HP Laserjet bumper sticker remover

Who is she, and why would she have any better ideas?

I meant Magic Eraser. Sorry.

It's a he. Mr Clean.

Have you tried to actually buy a stiff tooth brush recently? I went to two drug stores, and all they had was medium and soft. Hundreds of brushes in the display, and nothing stiff. I settled for a stiff laundry brush. Too soon to tell if it will work as I have customers bearing checkbooks at the door.

Good idea. The cavitation under the rubber might help break it loose. I don't have anything big enough, but know where I can borrow one (the local electroplating shop). Hopefully, it's high enough in frequency to produce sufficiently small soap bubbles.

The real problem with things like sandblasting is that they will happily etch away plastic which is not covered with adhesive or labels, maybe faster than the sticky goo itself will be removed.

The result is that you get a "3-D" surface, where the places where the labels used to be stand above the rest of the surface.

Isaac

Somehow, that reminded me of the time one of the programmers took advantage of his ability to get into the building on weekends to de-gunk his motorcycle engine in the vapor-phase board cleaner at Pertec, lo those many years ago.

The manufacturing folks never found out who did the deed, but they sure wanted to ...

Isaac

How about the multi-length brush on an Oral-B electric toothbrush?

I have some of those (the cheap model with the non-replaceable battery). The bistles are a mixture of plastic and rubber. They are quite soft and flexible. It's worth a try, but I don't expect anything useful from massaging the plastic case.

I don't know if it harms ABS, but I've removed adhesive from ABS with waterless hand cleaner, like Gojo or Goop. It takes a few minutes to soften the glue.

Mineral Spirits Propylene Glycol

I've already tried mineral spirits. It didn't work on the rubberish goo imbedded in the textured surface. However, it can't hurt to try Goop as I have some handy.

Another cheap household chemical to try: Hand Sanitizer. Basically ethanol that doesn't evaporate (quickly), but all sorts of ingredients (Ethanol, Propylene Glycol, Vitamin E). They (Infectiguard brand) say it's not safe with all plastics.

I had a jam jar come out of the dishwasher the other night with some old label residue, so I thought I'd double check my assertion about a soybean oil soak. Overnight, and it didn't touch it. ;-(

Looking around, there was the hand sanitizer dispenser. Sliming up the affected spot with sanitizer and waiting for a couple of hours, it cleaned up the residue pretty well.

Chances are, it will still be a war of attrition.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

You want a typewriter or detailing brush. HF sells a set of three: Nylon, brass & stainless steel that are quite handy around the shop. They go on sale for 99 cents for the set of three, from time to time.

I tried a variety of brushes with what seems to be the most effective solvent, Homax Oops. The stiff plastic brushes were ineffective. The stiff brass and stainless wires brushes tended to scratch the plastic surface, so I stopped before I destroyed the case.

I'm having some success with sodium percarbonate (OxiClean) and hydrogen peroxide 3% bleaches. They're not removing the rubberish goo, but are doing a fair job of lightening the color, making the case more presentable.

I was also able to remove some of the goo using sticky packing tape. The theory was that the glue would stick to the goo better than the plastic. It removed some, but most of the goo is too thoroughly embedded in the plastic.

I'm going to give up shortly, and swap plastic parts with my identical office printer to make the customer happy. It's also time to start working on my taxes.

Laser ablation! Of course, not something one would have sitting around in the average garage workshop ...

No problem. We have various local tech shops that offer their members the use of sophisticated and expensive equipment.

They have a nice Epilog 10 watt laser.

Over the hill, in Silly Clone Valley, is the better equipped Tech Shop.

However, I question the efficiency of spending time and money getting qualified on the laser, in order to clean up about $30 worth of plastic parts. Of course, that assumes that the darker rubberish goo will vaporize and not melt the plastic.

I think that "says it".