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Cleaning Electronics with Sugar
legoburner writes "Instructables.com has an article on removing logos from your PDAs or Cell Phones using sugar. Basically, the sugar crystals are strong enough to remove the logo (sticker), but are too soft to scratch the casing leaving it unscathed. The article has many pictures of the process as well as a thorough walkthrough. Let the rebranding of all your electronics begin!"
I guess the sugar makes it one sweet PDA?
Isn't sugar also small enough to slip through any holes on the product though? I wouldn't want bits in my electronics rattling about.
Sweet!
DIY stripper pole that was advertised on the left side?
Monstar L
or my phone. why would i do that to my $200 razr?
they say it is often more relevant then the comment above, all we know is its called the Sig!
``Cleaning Electronics with Sugar''
See? I've always told my mom that nothing bad was going to happen because of me eating candy over my keyboard. It even keeps it clean!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
You know how much smack I've wasted doing the same thing?
This technique works great on PDA's and phones where the natural casing texture is what's under the logo,
but if you've got a 'chromed' phone/PDA (particularly with a color), you may find yourself scratching off
the background color as well.
Sometimes the logos are actually printed in 'negative', where the background color 'is' the print and the
logo is negative space.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
"First you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women."
Words of advice: don't add water when rubbing off the logo.
My hands are stiiicky...
I've used this to strip logos before, as long as the plastic can take it, this will wipe them off with only one or two "swipes".
Columbians relying solely on the instructable and cannot read or speak english use highly corrosive cocaine on their electronics.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Toothpaste has a very mild abrasive that's great for removing things, but it's a great way to remove small scratches.
Put the straw down, step away from the sugar bag and put your hands on your head, sugar junkie!
I use baking soda to scrub when I want to reduce the chance of scratching.
And here I was thinking that people bought things only for the logo on them...
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Try the scouring pad on the back of a cheap foam+scouring pad from the dollar store. Because they're so cheap, they're really soft - which is what you want.
Or you can just breathe on them and peel them off - keep breathing on it as you pull - the moisture in your breathe breaks the adhesive bond. You should be able to pull the logo off a car that way on a hot day.
I think the stickers mentioned are actually the screen printed logos you get on a lot of kit these days. You're not supposed to use solvents like lighter fluid on plastics, although I have done it a few times and only ruined one Jornada 430. Incidentally, I fixed that by sanding down the whole front casing with fine emery paper, then I buffed it up with metal polish. It didn't look too bad, better than a half melted case anyway.
I was conned by an old man in a cloak. It turns out those *were* the droids I was looking for.
Now if someone could tell me how to remove those crappy "Designed for Windows XP" and "Centrino Mobile Technology" labels without leaving a residue or damaging or scratching the casing, I'd be ever so grateful.
I hate those things.
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
I used some 3M Citrus based spray cleaner to get some old labels and label glue off of a monitor. After letting the cleaner sit for a few minutes, the label glue wiped off easily, as did the Dell logo. Totally clean, as if it had never been there. The plastic housing was unharmed. Didn't even dull the surface.
Lighter fluid, such as the kind that comes with a Zippo, works incredibly well for this purpose. I've used this on everything from CD cases to electronics to books. A small squirt of lighter fluid on the edges of the sticker.. then let it sit for a couple of minutes and soak it up. The sticker will fall right off, no matter how stubborn, and all adhesiveness will be lost. Wipe off the lighter fluid.. it can stain some books if you leave it too long.
I find that the best and easiest way to remove stickers is to use an electronic contact cleaner spray. It won't harm the plastic or electronic parts and won't leave any sticky marks.
Just peel a few milimeters off the edge and spray through the opening. Wait for a few minutes for the spray to diffuse and dissolve the glue. The sticker will peel of by itself.
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Don't mess with sugar, use the blue (rougher) side of a pencil eraser. It takes a whille but it works. Sugar on my gadgets sounds like a really bad idea.
A cell phone that's a magnet for ants. Maybe if I use Equal instead...
Do you have a flag?
Sugar? Real men use WD40
I've found the opposite - sponge/scouring pads seem to be surprisingly low grit compared to liquid abrasives - less rough than steel wool, but not by that much. Paintjobs have been sacrificed to find this out - I don't recommend it.
