Any early Touch Tone phone collector in general knows how faded, stained, warped, and damaged dial pad buttons can get, and it seems like no amount of cleaning or light sanding can get these buttons in nice shape.
Someone brought up the idea of using Acetone to 'resurface' these buttons in the past, and I decided to try it out.
All I had to do was wet a paper towel with Acetone, and polish the button until it looked clean, and blew it dry. If someone wanted to go the whole nine yards, they could disassemble the TT pad and polish each button with Novus after the Acetone treatment.
Also, it seems like the surface plastic always shrinks slightly around the injected letters and numbers over time, causing the characters to 'lift', and they are able to be felt to the touch. The Acetone treatment knocks the lifted plastic down, making the letters flush with the plastic, as well as whitening them and reducing usual surface cracks.
**FYI, do NOT use Denatured Alcohol as a polishing agent on soft plastic dial bezels. I found out that once the solution is completely evaporated, the surface of the injected characters it touched will chip off. Very minor, but the bezel will need to be sanded in order to be flush; I discovered this the hard way. This is not a problem on TT buttons.**
I've seen the shrinkage around the numbers that you mention. This sounds like a great solution. Did you use anything special or was it just fingernail polish remover?
Also, I assume the one key you worked on was the "4" on that keypad. It looks a lot better than the rest.
The part about denatured alcohol in the FYI--that's probably because it dissolves the Tenite around the numbers and letters of the dial bezel but not the plastic of those injected numbers and letters, whatever it may be.
I've never had much help from denatured alcohol on TT keypads. It cleans well but it isn't a strong enough solvent to fix the finish problems, like acetone evidently is.
Thanks for trying and posting this.
Quote from: jsowers on October 27, 2016, 12:04:20 AM
I've seen the shrinkage around the numbers that you mention. This sounds like a great solution. Did you use anything special or was it just fingernail polish remover?
Also, I assume the one key you worked on was the "4" on that keypad. It looks a lot better than the rest.
The part about denatured alcohol in the FYI--that's probably because it dissolves the Tenite around the numbers and letters of the dial bezel but not the plastic of those injected numbers and letters, whatever it may be.
I've never had much help from denatured alcohol on TT keypads. It cleans well but it isn't a strong enough solvent to fix the finish problems, like acetone evidently is.
Thanks for trying and posting this.
I used Kleanstrip Acetone, but I suspect it's exactly the same as nail polish remover.
Yes, I had used it on every button except for '7' and '8' at that point.
For the dial bezel...it actually caused the surface of the numbers and letters themselves to chip off. I think the alcohol shrunk them, and the skin was left behind once evaporated.
Years ago, all nail polish remover was acetone, IIRC colored and scented.
These days, some remover is not acetone at all, some is.
Cheaper to buy a quart at Wal-mart or Home Depot, or wherever. It's a great de-greaser prior to first coat of paint or primer on metal. Takes residue off and dries quickly.
Very interesting, Christian. Must try that out some time.
I sometimes have trouble getting the durt out of the edge between the numer and the button. Where the 2 different coloured plastics meet.
Probably due to shrinkage, as you mentioned.
Perhaps your method will clean that too.
By the way, I used nail polish remover in the past. Used to "borrow" it from my mother.
It would leave an oily residue. Too much to be just colour and scent. Perhaps some oily substance was added to keep the nails from drying out?
I have a technique that worked on white AE buttons. It is the same as I do for housings now. I thought the buttons on an ATC Snoopy (with AE guts) were hopeless.
Be warned , DO NOT MIX OxyClean with Bleach, as it says on label.. Now we will ...
Mix HOT, BOILING water and bleach. YOU MUST MIX THE BLEACH WELL OR THE BLEACH CAN STAIN THE PLASTIC. This should be enough water and bleach to completely cover the parts. I use about 1/4 cup of bleach to about 3 quarts of water
Now dump in a heaping scoop of oxyclean and IMMEDIATELY RUN LIKE HELL FROM THE TOXIC FUMES as the concoction seems to boil over.
Let the parts sit in the mix overnight
scrub with plastic scrubber sponge or fine steel wool. watch the yellow and grime come off
Mark
In the ITT dial service manual, it shows how to service TT dials, wouldn't it be easier to just to take a non working dial and use the parts from it?
Quote from: Babybearjs on May 11, 2017, 01:58:59 AM
In the ITT dial service manual, it shows how to service TT dials, wouldn't it be easier to just to take a non working dial and use the parts from it?
I would say NO, because sometimes it is not a more common WE and not all buttons are interchangeable. I had to clean up and repair an AE DTMF pad on an ATC Snoopy. AE DTMF pads are much rarer and use different mounting, so there was no hope of using an SC, WE or even an ATC without changing the mounting bracket for the DTMF pad.
Yes there are times when you have buttons laying around (as I have a set of NEW Gray SCs now) but even if they were interchangeable , sometimes buttons are white, or have no letters. It is always good to know techniques that some use