Is this some dread plastic telephone disease?

[recyklotron]

Greetings,
I picked up a 1960s yellow WE500 this weekend. Visually it looked really clean & it was not until I got it home & started working on it that I noticed that the handset is mostly covered by a fine web of craquelure. From a foot away you do not notice it & I had a hard time getting a good photo. I enhanced the contrast a bit so you can see what I am talking about! The surface is smooth to the touch . The body of the phone seems to be unaffected.  Is this handset a lost cause? Are pieces going to start falling off?
Thanks as always,
             Jonathan/Boston

[LarryInMichigan]

That is common, but I am not sure what causes it.  I suspect that years of exposure to bright sunlight will do it.  I don't think that there is anything that you can do about it, but I also don't think that the plastic is about to disintegrate.

Larry

[Adam]

I've seen that before.  I believe I have a white handset somewhere in my collection that looks like that.

I always assumed that this phenomenon shows up in handsets that were painted by WE when they were refurbished, and it is the new layer of paint that has cracked over the years.

Can anybody confirm that, or is it not the real reason colored handsets get that cracklurature?

By the way, I've seen this over the years but I've never seen one that was missing something in the area of the cracks, so I don't think the cracks ever manifest into worse damage.

[cihensley@aol.com]

That is not caused by paint. The handset was refurbished, but not with paint.It was treated to a vapor bath that contains, among several solvents, dichloromethane. This was followed by a heat treatment that removed stress imparted to the plastic by the solvent vapor. This was how WECo refurbished plastic surfaces. The heat treatment was sometimes not completely effective, resulting in stress cracks that you can see in the picture of the handset.

You can remove the stress cracks with sanding. I would start with a fairly course grit to remove all of the cracks, then move to progressively finer grits to remove any sanding marks, followed by polishing with Novus #2. If you are inclined to learn more about the WECo process, it is described in patent number 3,443,008.

Chuck

[Adam]

Well... I was close!  It had to do with the refurbishment process! 

[LarryInMichigan]

My weird Japanese phone has surface cracks all over the areas which are discolored from sunlight exposure.

Larry

[recyklotron]

Thanks guys.
There is a refurb sticker on the bottom. If I were to sell this phone do I need to point this 'defect' out?

Thanks again,
                         Jonathan

[LarryInMichigan]

If you are going to list the phone for sale on-line, I definitely think that you need to show the affected areas.

Larry

[old_stuff_hound]

Sorry, I can't help answer your question, but props for using the word "craquelure."