Thanks for trying the Sous Vide stick.. I've had about 400 emails asking me to try that. I planned on it at some point, but now at least we know it will work.
Thanks for dropping by it's great to see you here. Like most Retrobriting videos it raises as many questions as it answers but I hope it adds to the conversation and helps a few people out. I'll follow it up in the near future with my permanent indoor setup which will hopefully be more refined.
I honestly think that the temperature in the sous-vide was too low. You should be able to get that to 75C. 8-Bit-Guy did a similar experiment, and temperature definitely was the catalyst.
David Small I will be trying 55 soon. 70 in a pan is where we melted the spacebar, admittedly that was a badly controlled and more direct heat so a balance can likely be found. The important thing for me is a safe and repeatable result which I'm happy I have now.
If that transparent box can withstand 90 degrees according to the specs (which probably means that it's a conservative limit), then the higher quality plastic of the keys/chassis should easily handle 70 and more.
Adding a cup of vinegar to each one liter of cream will activate the oxygen without UV, all that's needed is keeping it warm either with a heater, out in the sun, or in an oven set to low with the door open.
Thank you for watching I hope my experiments prove useful in the ongoing Retrobrite conversation especially for those in cloudy countries like the UK. I will release a follow up video once I have created my permanent retrobriting setup which should be a little safer and accessible for regular restoration works. All items are listed in the description and I'd love to hear your suggestions for the permanent setup. The Amiga will be restored in full once we have the permanent rig in a follow up video. Neil - RMC
You might want to take a peek at the video that The 8-Bit Guy did on the subject - he found that an ultraviolet light is a good substitute for the sun, and grow-lights are pretty easy to lay your hands on.
Not so much a suggestion for the technique, but the presentation felt a bit off with the notes clearly hanging to the left and to the right of the camera. Kinda distracting with the eyes looking off to the sides for some reason. :)
anjelgiofu thank you yes I noticed that, being on cam is new to me so allow me a few goes to get the hang of it and fashion a more high tech autocue than printed notes 👍
Perfect video for being back at work on Monday. Very interesting techniques and something i can take away. To be honest i'm feeling still a little timid after botching up a IIgs case but this has given me some ideas to consider. Very well done as always Neil
I have got the same concern especially with using the Cream. I know its not practical but I would want to submerge the WHOLE casing of a computer AND all the Keys in the Clear Hydrogen Peroxide and do it for 6 hours similar to the above and you should avoid the Streaking / Marbelling I would have thought?
Hey thanks for this video. I've been wanting to retrobrite indoors for a few years now and wasn't aware of the Sous Vide thing...I got one off Ebay for $40 and tried it this weekend on an Amiga 500, worked great, Didn't have the LED light so just did the Sous Vide method for 6hrs and the results were great, thanks again!
Excellent work glad it worked out for you. I have some machines stacking up I need to refurb soon so I need to bust it out again for some retrobriting. Glad this was helpful to you.
Great job there! I've suspected for a while that UV isn't essential - just leaving stuff in the bathroom where there's little light but a lot of warmth from heaters, I find it works really well. I just fill a jug with peroxide and vanish, submerge all keys and stick it in the bathroom and leave it for a day or two. Cases are a bit harder lol.
Have you considered halogen heat lamps? A combined source of heat and UV light, what halogen lamps can deliver, might work well but you'd need to do some distance/temperature experiments to ensure you didn't cook anything didn't want cooked like some old key caps sacrificed in the name of science.
whoa that is AMAZING!,loves it! for the light i would use some cheap chinese e27 grow light it would be more manageable to just multiply the light bulbs on a big surface,and yea an aquarium in tin foil could be a solution... with some metal lamp shades... loves too the idea of the vacum cooking.
I have just successfully treated some very yellow amiga keys using my wife's slow cooker - put keys in freezer bag with some hydrogen peroxide paste, and simmered at about 65 deg c for 8 hours. Had previously tried sunlight, and artificial light with very little success. Heat seems to be the key
Nice job and interesting finds! I always wondered what works best for inside retrobrighting. I had some good results just placing parts next to the radiator but it took ages. Using both light and heat seems to work way faster. I'm convinced to get myself a similar lamp now.
I'm really glad that you decided to try sous vide for this. I've really been wanting to see someone try it to see how well it would work. I thought it would be a good temperature control method while being able to scale up to larger pieces easily. And it seems like you've proved that.
Talk about a yellow a500 so many retrobrighting myths have been dispelled and science prevailed heat and light worked the best. Great vid again RMC I really enjoy your Chanel because watching you do things first prevents me from blowing myself up😋😉.......Kim
"to create our own giant vacuum packed sous-vide bag with an Amiga 500 it"....I just can't stop smiling, and yet it's extremely interesting and useful for my own C64 and Amiga 500 projects! Well done
Man. What a thrill it was to watch your experiment. I'm so glad you took the time to document all this since there really hasn't been a method that works for *everybody*. This appears very universal and it would make an awesome appliance for retro enthusiasts. Loving your new studio and the little nuances you've added to make your content next-level. Great job as always RMC!
I really enjoyed this video, it makes me feel good when I see old electronics looking just as they just left the factory. By the way, I really appreciate that you reply to almost all the comments, even that comments who don't have a big amount of likes.
When you showed the two Amiga cases the one using the cream and hot water method and the one with the power of the sun. It looked like the cream and hot water had a the best restore brightness and looked the best. Thank you for the great videos and series videos.
Excellent work. I have my original C= 128 to retrobrite, as well as the plastics on a Brother HL1230 LASER printer. You've given me some good ideas for designing a larger unit.
I would have never known about Vide Sticks if it wasn't for your experiments, what a great way to control the water temperature. Keep up the great content RetroManCave!
