RUcrAZ wrote:
Had that happen to my 15+ year old binoculars. After storage for several years, the coating got sticky! The only solution was to dissolve and rub-away the coating, down to the plain plastic surface. I suggest you gently test various solvents, the milder the better, starting with paper or a cloth soaked in soap & water, alcohol & water, alcohol by itself, household cleaner, paint thinner & water, paint thinner itself, etc. and progress with the various solvents until you find one that the rubbing cloth [or paper] comes up dirty, i.e, it is dissolving & picking up the coating.
What I would make sure of is that the particular solvent is not dissolving the base plastic material ! So gentle does it and test in an incospicuous spot.
This is what artistic painting conservators and restorers use, when they want to remove the old varnish. Especially when they are not sure what the original paints underneath were made of. The rest is just elbow-grease.
Good Luck!
RUcrAZ
Hi RUcrAZ,
Thanks for your info. I'll try it as plan-B.
For plan-A, I'm hoping there's a way to coat the cover with clear or colored paint or maybe a rubber based coating. Something easier than rubbing off the sticky coating a little at a time.
Thanks,
Sky
tom graham wrote:
Wonder if a paint of some kind would cover and trap the sticky?
As a desperate try, solution. Get a spray can of Rustoleum, color of your choice, $4. Mask off the sticky side except for about a i inch square. Shoot it with the Rustoleum. One LIGHT coat then two more light coats at about 15-30 minute intervals. After several hours how does it feel? If feels ok then leave it on for a couple weeks and then decide to spray or not rest of top. Whenever you spray, mask, mask, Mask off carefully and tightly, spray will find a way where it is not wanted if it can.
Myself, I have a nice selection of solvents - paint thinner, turpentine, naptha, toluene, xylene, acetone, MEK, methyl alcohol, 1,1,1 trichloroethane, laquer thinner. If you're in my neighbor hood, come over and we'll find one that works. If not, I have a Makita right-angle grinder with a diamond cut blade
Tom
I have a spray can or two of Rustoleum in my storage cabinet. I'm planning to check the hardware store first to see if they have a spray that says it will stick to rubber first. If none, I'll try your suggestion. Sounds logical.
The Makita right angle grinder sounds like Plan-C ..... .
Thanks,
Sky
hotdog321 wrote:
I uploaded one of my photos to Schtickers and had a precise cut, tough vinyl "skin" made for my little laptop. I did it just to jazz up my laptop, but it should eliminate your sticky lid issue. Still looks perfect after two of years.
//www.schtickers.com/
Now that looks like an easy, foolproof, looks good method.
Because my laptop is old and on it's last leg, [and because I'm cheap ], I'm going to expand on your suggestion and look for an adhesive vinyl shelf cover. Maybe I can find a nice wood grain vinyl shelf cover that will work. It probably won't be able to cover the edges of the laptop's cover but as long as it covers the flat top, it will be fine. And it won't show air bubbles like the plastic wrap does.
I just browsed amazon and found this vinyl adhesive shelf liner that sells for $5.48 with good user reviews. The granite or light oak pattern might look OK.
//www.amazon.com/Duck-1063853-Laminate-Adhesive-20-Inch/dp/B001SH974O/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1398190461&sr=8-5&keywords=vinyl+shelf+liner
BTW, how did the schtickers cover you bought for your laptop handle the edges? Did you have to give them the exact dimensions so the cover could wrap around the edges?
Thanks for your suggestion!
Sky
skyglider wrote:
hotdog321 wrote:
I uploaded one of my photos to Schtickers and had a precise cut, tough vinyl "skin" made for my little laptop. I did it just to jazz up my laptop, but it should eliminate your sticky lid issue. Still looks perfect after two of years.
