All weather coating…

[Wildgoose]

Morning all,

I’ve got an older night vision scope that is covered with that rubberised coating manufacturers seem obsessed with.

It’s now decaying and is pretty sticky and unpleasant to handle.

Any ideas how to remove it? Have anyone had any luck with getting it off before?

Thanks

 

[Mesquite]

No idea how to remove it but in the meantime whilst you're figuring that out you can dust it with talc to stop it being sticky

 

[lou1661]

Is it a thick coating or just a thin covering? WD-40 is good for getting sticky stuff off hard surfaces.

 

[Wildgoose]

No idea how to remove it but in the meantime whilst you're figuring that out you can dust it with talc to stop it being sticky

That’s a good idea, thank you

 

[Wildgoose]

Is it a thick coating or just a thin covering? WD-40 is good for getting sticky stuff off hard surfaces.

It’s a relatively thin coating, I’ll try some WD40. I’ve tried scraping it off but it seems to reawaken the substance to be even more potent

 

[Broch]

I've had the same problem with a couple of older optical devices but I've had no success in permanently stopping it. I've come to the conclusion that it's a chemical reaction in the material and just taking the surface off achieves nothing; it just comes back. With more knowledge I guess it may be possible to stabilise it with some other chemical process.

 

[Van-Wild]

A heat gun. That'll get it off. Although I suppose with an NVG you'll want to be super super careful!

As for removing the stickiness? I assume it's the substance that is keeping the rubberised cover on the metal? Alcohol wipes may do it? Or ethanol?

 

[ged]

The same thing is happening to the scales of an old folder of mine. Judging by the amount of black crud which collects in my handkerchief I think probably the best way to get it all off will be to keep it in your pocket.

 

[Toddy]

Funny this should come up
Last week on another forum I asked for advice because two brollies and a screwdriver had all developed the dreaded sticky handles.
Lots of advice and none really got to grips with it....until Benp1 said to try IPA and use a rag not tissue paper or something that would shred into fibres. He said even old socks would do.

He was right and it works. It does need a decent rag and it takes patient rubbing, but the brollies and the screwdriver are de-stickified and now useable again

I'm reliably informed that it works on those soft folding eyepieces on binos too.

 

[TLM]

I don't know if it is rubber or not but usually rubber oxidizes to dark powder not sticky. Stickines implies depolymerisation that happens seldom in rubber but fairly often in some (usually cheap low grade ones) polyurethanes. I have had that happen to some shoe outer soles. Repolymerising it would be kind of tricky I guess (where is the resident organic chemist) so cleaning it off would be the easier option, I would start experimenting with acetone or MEK.

 

[Broch]

Funny this should come up
Last week on another forum I asked for advice because two brollies and a screwdriver had all developed the dreaded sticky handles.
Lots of advice and none really got to grips with it....until Benp1 said to try IPA and use a rag not tissue paper or something that would shred into fibres. He said even old socks would do.

He was right and it works. It does need a decent rag and it takes patient rubbing, but the brollies and the screwdriver are de-stickified and now useable again

I'm reliably informed that it works on those soft folding eyepieces on binos too.

IPA Ale? IPA glue? Isopropyl alcohol? - only kidding.

I have used alcohol and, yes, it did remove the stickiness from the surface, but only for a short while - within weeks it was back again

 

[TLM]

Yep, IPA would be the gentler option.

 

[Wildgoose]

Thanks all.
The body of the device is plastic with the coating applied.
I’ll try some IPA and some rubbing, if that fails I’ll break out the nitromoors and some cotton buds

 

[Herman30]

try IPA

IPA the beer or IPA something else?

 

[Broch]

IPA the beer or IPA something else?

Isopropyl alcohol

 

[TLM]

IPA the beer or IPA something else?

If you distill the beer the result might work too.

 

[Broch]

I have tried my own methanol from the gin making