Good work, I have been testing a setup to do retrobriting indoors. Luckily I have access to a cad cutter at work and have built an acrylic tank 500x500x250mm. The water is heated by a immersion heater element with built in thermostat and uses a small water feature pump to circulate the water and digital temperature sensor to give me a visual of the water temp. I also insulated the whole tank with 25mm polystyrene which is very effective, the tank only lost 5 degrees in 2 hours after being turned off. I’m going use try your method of putting items in a vacuum bag as it seems a good way of using less hydrogen peroxide.
I know it's been two years since you posted this, but Linus Tech Tips uploaded a video on cleaning keyboards - including a dishwasher method. Might be worth a watch.
I've just bought a Smart Roadster car and the bumpers seem to have yellowed in exactly the same way as these plastics, retaining their original colour where they were protected from sunlight. I'm very tempted to try one of these methods of restoring it but I think I would need a garden paddling pool to submerge the whole bumper! Very interesting experiments, thoroughly entertaining.
I think 8-bit guys method for the gas method needs some adjustments. Ozone is quite short lived, and a generator like that would not produce a very high concentration of it. I believe the ozone in his bags were "used up" quite quickly, and a constant supply of ozone would have worked better.
@@nesnioreh i know your reply is a little old but you just gave me an idea what about one of those garment bags where you can suck out the air with a vacuum cleaner and just open up the valve to take the ozone and just seal it up so no ozone escapes that way it has a constant supply
I get perfect results placing any Bromide infused plastic into a large quart container with one quart of clear volume 40 and anywhere from 5-10 quarts of water. I close the container with the lid it comes with and place it in the sun for 4-6 hours. It doesn’t even matter if the bottom of the plastic is exposed to the sun. I believe when you place pieces in vacuum bags you limit the chemical reaction of the bromide combining with the peroxide. Furthermore, I have never had one piece of plastic “bloom” from this method. However, I have had plenty of “blooms” when using cream peroxide under plastic wrap and left in the sun. I do use the quart containers at Target that have the blue sealing gaskets on the lid.
That was awesome! Much faster than the UV light I used, which wasn't quite as strong to begin with and required long periods of time for results, which can test your patience. Thanks for the cool experiment.
Interesting results. I have a few old computers and consoles I want to retrobrite and live in a sunny and warm area most of the year. I'm glad I do, because even though I have a vacuum sealer, a sous vide heater and a grow light still add up in the expenses, not to mention the extra power you would use with these as well.
+sandman x the sun is still my number one for the reasons you state, you can't beat free. I hope to refine the setup in a future video and if I can find cheaper alternatives I will. Here's hoping.
After Retr0brighting the cases and key caps of my machines over the years, I've been interested in this technique since I heard about it last year. I'm looking forward to watch your results now.
I've never had to do any "retrobriting" and for the near future i don't plan to. But i can tell you it's a good thing the Sous Vide and the Full Spectrum LED light are quite expensive (for me at least) or else i'd buy them myself and do some retrobriting, just for the extreme satisfactory nature of it, not because i need to. It's so wonderful to see the plastic in its former glory again. Also, the way you showcase it is outstanding. I really enjoy your content. Thank you for hours of joy sitting behind my laptop and not being productive at all.
Thank you I'm glad you enjoy it. This video was very much a proof of concept. I will follow it up with a permanent setup, and hopefully I can source much more affordable parts such as aquarium heaters to get a result which is within more peoples budget.
Your findings mirror my own (heat and light matter). One additional experiment I'd be interested in seeing is whether a standard light bulb works. I've had success by using BBlonde, wrapping the parts in clingfilm, standing them on a hot radiator and shining a standard spotlight on them. Takes a day rather than hours though!
Interesting video. I think I may speak for many of us retro fans when I say "thanks for performing these tests". :) I'd use what I'm already familiar with: 120 cm / 36W UVA fluorescent lights. They are perfect for decorative purposes (they set the mood like nothing else, just add some candles) and occasionally may be used to retrobright stuff. :)
12:12 cue the Rastafari music. 🌿🚬 . You can ask a do-it-yourself guy to weld you a nice size box from metal or aluminum and place a mirror in the bottom and on the sides. The sous vide stick would not be a problem but as for the light, you might need to search for something a bit safer. Water condensation and electricity is not a safe mix. O and find some cork to place under the pan to hold the heat better. Also does wonders in a micro wave - Put the plate of food on top of a cork plate and then heat it up.
I built a UV box with a UV LED set from eBay for 10 quid, a large plastic box for 3 quid and some foil. Works perfectly even for large cases ;) Turn it on, leave for a day with Tescos BBlonde and cling film, job done. Also doubles up to help plant growth and propagating seedlings lol. And sets the wifes nail varnish. And gives you a tan if you put the top of the box on a stand.
And I was planning to use fans on my retro brite rig to keep heat away. good to know it is my friend then. I'll be changing my build to fit this idea. what I'm going to use my fans for now I have no idea. cool me on a summer day maybe. ;)
Your videos are well-made with good sound, so they're a pleasure to watch. For computer cases maybe you could try a bigger, clear food container & lid (with a hole cut for the sous vide) with a water/clear peroxide mix but no bag - to avoid the possibility of streaking.
What an interesting video! I love to see experiments like these - especially when they eventually yield such good results. Now it's time to get creative and design an all-in-one unit! Thanks for a great video.
I've had good results coating in cream hydrogen peroxide, covering in cling film and leaving in the airing cupboard for a week, reapplying the cream when it dries out.
12:47 - walks away from high powered purple light show partially blind, but trying desperately not to show it or fall over the table :-) Awesome though Neil, as I said yesterday, it's a great video... really enjoyed it.
