24 Jun
2014
24 Jun
'14
2:27 p.m.
Along with the Tandy 1000 that I brought home the other day, I also got the
monitor plinth (just not the original monitor itself). Mounted on the
underside of the plinth are rubber feet, and these appear to have "eaten"
into the top of the 1000's plastic case.
Has anyone seen this kind of interaction before? In the hundreds of vintage
systems I've seen, I've come across many cases of rubber parts
deteriorating (and sometimes turning to goo), but not of it damaging other
materials (and in this instance the rubber feet themselves seem to be in
good condition still)
YEs, interactions between plastics are not uncommon
The feet of course are not natural rubber. They are a synthetic elastomer
('flexible plastic').
PVC is one of the worst platics I've come across for attacking others.
Have you noticed that if you buy a new consumer electroncis device the
cabes are all wwrapepd in plastci bags before peing put in the expanded
polystyren (styrofoam) packing> If they weren't, the 2 would attack eath
other, the cables would bcoem hard and brittle. I am told, also, that if
you coil a able on top of a trasparent plastic cover (fo the sort that
were used on record pleyr turntables), the result is nasty grooves in the
cover where the PVC insulation on the cable has attacked it .
I have no idea what plastic was used for these feet, but I suspect it
could have damaged the other part it was standing on.
-tony