this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
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Chemistry

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I acquired a ~16 year old laptop. The mat black plastic top (back of the LCD) is sticky. At first I thought the previous owner had stickers on the back that were removed. But that seems like a bad theory now. I rubbed it with a cloth and denatured alcohol and it only got slightly less sticky, but black residue came off on my hands and the cloth. This is apparently not adhesive.. it’s the plastic itself.

What’s my best move? I don’t suppose I can do anything to re-polymerize it. I don’t care about cosmetics.. I just don’t want it to be sticky and marking anything that touches it. One temptation is to put plastic film on it, like cling wrap. But that could just make a bigger mess.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (6 children)

You could try this stuff. It's worked very well for sticky things in the past for me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Whenever I see that stuff on the shelf I think “I have acetone.. why would I buy that? Probably just acetone with a different label”. But I’m probably wrong.. if that were acetone it would not be “surface safe” and they’d get sued for damages. So indeed, probably worth a try.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's actually made from orange peels. Very different and it smells great.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Glad to hear that. So got me thinking about the wood glue dissolving on the bottle (polyvinylacetate). PVA is also used as a heel on some cheeses (gouda, I think). Maybe goo gone could be used to take the heel off cheese.

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