Thanks for this. I was waiting for a sunny day to retrobrite a couple keyboards but I'm thinking I'm going to try to do one in the oven. I can control the temperature up from 30º, so I think I'm going to try about 60º (in a water filled container to help spread the temperature) and see how it goes from there.
As a recent subscriber of your channel, I have enjoyed watching your videos along with LGR, 8-Bit Guy, Techmoan, and PushingUpRoses. I like the songs that were chosen for this one. Also, that's a nice contraption you made at around 15:58 into the video.
Thank you for hanging out in the cave it's a pleasure to have you here and very flattering to be compared to such big YT names. These are all people I enjoy greatly as well.
One quite good product to use in winter time (which is cold and dark here in Finland) or if you don’t have a UV light is Vanish Gold. Just use it like any other retr0bright-stuff and place parts in some warm place like near radiator, sauna or room with underfloor heating. Results are pretty great! It takes some time to work (2-4 days).
Great video! Very interesting findings, and bravo on the sous vide method -- that's thinking outside the box. I was very surprised to learn that UV might be contributing only minimally to the whitening process. I have had an indoor retrobriting-with-cream-peroxide contraption in the works for over a year now -- a ridiculously long to-do list and procrastination are my enemy -- consisting of a slightly deeper bin than yours lined with adhesive mirror-finish Mylar reflective sheets and rows of 5050 UV LED strips. I guess I now need to revisit my idea adding controlled heat, somehow. 🤔
Absolutely excellent work! This answered so many questions and suppositions I had. I really like the bagged sous vide method, though I think that a regular zip lock back would be easier to fill with liquid and cheaper than those vacuum jobbies. :) I love your channel and look forward to each new video.
+Luis Esteves thank you! I agree with you I think we can make a saving by eliminating the vacuum packing if we can find a water tight bag as I didn't use the vacuum function with the solution. I hope to follow this video up soon with my permanent setup once refined
Nice result :) My Amiga is also one with more yellow keyboard than the case. Also my HP desktop PC from 2001 has started showing signs of yellowing also, for example the plastic front panel and speakers.
whoa that is AMAZING!,loves it! for the light i would use some cheap chinese e27 grow light it would be more manageable to just multiply the light bulbs on a big surface,and yea an aquarium in tin foil could be a solution... with some metal lamp shades... loves too the idea of the vacum cooking.
Timely video. I'm about to attempt my first Retrobrite on a 1541-II this weekend. We'll see how long it takes in the scorching Australian sun. Doing as much research as I can so that I hopefully get it right the first time. Cheers.
I gave it a try today on an old, broken 1541C that I had and it worked perfectly. It reached the correct colour with no streaks or blotches in only 90 minutes of hot sunshine. I gave it an extra 30 minutes just to be sure. I only used a thin smear of Clairol 12% 40Vol with some cling wrap and rotated it in the sun every 20-30 min. It looks so good that it makes my C64C look yellow and I didn't think it looked yellow at all before.
Did the breadbin today actually. Unfortunately I got some cream on the Commodore badge and it is ruined...full of bubbles. I also tried doing the keyboard but the symbols on the front of the keys mostly dissolved in the peroxide! Obviously they are just painted on which explains why they were still white when the tops were very yellow. Luckily, I have a non-working NTSC breadbin C64 that I bought very cheaply off eBay for spare parts which has a good keyboard and badge so hopefully I can work something out. Other than that, the retrobriting on the breadbin case went really well and it's now a nice grey-brown instead of the horrible yellow-brown.
you could probably eliminate both the sue vid stick and plastic tub using a steam table. they are used to keep stainless steal food tub/trays at specific temps using a hot water bath under them. could be fairly easy to set one up in a small shed or garage. throw some grow lightrs above it and bam, retrobriting station.
Looking at the two top cases. The new one you did, has turned out just slightly better. Not much, yet it is noticeable. Just forgot to mention. You know that white reflects all light, and black sucks up all light. You might want to test this in an all white container. You know, the kind of white that makes ones eyes hurt in the summer, when garden furnitures are that colour. Or the tin foil actually helps, by trapping in the heat and making it more concentrated. Try the tin foil the other way around, to see if the same method makes a difference with the tinfoil turned upside down.
Hi, my wife makes nails art and she used a machine that gives a lot of heat and uv light to nails so they can cure faster, I recommend you using those machines, they are a little expensive but i'm very sure they will be very good for this. I recommend buying one from a known vendor and a known machine since there are a lot of cheap fake ones that will not work at all or they will but very poorly.
+Martin Alejandro Liguori thanks Martin. I'd be interested to hear how that works out. UV is not specifically singled out as the solution but results would be fascinating to see.
Hmm sounds like the heat under an LED weed light would be a good combo indoors as f both have good results on their own combining them might mean you get the best indoor results.
A trick for the foil "box" (abt 18:00)... I might suggest lining a cardboard box with the foil. You could have even made a box for it. Then your reflective surface might be smooth and even more direct rather than crushed foil which would randomly reflect the light and create more of a prism effect which would separate the light spectrum.
Another trick you might want to look into... Take a mid-size cage (something you might put a small to mid sized pet in). remove the bottom if you can, and attach the light to the top. Then you would be able to stabilize the light and the water temp device. It would, also, keep the wires on the outside and run minimal risk of them falling into the hydro peroxide solution. If it were large enough, it could fit on the top of or over an aquarium (or other box device). You might look into a wooden box (about the size of one of your crate) and attach glass mirrors on the inside. It would be able to support such a mechanism.
Giving me a few ideas, but a large scale set up would be good if i had a constant supply into the garage. I think ill start with the cream, and wait for a nice day, maybe in october.
