On Thu, 15 May 2003, Vintage Computer Festival wrote: The textured paint I have with sharpie on it has a very light texture. The problem seems to be that the paint is "soft", or some kind of scratch resistant paint, and the sharpie was pulled down into tiny pores in the paint. I've been wondering if I'd be better off just repainting the covers, as they aren't very large. I just don't know where I'd get that kind of paint, or how it needs to be cured. -Toth

On Thu, 15 May 2003, Jim wrote: Are you sure? Being the poisonous one (vs ethyl alcohol) it would be a bit surprising for a pharmacist to trade in that item. - don

I usually see isopropanol rather than methanol at the pharmacist. Peace... Sridhar On Thu, 15 May 2003, Jim wrote:

OK, I've said this before, but no one listened? I've gotten sharpie marker completely off painted metal computer items with acetone. It takes a little paint off too, so don't rub too hard, for too long in one spot. Don't use acetone near any ignition sources, like a lit cigarette, or a hot water heater pilot light, etc. It's explosively flammable. If it's sharpie marked plastic, best results are first clean with alcohol to get a lot of it. Then, with an alcohol wetted paper towel, sprinkle some comet cleanser on the towel to make an alcohol/comet paste, and scrub till it's off. Use pure white paper towels, because the ink from printed ones tends to come off back onto the surface you're cleaning. Acetone will also take sharpie off plastic too, but it will take some plastic with it, and leave textured surfaces smooth afterwards. At 10:53 PM 5/15/03 +0000, you wrote:

Hello Jim, Yes, but the previous paragraph was about the kinder and gentler alcohol / comet cleanser paste. Just requires mucho more elbow grease. I'd bet the comet is similar to your Hoppe's Powder, but not being a specialty product, probably is lower in cost, and being found in every grocery store, more readily available. Once you've tried it and gotten comfortable with the acetone technique, ie. learned when it might work for you, and how to go about it, etc. It doesn't really damage an item, it just modifies it. Smooth finish plastic is all right too. And clean is better than all marked up. But, the amount of time you wish to put into the scrubbing techniques will be dependant upon how important it is to you to keep it in as close to original condition as possible, and how much time you have to make available to do so. At 10:49 PM 5/15/03 -0700, you wrote:

Hello Chad, Perhaps you hadn't read the entire thread on this? Part of the previous messages was about getting Sharpie marker off plastic. That's what I said I've used the alcohol / comet paste on. You'd have to ask the gun experts. I'd never heard of this Hoppe's Powder Solvent before. It wasn't I that was advocating it's use. But if I ever have some, I'd be willing to give it a try just to see how it did. But at the present time, already having a proven effective method of cleaning the Sharpie off plastic with commonly available materials already at hand, I don't yet have the need to run out and get any of the Hoppe's Powder. On something like a huge monitor, the marking were generally on the top of the bezel. I'd cleaned / smoothed the top, stopping at the corners and it looked acceptably ok when it was done. The corners provided a transition point from being smooth on the top to textured on the sides. Sometimes the parts are worth enough to put a lot of time into it, and sometimes they're not. As monitors declined in value, the time available to clean or refurbish them also had to correspondingly be reduced. Part of it also depends on how much spare time you have, and what value you place on that time. The time it took to clean a monitor as I describe below was only something I could do in times past. With monitor values having declined to where they are now, I could only do this cleaning for one I was going to use myself these days. I stopped selling any monitors a long time ago, and now excess ones only go to scrap. But ... If you have an old 13" or 14" VGA monitor you've picked up at uni or gov't surplus, if it's an average small size PC monitor, it's not worth a whole lot these days, so you wouldn't be risking much to experiment on it. My method was to take the back casing off the monitor and clean it up in the bath. Squirt straight dishwashing liquid on a scrub brush, the sprinkle comet on heavily to get a paste, then scrub. It scrubs the sharpie marker off very very well. Then either let it dry overnight, or blow dry with air. On the body of the monitor, since it couldn't go into the bath and get soaked, I used the alcohol on a white paper towel and got off as much as I could. Then I wet another paper towel with alcohol, sprinkled on comet, and scrubbed. The alcohol comet paste scrubs the Sharpie marking off very well. When I cleaned monitors this way, when I was done, they were so clean, even though they started out dirty and marked up, when done, they looked like they just came right out of the box new. The 20" Sony I'm sitting here in front of right at the moment was done this way. The results were perfect. The texture was not disturbed in any noticeable way. You can choose to disbelieve, or you can give it a try. Your choice. At 02:57 AM 5/16/03 -0400, you wrote:

