8 Oct
2004
8 Oct
'04
8:22 a.m.
On Oct 8 2004, 19:39, Jules Richardson wrote:
Some plastics react badly with each other when left
for extended
periods
of time too and can stick together. Unfortunately
there seems to be
no
way of knowing which types (power cables and
polystyrene don't seem
to
do very well; we've also had an Amstrad PDA at the
museum that had
welded itself into its protective wallet...)
It's now my habit to clean all such cables with white spirit (light
kerosene) or turpentine substitute to remove the icky remains.
Be careful with laser-printed documentation in ring
binders too; the
text has a habit of sticking to the underside of the binder's cover
for
some reason - stick a blank sheet of paper in there to
protect it.
Ditto for photocopies. It's the same problem as the power cable vs
expanded polystyrene, actually. Plasticisers in the PVC migrate into
the polystyrene or toner (which is plastic). A sheet of acetate film,
such as is used to make overhead projector transparencies (viewgraphs)
makes a moderately effective barrier.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York