I live in a cold climate and I've successfully "retrobrited" several Apple keyboards & systems indoors during the winter months and what I see missing in so many of these tests is the inclusion of UV light. Your LED light setup may be full spectrum, but it may not produce much UV light. What I've done is coat my keycaps & keyboard pieces in hydrogen peroxide cream and lay some clear cling wrap over top so it doesn't dry out. I place the parts I want to retrobright into the bathtub and suspend a 150W Metal-Halide bulb above them and leave it on for a few hours. NOTE: Metal-Halide bulbs REQUIRE a suitable ballast to run them with, so don't plug them directly into a wall socket. I'm paranoid about UV, so I also run an extension under the bathroom door so I can unplug the light before entering so I don't expose myself to UV. This method has worked perfectly for me every time and it's just as effective as sunlight. The process doesn't require heat at all - IMHO it's the hydrogen peroxide reacting with the UV which de-yellows the plastic.
I'd say use a styrofoam camping cooler for the bigger projects. They can come in nice to excessively large sizes(in the US, at least. Might be different in the UK), the foam will insulate, making things easier on the sous vide stick for maintaining temperature, and it's fairly cheap. If you go for an aquarium-based system, I'd recommend either styrofoam or home insulation sheets you can cut to size for the sides, and I really like the idea of a second lamp shining up from the bottom that MrTravisHighrise mentioned. You may still want a second sous vide stick, if only for the peace of mind from the redundancy.
You might want to consider using an inert container like pyrex glassware for these experiments in future, just to avoid any reaction of the peroxide with the aluminium. You could wrap the glassware in foil if you're concerned about reflection.
Thank you for the tip. I'm considering spraying a plastic container with reflective paint (waterproof!) or a mirrored fish tank, so we might be able to remove that risk.
You can easily make a custom sized aquarium tank for cheap, you only need to order your glass panels to be cut at your specified size (you can cut it yourself, but why the hassle when already cut glass is so cheap), some silicone, and some sandpaper to remove the cutting edges of the glass (easily done). Duct tape can also be useful to hold plates in place, but the silicone is really sticky and holds the plates in place once you have the bottom, and two sides panels doing a 90° angle. It should take you no more than half an hour to do all by yourself, even if you did never assemble such a tank. What takes time is when you try to make nice silicone joints, and/or clean the excess afterwards. In this case, it doesn't matter, so put a liberal amount of silicone, stick it together, and the next day you have your tank. You can then paint the outside with metallic gray to obtain a mirror like finish in the inside (white should work as well) with a spray can. For the height you're going for, 4mm glass should be enough, and you should spend less than 20€ in glass, cut to size. You can even let a panel unpainted, or mask a window when painting, and stick a camera there (or a raspi with camera module) to timelapse the process. With the raspi and a relay, you can easily auto turn off the lights as well after N hours. By the way, doing hypothesis, and designing tests to assert the validity of those IS the scientific method. You had a control, you did study the impact of each variable separately, that's pretty good scientific testing to me. The only thing that could be said is that your sample size is to small to tell for sure that X method does Y for sure, but even from the sample size, we know it will, using previous other data that correlates it. So i'd say a scientist is a person that does science. Doing science is about using the scientific method :) For sure, in some context, you'd need experience to tackle a problem, but that's what reading is for : acquiring the experience/knowledge of others (in a good scientific paper, a portion is always reserved to "the state of the art" : what others did, what are the other methods, etc, with references). Anyway, good job :)
+Audrey Robinel really nice suggestions thank you I like the idea of a pre assembled tank built to size if it's cheap. I'm off to look into that now Professor 🖒
for reference : my 50cm*30cm*30cm tanks, made in 6mm glass, did cost me 22€; a tube of silicon usable for multiple tanks can be bought for 5-10€ and the caulk gun costs 2-5€ tops. If using thin glass (4mm) i'd recomand a plywood base to make it stiffer when you move it :)
I wonder if you could use a glass (or clear plastic) tub with an LED panel mounted underneath. That way you heat and circulate from the top, illuminate from underneath. The plastics would be turned upside down of course. Perhaps distribution of light would be a factor here, though.
You might want to consider using a mirror or light-pipe to to get the light evenly over top of your project while keeping the potentially sparky bits away from the water.
Now I have the perfect excuse to buy an old non-working Acorn Electron and fit it with a Raspberry Pie emulating the 6502. It would look smashing after a clean and retrobright! It would blow the old kit out of the water - with roms on a memory card! - Clack clack clack goes the keyboard!!
Beautifully done. Definitely answered a couple of questions I had in mind. May I suggest making a commercially available Retr0bright machine? I will provide the pots and pans :D
Some really good stuff in this video. My own experiences were not great, it ether took hours and hours to remove anything at all or chemically burned the plastic
Wow mate what a fantastic video. I have tried the retrobrite on an A500, 80vol cream on a 43 degree day in Australia. Ruined it.. heavy marble effect on everything and the grey keys at the bottom are almost white. And the part of the housing that goes around the keys bent up where it connects to the main body. Now I think I’m going to paint it black or put it in a tower.. since then I have really held back from giving anything else the treatment.
Thanks for trying the Sous Vide stick.. I've had about 400 emails asking me to try that. I planned on it at some point, but now at least we know it will work.
Thanks for dropping by it's great to see you here. Like most Retrobriting videos it raises as many questions as it answers but I hope it adds to the conversation and helps a few people out. I'll follow it up in the near future with my permanent indoor setup which will hopefully be more refined.
Hi 8BG! Love your channel too!
Excellent tests here, really hoped the sous vide method would work well. I’m glad you attempted it so I don’t have to.
I honestly think that the temperature in the sous-vide was too low. You should be able to get that to 75C. 8-Bit-Guy did a similar experiment, and temperature definitely was the catalyst.