People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation
WD40 takes off the gunk left over by sticky labels. Don't spray it on there, use a cloth, then rub it until there is no trace of the gunk. All traces of the WD-40 itself can be removed using a dry cloth or some windex. I've heard this works well for bugs on your bumper too.
Now if there was something that could get rid of that logo on my tv that stays in the bottom right corner when I'm on certain channels. That one is really anoyying.
Uh-oh, next thing you know the CIAA (Cellular Industry Association of America) will subpoena the web server logs of www.instructables.com and start slapping John Doe lawsuits on anyone who read the pages. After all, those phones have been heavily subsidized by the cellular providers, and carrying their branding is part of the unwritten contract between the consumer and the provider... it's not YOUR cell phone, you're just licensed to use it. /sarcasm
Seriously though, I'm not as concerned about the logo printed on the phone as I am about removing some of those annoying provider splash screens and about removing the subsidy lock so I can slap in a local SIM when travelling abroad.
The Digital Sorceress
Just don't get it anywhere near a Dell or Apple.
My sweet cell phone now has sweet scratches and the logo's still there.
So use only the most fragile sugar you can find.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
I suppose this is why he uses tape to cover other parts than the ones he's cleaning
Which then, of course, requires suguar to remove the tape residue... Clearly a plot by the Mexican sugar industry.
I can attest to this. Part of our business where I work is refelting pool tables. To hold the felt in place at the edges we use 3M Super 77 spray glue (banned in California). The only and I mean ONLY way to get the glue off of the slate is by using lighter fluid. The stuff is simply amazing at removing just about anything solvent based. When we clean the crap off of our other equipment we use :
Wildcat tape remover (for lightweight labels and tape residue)
Ronsonol lighter fluid (for high-strength decals, grease, tar, gum, etc)
Sudsing ammonia (will strip many kinds of ink, plus cigarette tar)
99% Isopropyl alcohol (removes permanent marker, flux, some silkscreen inks)
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Novus scratch removal system
Mother's aluminum polish
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
Used "Goo Gone" many times for similar things and it removes even very old and dirty sticker glue just perfectly.
Cut from their site:
Goo Gone safely removes: gum tar crayon fresh paint tree sap oil and grease blood ink asphalt scuff marks tape and tape residue makeup, lipstick and mascara adhesives candle wax kitchen grease shoe polish soap scum bumper stickers duct tape bicycle chain grease
http://www.magicamerican.com/googone.shtml
I use Goo Gone for getting stickers and adhesive residue off of books and such, and since it doesn't damage paperback books, it should be fine for plastic surfaces. It's available at most any hardware store.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Agreed... I have some aluminum baking sheets and the scrubby side of the sponge will visibly scratch and/or scuff those without any effort.
Saccharin (Sweet'N Low)
Aspartame (Nutrasweet)
Sucralose (Splenda)
Honey (Bees)
Maple Sugar (Trees)
Sodium Chloride (Salt)
Bitter Sarcasm (CmdrTaco)
I'd go for the CmdrTaco option. But only after applying a sweet sugar coating on the device, letting him lick the tasty sticker off it.
And yes, I realise I will be branded a pervert after this post.
I don't think that mixing flammable liquids, electronics that heat up enough to vaporize (and possibly even ignite) them, and electric current is neccessarily a very good idea. Especially since lighter fluid works well as a cleaner because it's a dissolver, and many such dissolvers are capable of dissolving plastics - like the ones used in electric insulators.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Is it legal? I mean, if I was verizon coming out in the market with a rebranded cell phone I'd probably like to make it illegal for users to unbrand it, just like it's illegal to unlock the software and use it on another network. If you don't like being locked in, buy the more expensive unlocked phone ...
Then again if we're talking manufacturer brands, I am proud of my Sony Ericsson P990i, why would I wanna hide it's brand?
I prefer Bitter Sarcasm (CmdrTaco) for removing stickers from electronics. Furthermore, ever since I spilled a Coke on a keyboard as a kid, the whole idea of sugar (read: sticky) to clean electronics is more than slightly repulsive. Maybe it also has something to (entirely illogically) do with sugar in gas tanks, but I have a very knee-jerk reaction to using sugar on electronics. Sugar is something I would try not to spill on electronics.
