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Locked Non technical question about the coating on a HP 400E

 

Back in the late 1970¡¯s I encountered the same tackiness in customer units. Is there any coloration difference or filming on the meter? Smoking in repair facilities was acceptable at that time and units we received from Greece and Turkey were particularly bad. We cleaned those units externally with a strong soap and water solution, then a 92% alcohol wash. All glass surfaces were then cleaned with the original Bonami glass cleaner (alcohol and a glass cleaner spray). If we needed to clean the inside of the instrument, we followed the previous procedure, after the alcohol wash we would blow dry the circuit boards with compressed air or oven dry the boards for an hour or longer.
The alcohol wash would significantly reduce the tackiness if it was due to smoking residue.
Don Bitters
 

Something similar happened to my old Nikon D80 camera. I cleaned it with Iso-Propyl Alcohol (IPA). It removed all the stickeyness.

Leon Heller
 

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I have had some success on other items with a strong solution of sodium bicarbonate which is readily available for cooking purposes. I apply it with a rag allowing a little time for it to penetrate.? There are usually some surfaces on HP lids that are out of sight and thus good for experimentation. I am not sure about baking powder which has some added acid.

Paul G8AQA

On 11/07/2023 09:07, Leon via groups.io wrote:

Something similar happened to my old Nikon D80 camera. I cleaned it with Iso-Propyl Alcohol (IPA). It removed all the stickeyness.

Leon Heller
 

I have had success using a solution of simple green cleaner to remove the stickiness the develops on the HP textured surface used on various instrument cases.
 

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I know that he had retired but I think it was very cruel
to keep that professor in a closet, even if the building
was air conditioned.
Only joking,
Ken g8beq

On 11/07/2023 15:14, Jeff Green wrote:

Thank you for the Simple Green cleaner! It removed all the stickiness in one pass.

And I'll file the sodium bicarbonate away.?We had a piece of cast iron cookware cleaned with a "soda blaster" at a local automobile restoration company.?It's like sand blasting but totally non destructive. We plan to have a heirloom rocking chair cleaned this way. The base layers of paint are lead based and a member of our SWL club own an antique shop and warned me not to use the chemical strippers because they can damage some woods.

I used to be a chemist and my first thought was tobacco smoke so I checked for nicotine.?Nicotine nitrate is extremely stable and residue will last at least 300 years, they've found significant traces on museum pieces that have been locked away at least that long.

This unit belonged to a professor who recently retired and was kept in a closest in an air conditioned building.

It is amazing to see the build quality of HP test equipment! There is something special about real components ass
assembled by hand and (as a computer programmer I know) 'hunks of silicon we've cast spells upon."
My grandfather served visited Switzerland shortly after WWII and bought a Swiss watch. It has a built in stop watch function. I watched as the jeweler cleaned it. The inside is a mess of micro gears.?

I considered becoming a machinist because college was out of the question for financial reasons. I worked part time?
in a machine shop part time and was amazed at the end product. My wife is an artist, she can take a blank sheet of paper, a common pencil, and turn out an amazing sketch.

I lack that level of creativity. As Clint Eastwood said in a movie, "A man has to know his limitations."
 

All of the above mentioned techniques will work.? I'm not sure if the coating on the HP equipment is vinyl or some variation, but if so you can also use a vinyl conditioner for car dashboards.? However the stickiness may be due to a chemical breakdown of the plasticizers in the coating.? If that is the case it will never stop and will eventually come back.? As Leon mentioned about his Nikon camera, this was typical on the "rubber" friction grip strips of many cameras, and on other types of electronic equipment.? Once the breakdown starts I don't think there is any way to stop it.? It will just carry on until the coating disintegrates over time.? That's why for some cameras you can now buy replacement grips as this is the only solution in the long run.? Tobacco smoke is a real witches brew of organic compounds which might have something to do with causing the stickiness if it is attacking the plasticizers in the coating.? Of course the sooner you get it off the better, but the damage may already be done.? I just checked a couple of my HP instruments that I treated with vinyl conditioner a few years ago and they still seem to be OK, but only time will tell.? They came from our local university where smoking was not allowed in the labs at any point in time, so that might be their saving grace.

Cheers,
?John
 

This really is off topic, and now some of the post are getting silly - I have just rejected one from a user that was moderated.?

I would expect anyone reading this list to be aware of the HP/Agilent/Keysight list. The original post would have been far more appropriate there.

The topic is now locked.?

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