David Small I will be trying 55 soon. 70 in a pan is where we melted the spacebar, admittedly that was a badly controlled and more direct heat so a balance can likely be found. The important thing for me is a safe and repeatable result which I'm happy I have now.
If that transparent box can withstand 90 degrees according to the specs (which probably means that it's a conservative limit), then the higher quality plastic of the keys/chassis should easily handle 70 and more.
Yup, the "L" in "LGR" stays for "Lazy", and that has been deserved right this time! Cheers, M
Adding a cup of vinegar to each one liter of cream will activate the oxygen without UV, all that's needed is keeping it warm either with a heater, out in the sun, or in an oven set to low with the door open.
Thank you for watching I hope my experiments prove useful in the ongoing Retrobrite conversation especially for those in cloudy countries like the UK. I will release a follow up video once I have created my permanent retrobriting setup which should be a little safer and accessible for regular restoration works. All items are listed in the description and I'd love to hear your suggestions for the permanent setup. The Amiga will be restored in full once we have the permanent rig in a follow up video. Neil - RMC
Cheers Craig I'm glad the methods came across well
You might want to take a peek at the video that The 8-Bit Guy did on the subject - he found that an ultraviolet light is a good substitute for the sun, and grow-lights are pretty easy to lay your hands on.
Not so much a suggestion for the technique, but the presentation felt a bit off with the notes clearly hanging to the left and to the right of the camera. Kinda distracting with the eyes looking off to the sides for some reason. :)
anjelgiofu thank you yes I noticed that, being on cam is new to me so allow me a few goes to get the hang of it and fashion a more high tech autocue than printed notes 👍
I foresee an epidemic of folks lining large boxes with tinfoil, installing LED grow lights and _having really nicely retrobrited Amiga keys_
Perfect video for being back at work on Monday. Very interesting techniques and something i can take away. To be honest i'm feeling still a little timid after botching up a IIgs case but this has given me some ideas to consider. Very well done as always Neil
I have got the same concern especially with using the Cream. I know its not practical but I would want to submerge the WHOLE casing of a computer AND all the Keys in the Clear Hydrogen Peroxide and do it for 6 hours similar to the above and you should avoid the Streaking / Marbelling I would have thought?
Hahaha :D loved the reggae coming on with the 'herb' lamp :D
This is exactly what we need in the Retro community to help everyone out. Great video.
Hey thanks for this video. I've been wanting to retrobrite indoors for a few years now and wasn't aware of the Sous Vide thing...I got one off Ebay for $40 and tried it this weekend on an Amiga 500, worked great, Didn't have the LED light so just did the Sous Vide method for 6hrs and the results were great, thanks again!
Excellent work glad it worked out for you. I have some machines stacking up I need to refurb soon so I need to bust it out again for some retrobriting. Glad this was helpful to you.
Great job there! I've suspected for a while that UV isn't essential - just leaving stuff in the bathroom where there's little light but a lot of warmth from heaters, I find it works really well. I just fill a jug with peroxide and vanish, submerge all keys and stick it in the bathroom and leave it for a day or two. Cases are a bit harder lol.
maybe you can put them in the bath? :D - Thanks gadget
A real caveman can go without bathing even for a week ;D
Have you considered halogen heat lamps?
A combined source of heat and UV light, what halogen lamps can deliver, might work well but you'd need to do some distance/temperature experiments to ensure you didn't cook anything didn't want cooked like some old key caps sacrificed in the name of science.
whoa that is AMAZING!,loves it! for the light i would use some cheap chinese e27 grow light it would be more manageable to just multiply the light bulbs on a big surface,and yea an aquarium in tin foil could be a solution... with some metal lamp shades...
loves too the idea of the vacum cooking.
I have just successfully treated some very yellow amiga keys using my wife's slow cooker - put keys in freezer bag with some hydrogen peroxide paste, and simmered at about 65 deg c for 8 hours.
Had previously tried sunlight, and artificial light with very little success.
Heat seems to be the key
+cakepanda a slow cooker, now that's an interesting method thanks for sharing
Nice job and interesting finds! I always wondered what works best for inside retrobrighting. I had some good results just placing parts next to the radiator but it took ages. Using both light and heat seems to work way faster. I'm convinced to get myself a similar lamp now.
Bloody marvellous! As a fellow pale British man with limited sunlight this has given me some great ideas to work with!
By far, probably the ultimate retro-brighting video around! Fabulous work!
I'm really glad that you decided to try sous vide for this. I've really been wanting to see someone try it to see how well it would work. I thought it would be a good temperature control method while being able to scale up to larger pieces easily. And it seems like you've proved that.
Talk about a yellow a500 so many retrobrighting myths have been dispelled and science prevailed heat and light worked the best. Great vid again RMC I really enjoy your Chanel because watching you do things first prevents me from blowing myself up😋😉.......Kim
"to create our own giant vacuum packed sous-vide bag with an Amiga 500 it"....I just can't stop smiling, and yet it's extremely interesting and useful for my own C64 and Amiga 500 projects! Well done
Hehe my spiral into madness is being documented right here one video at a time :p
Man. What a thrill it was to watch your experiment. I'm so glad you took the time to document all this since there really hasn't been a method that works for *everybody*. This appears very universal and it would make an awesome appliance for retro enthusiasts. Loving your new studio and the little nuances you've added to make your content next-level. Great job as always RMC!
+Marky Shaw thank you Marky I'm glad people are able to see some method in the madness
I really enjoyed this video, it makes me feel good when I see old electronics looking just as they just left the factory. By the way, I really appreciate that you reply to almost all the comments, even that comments who don't have a big amount of likes.
+Alex Florin you're welcome, I really appreciate the comments and learn a lot from them so I'm always happy to chat
Hope the best for you.