Sandblast (bead blast for more delicate surfaces repaint Such as that O1 that Adam autographed

At 07:00 PM 5/16/03 -0400, Mail List wrote: That is when you start working with Qtips or bits of tissue wrapped on the end of tweezers, and practice until your good at controlling contact edge on something else.

We are going to be driving from Florida to New Jersey (Phila area) in a few weeks and wondered if anybody has any thrift shop type places that often have good old computer items that they could recommend in the area. Same question for Denver/Colorado Springs area. Thanx in advance

Doc wrote: Will is make me fly :-) Comet is something I use on computers all the time. I find that if it does scratch the plastic it is so fine that it really isn't noticeable on a textured plastic surface, especially if you wax the surface afterwords. There was one item that did get scratched significantly, but I can't recall what it was..... seems like it was some Apple // item. I wouldn't use Comet on painted metal, though. Even on plastic you need to make sure you don't use it too dry. Comet will normally make an IBM PS/2 look new again! Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

On Thu, 15 May 2003, Joe wrote: The covers that are marked up with sharpie are metal. The paint is kind of soft and gives a little. I've not seen it used much. The covers are for some SCSI drive chassis. I have both a compressor and spray gun, though the compressor is a little too small for larger projects. I guess you could say these have a pebble finish. The texture is pretty fine and you don't notice it right away. I have a bead blasting cabinet, but the metal underneath the paint is smooth. I guess the texture is only part of the paint. Thats an idea. That type of equipment turns up at local auctions every year or two too. The last time that kind of gear turned up, one guy picked up all 3 laser units for a total of $5.00 simply because no one else wanted to haul them off. They do tend to be kind of bulky. He later told me they worked fine, though one needs a supply of liquid helium or liquid nitrogen to operate. Oh, and they use *lots* of electricity... -Toth

On Sat, 17 May 2003, Joe wrote: It sounds like the best thing I can do for now is leave it alone until I can find out what kind of paint to use. I wouldn't mind repainting it, but I don't want to mess it up. I have a number of these units, and would like to preserve a consistent look. Since the thread is already on the subject of paints... How difficult would it be to touch up scratch damage on a painted metal chassis? Specifically, I'd like to repair some transit damage on a SGI IRIS 1400, which has an off-white lightly textured paint. The paint differs from the drive chassis that has sharpie marks, in that the paint on the SGI is very hard (and easier to chip/scratch) and the texture is much more coarse. Also like the drive chassis, the texture appears to be part of the paint and not the metal. I also have a rack-mount device that was originally painted with a rubber like paint that got "sticky" and made a mess. I've been trying to strip it off of all the metal surfaces so I can repaint it with some regular spray-on paint, but some of the metal is textured. What would be the best way to get that nasty rubberized paint off the metal? The paint came right off the non-textured metal with some paint stripper and a plastic scraper. These units were all cart-like and had wheels. They were of course older units, and were not very small. I think they averaged about 1-1/2 to 2ft square and about 3ft high. The liquid helium or liquid nitrogen was needed by one of the units to cool part of the laser. The laser levels could be adjusted for different things, and the guy who bought them told me he had no trouble cutting 1/2" steel plate with one of them. Other than that, I don't know too much more about them, but I wish I would have had room so I could have bought them myself ;) -Toth

Tothwolf wrote: Have you checked with your local model hobby shop for paints? Ben.