//www.schtickers.com/
Hi hotdog321,
Because of your tip, I searched for laptop skin cover and found a bunch of designs on amazon ranging from about $3.49 to $4.79 + shipping. These are vinyl skin covers so should be fairly durable. The design I ordered is the clock/butterfly one for $3.95 + shipping. Here's a link to the webpage on amazon:
//www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=meffort+laptop+skin+cover&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Ameffort+laptop+skin+cover
For those doing a search on amazon, key in "meffort laptop skin cover".
Thanks for your great tip,
Sky
I received the Meffort laptop skin cover [clock & butterfly design] for my Dell Studio 1537 laptop. The skin is very nice and looks like the picture on amazon. When looking at an angle with highlights, one can see crosshatch thread-like patterns but they don't affect the looks much.
I cleaned the side edges of the laptops lid using lacquer thinner and was able to remove the stickiness from the side edges. That did however sort of melt the plastic beneath the sticky rubber like coating so the side edges don't look good. But the side edges are no longer sticky which is the main thing and they are rather thin so noone would never notice the damaged look.
The skin can bend around the rounded corner on the hinge side of my laptop's lid with no problem. But I think it might start to peel off if it's bent 90 degrees around the sides and front with so little to stick to on the side and front edges. I trimmed the skin to lay flat right up to the edges on the front and both sides of the lid. I allowed enough to bend around the back edge of the laptop's lid where the hinge is since that's a slow curve. Here's a picture of my laptop to see the slow bend at the back edge by the hinge.
The skin sticks very tightly to the lid and it's very hard to peel off once it's stuck on firmly. I'm confident that it won't start to peel off at any edge.
It's important to use a credit card to squeegee the skin when installing it on the laptop's lid to avoid trapping air bubbles. There's a good video on youtube on how to do that, one half at a time. I did end up with one small air bubble and it was impossible to squeegee out so I ended up putting a pin prick in it and got the air out that way.
My laptop looks better now than it ever did and the main thing is that the lid is no longer sticky. Thanks one more time Hotdog321 for pointing me in this direction. It's the best possible solution, and looks way better than if any other solution that I could have tried.
Sky
So I know you came up with a great solution already, but I wanted to add some info.
I have the same model laptop you have, skyglider. My cover became sticky when, in the process of using rubbing alcohol to clean inside it, I decided to swipe the vinyl with it too thinking that would get it even cleaner. . . . Bad idea. It made it totally sticky.
After reading this and other threads, I decided to try a product I use on my car trim. It's the best auto product I have recently bought -- Wolfgang's Exterior Trim Sealant. I'm going for a new computer soon so I just wanted to use something I already have. I figured if it works on cars, it might work on my computer as well. So I cleaned vinyl cover again with warmwater and let it dry. Then I took a lint-free cloth and wiped on a small amount of the trim sealant. It reduced the stickiness immediately, enough so I can run my hand over the cover without it 'catching.' If you press you hand on it firmly, it still feels a little sticky, but I'm going to keep reapplying the sealant until it firms up more.
Jane505 wrote:
So I know you came up with a great solution already, but I wanted to add some info.
I have the same model laptop you have, skyglider. My cover became sticky when, in the process of using rubbing alcohol to clean inside it, I decided to swipe the vinyl with it too thinking that would get it even cleaner. . . . Bad idea. It made it totally sticky.
After reading this and other threads, I decided to try a product I use on my car trim. It's the best auto product I have recently bought -- Wolfgang's Exterior Trim Sealant. I'm going for a new computer soon so I just wanted to use something I already have. I figured if it works on cars, it might work on my computer as well. So I cleaned vinyl cover again with warm water and let it dry. Then I took a lint-free cloth and wiped on a small amount of the trim sealant. It reduced the stickiness immediately, enough so I can run my hand over the cover without it 'catching.' If you press you hand on it firmly, it still feels a little sticky, but I'm going to keep reapplying the sealant until it firms up more.
Your experience might be helpful to others with the sticky cover problem.
As an update to my using the Meffort laptop skin cover [clock & butterfly design], it's been about a year and a half now and the skin is not peeling at all, anywhere, from any edge. It's been a really great solution.
Best regards,
Sky