When you showed the two Amiga cases the one using the cream and hot water method and the one with the power of the sun. It looked like the cream and hot water had a the best restore brightness and looked the best. Thank you for the great videos and series videos.
By definition, doing experiments does make you a scientist :) Keep up the good work Mr Scientist
Will Proctor heh thanks Will. I'll put a certificate on my wall, in Comic Sans naturally.
The end result was very good, colour me impressed.
12:20 Retro britin man! 🌴 Excellent majestic video.
This has to be my favourite episode so far! I loved the reggae touch when turning on the in-door growi... I mean the full spectrum LED lamp. Cheers!
3.28 ... you didn't use CTRL as the comparison example. Missed opportunity for a pun!
Hah true but the 8bit guy used this pun in one of his videos - I'd hate to be accused of stealing bad puns :D
@@TheRetroCollective who knows what the pun-ishment is!
11:10 I had one of these when I was in uni. Very enthusiastic at that age for fresh herbs.
for your cooking of course?
Excellent work. I have my original C= 128 to retrobrite, as well as the plastics on a Brother HL1230 LASER printer. You've given me some good ideas for designing a larger unit.
Very satisfying results. I've restored my old C64. I'm on the hunt for an A500 that's not crazy $$$. Great video.
I would have never known about Vide Sticks if it wasn't for your experiments, what a great way to control the water temperature. Keep up the great content RetroManCave!
I just used fluorescent uv light and peroxide cream for gameboy cases, works a treat and is less complicated. Fluorescent light gives heat away too.
Good work, I have been testing a setup to do retrobriting indoors. Luckily I have access to a cad cutter at work and have built an acrylic tank 500x500x250mm. The water is heated by a immersion heater element with built in thermostat and uses a small water feature pump to circulate the water and digital temperature sensor to give me a visual of the water temp. I also insulated the whole tank with 25mm polystyrene which is very effective, the tank only lost 5 degrees in 2 hours after being turned off.
I’m going use try your method of putting items in a vacuum bag as it seems a good way of using less hydrogen peroxide.
3:10 - I found that cleaning keys is most convenient in a _dishwasher_ . Saves you all that toothbrush scrubbing and gets off any gunk reliably.
I know it's been two years since you posted this, but Linus Tech Tips uploaded a video on cleaning keyboards - including a dishwasher method. Might be worth a watch.
I havent blinked for 17mins. Top stuff buddy
Well I didn't think I'd be watching someone cooking an Amiga 500 in a tanning bed when I woke up this morning! Fascinating!
this video was soo good!!! and the contraption at 15:54 looks sooo cool and futuristic
I've just bought a Smart Roadster car and the bumpers seem to have yellowed in exactly the same way as these plastics, retaining their original colour where they were protected from sunlight. I'm very tempted to try one of these methods of restoring it but I think I would need a garden paddling pool to submerge the whole bumper! Very interesting experiments, thoroughly entertaining.
Also, Have you looked into the non-peroxide retrobriting where you use place the item in an air tight bag and fill it using an ozone generator?
Not personally but I've seen Mr 8bit experiment with it. Certainly worth looking into. How about you any success with it?
Trying to find a big enough bag ATM
Excellent well let us know how it goes Larry!
I think 8-bit guys method for the gas method needs some adjustments. Ozone is quite short lived, and a generator like that would not produce a very high concentration of it. I believe the ozone in his bags were "used up" quite quickly, and a constant supply of ozone would have worked better.
@@nesnioreh i know your reply is a little old but you just gave me an idea what about one of those garment bags where you can suck out the air with a vacuum cleaner and just open up the valve to take the ozone and just seal it up so no ozone escapes that way it has a constant supply
Superb experiment. Congratulations.
I get perfect results placing any Bromide infused plastic into a large quart container with one quart of clear volume 40 and anywhere from 5-10 quarts of water. I close the container with the lid it comes with and place it in the sun for 4-6 hours. It doesn’t even matter if the bottom of the plastic is exposed to the sun. I believe when you place pieces in vacuum bags you limit the chemical reaction of the bromide combining with the peroxide. Furthermore, I have never had one piece of plastic “bloom” from this method. However, I have had plenty of “blooms” when using cream peroxide under plastic wrap and left in the sun. I do use the quart containers at Target that have the blue sealing gaskets on the lid.
Oh man cracked me up so much when you said your starting to question my own sanity ..... but cool way to get that going :) glad it works
Great video, i will try this myself. Always thought that peroxide and uv light would be enough, now i know better.
Excellent! That’s inspired me to retrobrite my Amiga 500 and Acorn Electron in the loft. 💪
That was awesome! Much faster than the UV light I used, which wasn't quite as strong to begin with and required long periods of time for results, which can test your patience. Thanks for the cool experiment.
RMC The coziest 8-bit cave on YT 👍
Interesting results. I have a few old computers and consoles I want to retrobrite and live in a sunny and warm area most of the year. I'm glad I do, because even though I have a vacuum sealer, a sous vide heater and a grow light still add up in the expenses, not to mention the extra power you would use with these as well.
+sandman x the sun is still my number one for the reasons you state, you can't beat free. I hope to refine the setup in a future video and if I can find cheaper alternatives I will. Here's hoping.
After Retr0brighting the cases and key caps of my machines over the years, I've been interested in this technique since I heard about it last year. I'm looking forward to watch your results now.
I've never had to do any "retrobriting" and for the near future i don't plan to. But i can tell you it's a good thing the Sous Vide and the Full Spectrum LED light are quite expensive (for me at least) or else i'd buy them myself and do some retrobriting, just for the extreme satisfactory nature of it, not because i need to. It's so wonderful to see the plastic in its former glory again. Also, the way you showcase it is outstanding. I really enjoy your content. Thank you for hours of joy sitting behind my laptop and not being productive at all.
