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Non-NEC Console Related Discussion => Console Chat => Topic started by: DragonmasterDan on March 17, 2013, 12:57:51 PM
Title: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: DragonmasterDan on March 17, 2013, 12:57:51 PM
I recently obtained a very inexpensive Famicom. Unfortunately it was quite, quite yellowed to a point where it was nearly brown. Determined to correct this and restore it to it's original beauty I set out to obtain the ingridients to make the legendary de-yellowing gel known as Retr0bright and here are the results.
This is after having basically washed up the Famicom but before having applied any Retr0bright. (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff85/DragonmasterDan/IMG_20130311_190234_zps5a795889.jpg)
Here it is after one approximately three hour treatment.
It's pretty close to looking good as new. Unfortunately I'm getting diminished returns with every subsequent treatment so I've finished with this Famicom for now. Anyone else have any good Retr0bright projects?
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: esteban on March 17, 2013, 04:50:35 PM
Are these old pics from Thanksgiving?
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Tatsujin on March 17, 2013, 04:51:47 PM
A yummy FC you have there :)
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: DragonmasterDan on March 18, 2013, 12:30:09 AM
Yes, I celebrate like the Pilgrims and Native Americans did on the first thanksgiving. By retr0brighting a Famicom.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: majors on March 18, 2013, 03:44:02 AM
I messed with some DIY Retr0bright on a Astro speaker panel. I did it in the winter and it was over cast so I never had the power of the sun. I plan to try again in the summer. Your results give me hope.
From what I have read, after you clean up the yellow, it will revert back in 5-6 years, oxidation I guess.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 18, 2013, 03:51:00 AM
You would have only had to make one treatment if you just submerge the entire thing in 40vol clear developer.
it also would have been a lot more uniform in it's results.
Making all that goopy nonsense is a waste of time. If you have no access to sunlight, use a bulb made for reptiles. I'd go with a tropical one (5.0 UVB). They make highly reflective domes for these bulbs that you can use to blast the magical sunrays all over the plastic.
~8hrs of lightbulb = ~30mins of sunlight.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: DragonmasterDan on March 18, 2013, 03:53:19 AM
You would have only had to make one treatment if you just submerge the entire thing in 40vol clear developer.
it also would have been a lot more uniform in it's results.
Making all that goopy nonsense is a waste of time. If you have no access to sunlight, use a bulb made for reptiles. I'd go with a tropical one (5.0 UVB). They make highly reflective domes for these bulbs that you can use to blast the magical sunrays all over the plastic.
~8hrs of lightbulb = ~30mins of sunlight.
I would have submerged but I wanted to and did keep the stickers on my famicom.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: turboswimbz on March 18, 2013, 03:57:24 AM
I messed with some DIY Retr0bright on a Astro speaker panel. I did it in the winter and it was over cast so I never had the power of the sun. I plan to try again in the summer. Your results give me hope.
From what I have read, after you clean up the yellow, it will revert back in 5-6 years, oxidation I guess.
Depends on the plastic. In most cases, it is a lot longer. I've been working with plastics a lot n my grad program . Simple treatments with armor all or other plastic protecter and keeping it out of sunlight can prolong the oxidation quite a while. To prevent it altogher just apply some sort of clear coat.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 18, 2013, 04:41:02 AM
You could have removed them, got a uniform bleaching, and then re-stuck them on with some adhesive.
Ehh, wasn't going to risk damaging the stickers in removal or reapplication. I have a bottom half of a yellowed Super Famicom I may do the submersion technique with.
However, that Famicom was so yellow it was practically brown. I think it would have required a few submersions to get to where it is. It was BAD.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 18, 2013, 10:46:40 AM
You could have removed them, got a uniform bleaching, and then re-stuck them on with some adhesive.
Ehh, wasn't going to risk damaging the stickers in removal or reapplication. I have a bottom half of a yellowed Super Famicom I may do the submersion technique with.
However, that Famicom was so yellow it was practically brown. I think it would have required a few submersions to get to where it is. It was BAD.
I doubt it. Those stickers are easy to slide off. You just put a little goo-gone around the edges and jiggle it around til they slide off. They're goofy clear plastic.
If you do the submersion technique correctly, it takes 1 submersion. This is because you can see when the thing is done. Don't take it out from under the light until it's the color you want it.
