My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

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Bobrane
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:24 am
Location: France

My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by Bobrane »

Hi everyone,

As I am restoring one of my STE in a custom way, i decided to do a paint job on the body. However, the keyboard looked really yellow.
Huge aesthetic problem.
In a DIY store the other day, i found some hydrogen peroxide (12%) and decided to try the Retr0bright Experience on two of my keyboards.
I prepared a solution of 700ml of hydrogen peroxide with 14 pinch of Vanish Oxy Action Crystal White, witch has some TAED in the fomula (2 pinches / 100ml).
I've put all the keys in the bath and let them stay in the sun for 6 hours. I've mixed them every 15 mn. I know it is a kind of a dirty way to do this, but it has succeed.

Have a look before :
IMG_20180408_225555.jpg
IMG_20180408_225555.jpg (94.57 KiB) Viewed 5298 times
And after:
IMG_20180422_163139.jpg
IMG_20180422_163139.jpg (137.25 KiB) Viewed 5298 times
The best is that i used the same mixture for the two keyboards, and the second one got out from the bath in the same whitened state.

Oh joy ! :D
Atarian Computing
Posts: 444
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 4:27 am

Re: My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by Atarian Computing »

Good job! Yeah, the keycaps are safe to Retrobrite due to them not being dark-colored. Darker parts have the risk of blooming.
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stephen_usher
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Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by stephen_usher »

Yesterday, being a sunny day I did my first attempt at "retrobright" on my TT keyboard case.

In this case I used the peroxide solution in the "BBlonde" hair bleaching kit from Superdrug. It took the colour from "edam cheese" to "light clotted cream", so I'm going to have to do it again.
Image
Image
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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Bobrane
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:24 am
Location: France

Re: My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by Bobrane »

Atarian Computing wrote: Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:25 am Good job! Yeah, the keycaps are safe to Retrobrite due to them not being dark-colored. Darker parts have the risk of blooming.
Thanks ! That's right, and that's also the reason why i haven't had the faith to do the whole body and prefered the paint.
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Bobrane
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:24 am
Location: France

Re: My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by Bobrane »

stephen_usher wrote: Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:05 pm Yesterday, being a sunny day I did my first attempt at "retrobright" on my TT keyboard case.

In this case I used the peroxide solution in the "BBlonde" hair bleaching kit from Superdrug. It took the colour from "edam cheese" to "light clotted cream", so I'm going to have to do it again.
Yes, it was a great sunny sunday !
It seems to be a good start for you, nice. For the keycaps, i did like this :
IMG_20180421_152111.jpg
IMG_20180421_152111.jpg (375.41 KiB) Viewed 5236 times
Pretty frightening, but effective in my case.
And yes : the keycaps float :lol:
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stephen_usher
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Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by stephen_usher »

The problem I have with the TT is that the keycaps (other than the F keys) don't want to come off and I very much don't want to force them as TT keyboards (and spare parts) are almost impossible to find. I may have to find an innovative way of doing the retrobright without removing them, but protecting the rest of the keyboard mechanism.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
User avatar
Bobrane
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:24 am
Location: France

Re: My little retr0bright experience [SUCCESS]

Post by Bobrane »

yeah, i know the st keyboard is really easy to dismount compared to the TT.
you are right to take care of it.
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