Thank you I'm glad you enjoy it. This video was very much a proof of concept. I will follow it up with a permanent setup, and hopefully I can source much more affordable parts such as aquarium heaters to get a result which is within more peoples budget.
Your findings mirror my own (heat and light matter). One additional experiment I'd be interested in seeing is whether a standard light bulb works. I've had success by using BBlonde, wrapping the parts in clingfilm, standing them on a hot radiator and shining a standard spotlight on them. Takes a day rather than hours though!
Interesting video. I think I may speak for many of us retro fans when I say "thanks for performing these tests". :)
I'd use what I'm already familiar with: 120 cm / 36W UVA fluorescent lights. They are perfect for decorative purposes (they set the mood like nothing else, just add some candles) and occasionally may be used to retrobright stuff. :)
By far the most entertaining video om retrobrighting I have seen :) Also very informative! Keep up the fantastic work! :)
Well done! best retrobright video yet
Thanks Martin. I'm using this method today to retrobrite a CRT case
12:12 cue the Rastafari music. 🌿🚬
.
You can ask a do-it-yourself guy to weld you a nice size box from metal or aluminum and place a mirror in the bottom and on the sides.
The sous vide stick would not be a problem but as for the light, you might need to search for something a bit safer.
Water condensation and electricity is not a safe mix.
O and find some cork to place under the pan to hold the heat better.
Also does wonders in a micro wave - Put the plate of food on top of a cork plate and then heat it up.
Just retrobriting my keycaps officer
I like the Reggae music when you switched the light on. 🐙⚡💥
Excellent video on the Retrobrite process.
I built a UV box with a UV LED set from eBay for 10 quid, a large plastic box for 3 quid and some foil. Works perfectly even for large cases ;) Turn it on, leave for a day with Tescos BBlonde and cling film, job done. Also doubles up to help plant growth and propagating seedlings lol. And sets the wifes nail varnish. And gives you a tan if you put the top of the box on a stand.
And I was planning to use fans on my retro brite rig to keep heat away. good to know it is my friend then. I'll be changing my build to fit this idea. what I'm going to use my fans for now I have no idea. cool me on a summer day maybe. ;)
Mr. RMC, awesome work. and great video, thanks for doing this for everyone...
You're welcome and thanks for watching James
Your videos are well-made with good sound, so they're a pleasure to watch. For computer cases maybe you could try a bigger, clear food container & lid (with a hole cut for the sous vide) with a water/clear peroxide mix but no bag - to avoid the possibility of streaking.
What an interesting video! I love to see experiments like these - especially when they eventually yield such good results. Now it's time to get creative and design an all-in-one unit! Thanks for a great video.
I've had good results coating in cream hydrogen peroxide, covering in cling film and leaving in the airing cupboard for a week, reapplying the cream when it dries out.
12:47 - walks away from high powered purple light show partially blind, but trying desperately not to show it or fall over the table :-) Awesome though Neil, as I said yesterday, it's a great video... really enjoyed it.
wow awesome end results
Thanks for this. I was waiting for a sunny day to retrobrite a couple keyboards but I'm thinking I'm going to try to do one in the oven. I can control the temperature up from 30º, so I think I'm going to try about 60º (in a water filled container to help spread the temperature) and see how it goes from there.
As a recent subscriber of your channel, I have enjoyed watching your videos along with LGR, 8-Bit Guy, Techmoan, and PushingUpRoses. I like the songs that were chosen for this one. Also, that's a nice contraption you made at around 15:58 into the video.
Thank you for hanging out in the cave it's a pleasure to have you here and very flattering to be compared to such big YT names. These are all people I enjoy greatly as well.
A RetroManCave Retrobrite success!
One quite good product to use in winter time (which is cold and dark here in Finland) or if you don’t have a UV light is Vanish Gold. Just use it like any other retr0bright-stuff and place parts in some warm place like near radiator, sauna or room with underfloor heating. Results are pretty great! It takes some time to work (2-4 days).
I've not heard of this technique thank you, I'll check it out
LOL!!!! Can't believe you did it after I mentioned that.
Great video! Very interesting findings, and bravo on the sous vide method -- that's thinking outside the box. I was very surprised to learn that UV might be contributing only minimally to the whitening process. I have had an indoor retrobriting-with-cream-peroxide contraption in the works for over a year now -- a ridiculously long to-do list and procrastination are my enemy -- consisting of a slightly deeper bin than yours lined with adhesive mirror-finish Mylar reflective sheets and rows of 5050 UV LED strips. I guess I now need to revisit my idea adding controlled heat, somehow. 🤔
Absolutely excellent work! This answered so many questions and suppositions I had. I really like the bagged sous vide method, though I think that a regular zip lock back would be easier to fill with liquid and cheaper than those vacuum jobbies. :) I love your channel and look forward to each new video.
+Luis Esteves thank you! I agree with you I think we can make a saving by eliminating the vacuum packing if we can find a water tight bag as I didn't use the vacuum function with the solution. I hope to follow this video up soon with my permanent setup once refined
Nice result :) My Amiga is also one with more yellow keyboard than the case. Also my HP desktop PC from 2001 has started showing signs of yellowing also, for example the plastic front panel and speakers.
My 2 year old Draytek modem has yellowed already!
whoa that is AMAZING!,loves it! for the light i would use some cheap chinese e27 grow light it would be more manageable to just multiply the light bulbs on a big surface,and yea an aquarium in tin foil could be a solution... with some metal lamp shades...
loves too the idea of the vacum cooking.
Timely video. I'm about to attempt my first Retrobrite on a 1541-II this weekend. We'll see how long it takes in the scorching Australian sun. Doing as much research as I can so that I hopefully get it right the first time. Cheers.