Read my blog: HansMast.com
Please MOD up the parent...this guy is the first person who knows what he's talking about. The logo on the PDA from the article is not a sticker. It is in fact a screen printing or silk printing, which is just a layer of paint that has been applied to the surface and allowed to cool. We do this all the time at my factory facility.
To take the matter even further to the opposing side, I quote the graffiti artist Banksy, as written in his book "Wall and Piece":
I use SoftScrub (http://www.softscrub.com/) for cleaning stuff off computer cases. It works great without scratching.
I stuck the enamel "Ready for Windows NT" badges that were on my laptop onto
one of these and left it into the server room toolkit at work.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
I have a Palm Zire 72. Once the blue paint finishes peeling off, I'll have a shiny silver PDA without any logos...
Unless 3M is selling a different glue under the Super 77 label in CA, it's not banned here. You can buy it pretty much anywhere (Home Depot, Staples, art and craft stores, etc). I have several cans, as it's an important structural component in my Zagi.
A few caution tips then:
1. Use flammable liquids away from flame.
2. Clean with flammable liquids outside (again, away from flame)
3. Turn off the equipment before working with flammable liquids.
4. Make sure equipment doesn't have the smell of the flammable liquid after a reasonable drying time.
If you smell vapors, there is always a possibility of ignition, but you need the right fuel/air ratio to do damage. If you don't smell it on the device, there's not enough vapor there. Of course, as with anything flammable, use your head and you will still have it in the morning.
Karnal
I've recently discovered that vegetable oil works very well for removing stickers from just about anything: wood, metal, plastic, etc. It doesn't matter what type of vegetable oil. I suppose if you wanted to be pretentious you could use extra virgin olive oil, but any liquid cooking oil seems to work. Peel or scrape off the sticker as best you can, then rub oil on the remaining residue. I usually use a cotton swab and just have to lightly rub the gum or glue a bit with oil and the sticky stuff lifts right off.
The article was about removing stickers from a cell phone; i'd advise taking extra care putting oil on something so small so that the oil doesn't get inside. The nice thing about using oil is that it is just food, so you don't have to worry about dealing with toxic solvents. And it is easy to clean up the excess with a rag.
----- "I'm still sane on three planets and two moons."
I'll have to look at the can on Monday, but I remember something on the can specifically about not beinf for sale in the state of California. Not the standard boilerplate about substances shown to cause cancer in the state of California, an actual ban. I wonder if there is a different formulation that 3M sells there?
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
Practically every liquid, gel, semi-solid, etc. is either water based, or oil based. It doesn't seem like a difficult concept, but people just don't get it.
If it doesn't breakdown when in contact with water (think: chewing gum), it will when in contact with oils. This goes for everything you've ever come across... from reinvigorating dried-out Playdough, to getting gum out of hair, tree sap out of clothes, and yes, getting stickers, adhesive bandages, and labels off, with nominal effort.
I generally hate WD40, because it's almost always used where traditional, better, and more permanent lubricants are actually needed. However, in this particular case, it is one of the better substances for the job...
Spray a little WD-40 around the edges of any sticker, give it just a few seconds, and the glue it touches will break apart into tiny chunks of rubber, and wipe away. A couple sprays, a few seconds, and you can get any sticker off of any surface, without practically any force at all.
Then, you just use hand cleaner (Goop), clothes detergent, or dish soap to cut through the oil, and wash away with water, or a damp towel.
Same goes for heat-sink paste (popular problem here), chewing gum, vasoline, adhesive bandages, electrical tape, tree sap, tar, and practically everything else in the known world.
In lieu of WD-40, whatever oil you happen to have will work nearly as well. Mineral oil, motor oil, cooking oil, etc. Thinner is usually better.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Okay, did a little googling and found there is a different version sold in CA and about 8 other states. Seems to be the same glue but a different "ozone friendly" propelant.
I find a hammer to be highly effective; it won't remove logos well, but you feel much better once the offending device is in twenty or thirty pieces.
This comment is my opinion and does not represent an official position of Donald Trump or others I do not work for