News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

How did you thicken your peroxide treatment?

Started by Karen, September 20, 2012, 05:03:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Karen

Im trying to clean up some aqua phones and so far the 30 vol cream peroxide I got is working great ($2).    Trying to combat little toothbrush lines so its taking a few sessions in the sun, BUT, still looking great.  Here's a pic of the body, which I had done first, out with the other parts which are getting their first treatment. 

Anyway, I was wondering if you were able to thicken it with corn starch or flour or something? Also where do you get a UV light?  The bulbs I see online dont look like they fit into any lamps I have.   

twocvbloke

You can make up UV lights using small tanning box things, pull it's light framework out from the casing, build it all inside a box with no windows or holes, and there you have a UV light setup... :)

Such as something like this (just in a box, not an old scanner):

http://www.instructables.com/id/UV-Exposure-Box/

Just don't buy UV Blacklight tubes, UV Blacklights aren't as effective as the UV lights used in tanning, beds or boxes, so try to avoid those for optimal results... :)

Just be aware that pure UV light can damage your sight and cause skin problems from being exposed (think sitting in the mid-summer sun without any protection (sunblock, sunglasses, clothes, etc.), hence the need to build it all into a box as not to cause unwanted exposure, and try not to buy the wrong sort of UV tube (clear ones are very harmful, hence why they use them in UV sterilisers!!)... :)

ESalter

An interesting note about UV lamps...  My dad has a neat one.  He used to work at General Electric in Morrison, IL and he acquired this lamp there.  It's a small blub, maybe an inch and a half diameter.  He uses it to erase EEPROMs.  It was intended to be used as a germicidal lamp in the base of an automatic toothbrush.  The blub is actually made of clear quartz.  When lit, it glows a very pale purple color, but as mentioned, you can't look at it.  If you glance at this one briefly you squint and look away as if you looked at the sun even though there isn't hardly any visible light there - a very odd feeling.  Anyway, I only brought it up because I thought it was neat having a quartz bulb instead of glass to make sure as little UV got filtered out as possible.

---Eric

twocvbloke

Yeah, the clear UV tubes are the really dangerous ones, putting out a lot of the UV spectrum and being as harmful a s sitting in the sun for too long... :o

Reminds me of an episode of the BBC show called "Bizarre E.R.", where kitchen staff in a restaurant started suffering from sore eyes and burns on their skin, they investigated everything from the gas fumes from the cookers down to the cleaning products they used, but not the fly-zapper light, and it turned out that someone had replaced the burnt out tubes with the clear UV tubes, and everyone in the kitchen was getting a strong dose of UV light... :o

Dan

Corn statch works great to thicken the h2o2 (peroxide)
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

Greg G.

The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

AE40FAN

It seems that air also helps thicken up the peroxide gel.  I pour it out of the bottle into a tupperware container and then let it set for a few hours before applying it to the piece.

suhoni56

Liquid Fiberglass and Polyurethane can be thickened with Talc. I assume even Baby Talcum powder would work fine. Cornstarch would do the same thing, but being a food product, might not have a good shelf life, just in case you might want to save the leftovers.
Susan

TelePlay

More recently, members have used a hair product peroxide that is already thickened. Volumes 20, 30, and 40 mean, IIRC, 20%. 30% and 40% peroxide. The mixture is stable for years and cheap at you local Sally or other hair care products store.  Here's a link from two years ago.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4658.0

There are other topics if you search for "volume" and "peroxide" in the forum "search" function.