I used to do marathon C64 bleachings out in my driveway with a fishtank.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: esteban on March 19, 2013, 03:27:01 PM
NOTE: I have taken my pristine Famicom and used it as a spitoon for my chewing tobacco (a bad habit, I know--I'll kick the habit before my kids are too old).
Anyway, all that nicotine-infused-spittle has affected my Famicom:
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Deletion on March 19, 2013, 03:58:59 PM
I had intentions of trying Retr0bright, but went with Arkhan's simpler recipe when whitening a PCE last year. Details on the setup and results are here.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 20, 2013, 04:48:40 AM
Yeah. It works a lot better, based off my experience. Retrobrite usually ends up with non-uniform results, and it is honestly a giant pain in the ass to mix all the goop together and put it on.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: DragonmasterDan on March 21, 2013, 07:13:58 AM
F*** the liquid method. (http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff85/DragonmasterDan/IMG_20130321_130825_zps8c380252.jpg)
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 21, 2013, 07:25:50 AM
Don't forget to tell everyone that you submerged it in liquid on a <40 degree day, which won't help, most likely.
Also, IIRC, that gray plastic is not even safe to mix with peroxide.
I submerged an SNES and it worked fine but it doesn't have that gray cap piece.
Liquid method works fine, dude.
You'd have had the same fate with the creamy method too. It just would have taken way longer for you to realize you screwed up...
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: SignOfZeta on March 21, 2013, 10:16:26 AM
Do you have a better picture than that? Its hard to tell what happened. Is it just the grey laminate piece that's bad?
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 21, 2013, 10:20:31 AM
If you look realllllllly close at the hastily taken for the internet to behold photo, you can see that the rest of it is fine, and it just didn't finish getting bleached.
That gray piece shouldn't have been in contact with no peroxides.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: DragonmasterDan on March 21, 2013, 03:45:39 PM
soap often leaves a residue behind that can get in the way of chemicals doing things.
Dawn dishsoap
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it left a soap residue behind on the hardware since the plastic is sort of porous.
Soaps are bases. H2O2 is an acid.
They neutralize each other.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: turboswimbz on March 22, 2013, 09:11:13 AM
While soap may have interfered - soap isn't basic at all. Soap is a fatty acid in fact most soap is a balanced 7 or high six about the same acidity as peroxide :) !
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 22, 2013, 09:14:18 AM
While soap may have interfered - soap isn't basic at all. Soap is a fatty acid in fact most soap is a balanced 7 or high six about the same acidity as peroxide :) !
Dish soap is a base, dude.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: turboswimbz on March 22, 2013, 09:19:06 AM
While soap may have interfered - soap isn't basic at all. Soap is a fatty acid in fact most soap is a balanced 7 or high six about the same acidity as peroxide :) !
While soap may have interfered - soap isn't basic at all. Soap is a fatty acid in fact most soap is a balanced 7 or high six about the same acidity as peroxide :) !
Dish soap is a base, dude.
Only the concentrarted dish soap. normal dish soap is right around a 7. I'm not convinced the nuetralization would effect the oxidation anyway.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 22, 2013, 09:23:54 AM
regardless, it's going to leave a residue behind if not cleaned off well, and once the peroxide gets all up on that, it's likely going to produce streaked/smeared/goofy results, like what is shown above.
the splash marks on it look like what'd happen as soap runs down the thing as you rinse it, leaving behind a trail of jive.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: turboswimbz on March 22, 2013, 09:32:34 AM
good point, sorry Ark. it does look like that. Perhaps just a good rinse and then another treatment? if residue was left behind, it would cut down on the surface area ratio and cause uneven bleaching.
Here is a thought however to support that:
Plastics are hydrocarbon polymers -> This means that they attract things like fats and oils - (soaps, or any oils) If they would have gotten on the shell would be absorbed into the plastic - blocking the sites where the oxidation would occur.
I do hope you can save that famicom Dan.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 22, 2013, 09:34:15 AM
I say soak the f*cker in CLR or something and see if it clears it up so it can be done properly.
I would've used rubbing alcohol to clean the thing off, personally.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: DragonmasterDan on March 22, 2013, 10:28:55 AM
it's not residue, it's actually faded in those spots.
Title: Re: Fun with Retr0bright
Post by: Arkhan on March 22, 2013, 10:49:10 AM