber deteriation

[Christian R. Fandt]

Hello folks,

Lurk mode off for a bit here . . .

Anybody have a solution to stop or at least drastically slow down breakdown 
of natural rubber that is getting a bit soft because of petroleum oil 
breaking it down?

Yesterday I went out to the garage to fetch my R-8/ARN-8 Marker Beacon Rx 
to do some cosmetic cleanup and found that a small quantity of motor oil 
had dripped onto it and down one side. Seems the kids may have been messing 
around out there before really cold weather set in and spilled a small 
amount of motor oil on an upper shelf which then dripped over the edge and 
. . . well, you know.

Anyway, one of the four rubber shock mounts on the MT-25/ARN-8 mount got 
soaked and has begun to get a bit gooey on its surface. I have cleaned up 
all the oil from the rx cabinet using dish detergent and an old toothbrush 
and soaked the rx mount in a detergent solution to get the oil off the 
mount assembly. However, not having a replacement shock mount I need to 
somehow preserve the original.

I found that applying the dish detergent upon the wrinkle paint and gently 
scrubbing with the old toothbrush and rinsing under warm tap water worked 
much better than using Mr. Clean Multi-surface Cleaner (like a Fantastic or 
409 spray cleaner) or Windex. Some oil was left using just the spray 
cleaners. I set the parts in front of a warm air flow from a furnace duct. 
Seems a lot of air flow comes outta those danged heating ducts this time of 
year :-/

Any past experience, lore, rumors that the list members could offer?

Thanks for your advice with this problem.

73s,  Chris F.

NNNN

Christian Fandt,    Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY  USA      cfandt at netsync.net
         Member of Antique Wireless Association
         URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/