+Damien Retro good luck, in intense sun like in Oz check it regularly and massage the cream around plenty throughout or you risk marbelling.
I gave it a try today on an old, broken 1541C that I had and it worked perfectly. It reached the correct colour with no streaks or blotches in only 90 minutes of hot sunshine. I gave it an extra 30 minutes just to be sure. I only used a thin smear of Clairol 12% 40Vol with some cling wrap and rotated it in the sun every 20-30 min. It looks so good that it makes my C64C look yellow and I didn't think it looked yellow at all before.
Damien Retro excellent work well done, make full use of that sunshine
I'll see if I can upload a quick video from my phone. I'm still new to YT so no promises.
Did the breadbin today actually. Unfortunately I got some cream on the Commodore badge and it is ruined...full of bubbles. I also tried doing the keyboard but the symbols on the front of the keys mostly dissolved in the peroxide! Obviously they are just painted on which explains why they were still white when the tops were very yellow. Luckily, I have a non-working NTSC breadbin C64 that I bought very cheaply off eBay for spare parts which has a good keyboard and badge so hopefully I can work something out. Other than that, the retrobriting on the breadbin case went really well and it's now a nice grey-brown instead of the horrible yellow-brown.
This is the video I need. Still looking for the perfect retrobriting setup for treating two tubs of old Lego.
you could probably eliminate both the sue vid stick and plastic tub using a steam table. they are used to keep stainless steal food tub/trays at specific temps using a hot water bath under them. could be fairly easy to set one up in a small shed or garage. throw some grow lightrs above it and bam, retrobriting station.
+OpposingForces I believe the technical term for that is a bain marie?
Looking at the two top cases. The new one you did, has turned out just slightly better. Not much, yet it is noticeable. Just forgot to mention. You know that white reflects all light, and black sucks up all light. You might want to test this in an all white container. You know, the kind of white that makes ones eyes hurt in the summer, when garden furnitures are that colour. Or the tin foil actually helps, by trapping in the heat and making it more concentrated. Try the tin foil the other way around, to see if the same method makes a difference with the tinfoil turned upside down.
Excellent video! Very thorough and detailed. Your content really has stepped up. Expecting 100K subscribers this year. ;)
+BlakeCasimir one can but dream. Thanks Blake
15:54 I was not expecting this contraption to suddenly appear when I started watching this video.
Hi, my wife makes nails art and she used a machine that gives a lot of heat and uv light to nails so they can cure faster, I recommend you using those machines, they are a little expensive but i'm very sure they will be very good for this. I recommend buying one from a known vendor and a known machine since there are a lot of cheap fake ones that will not work at all or they will but very poorly.
+Martin Alejandro Liguori thanks Martin. I'd be interested to hear how that works out. UV is not specifically singled out as the solution but results would be fascinating to see.
Well done and thought out
Peroxide... Vacuum sealer... Grow light...
You''re on a few lists at this point :) great video, very interesting!
Most useful thanks for taking the time doing this
Hmm sounds like the heat under an LED weed light would be a good combo indoors as f both have good results on their own combining them might mean you get the best indoor results.
A trick for the foil "box" (abt 18:00)... I might suggest lining a cardboard box with the foil. You could have even made a box for it. Then your reflective surface might be smooth and even more direct rather than crushed foil which would randomly reflect the light and create more of a prism effect which would separate the light spectrum.
+John Whittamore thank you John that makes good sense now you mention it. Something to consider for the final rig
Another trick you might want to look into... Take a mid-size cage (something you might put a small to mid sized pet in). remove the bottom if you can, and attach the light to the top. Then you would be able to stabilize the light and the water temp device. It would, also, keep the wires on the outside and run minimal risk of them falling into the hydro peroxide solution. If it were large enough, it could fit on the top of or over an aquarium (or other box device).
You might look into a wooden box (about the size of one of your crate) and attach glass mirrors on the inside. It would be able to support such a mechanism.
Outstanding results,. I wonder if a reptile tank could be retrofitted for retro briting.
Giving me a few ideas, but a large scale set up would be good if i had a constant supply into the garage. I think ill start with the cream, and wait for a nice day, maybe in october.
I live in a cold climate and I've successfully "retrobrited" several Apple keyboards & systems indoors during the winter months and what I see missing in so many of these tests is the inclusion of UV light. Your LED light setup may be full spectrum, but it may not produce much UV light. What I've done is coat my keycaps & keyboard pieces in hydrogen peroxide cream and lay some clear cling wrap over top so it doesn't dry out. I place the parts I want to retrobright into the bathtub and suspend a 150W Metal-Halide bulb above them and leave it on for a few hours. NOTE: Metal-Halide bulbs REQUIRE a suitable ballast to run them with, so don't plug them directly into a wall socket. I'm paranoid about UV, so I also run an extension under the bathroom door so I can unplug the light before entering so I don't expose myself to UV. This method has worked perfectly for me every time and it's just as effective as sunlight. The process doesn't require heat at all - IMHO it's the hydrogen peroxide reacting with the UV which de-yellows the plastic.
I'd say use a styrofoam camping cooler for the bigger projects. They can come in nice to excessively large sizes(in the US, at least. Might be different in the UK), the foam will insulate, making things easier on the sous vide stick for maintaining temperature, and it's fairly cheap.
If you go for an aquarium-based system, I'd recommend either styrofoam or home insulation sheets you can cut to size for the sides, and I really like the idea of a second lamp shining up from the bottom that MrTravisHighrise mentioned. You may still want a second sous vide stick, if only for the peace of mind from the redundancy.
You might want to consider using an inert container like pyrex glassware for these experiments in future, just to avoid any reaction of the peroxide with the aluminium. You could wrap the glassware in foil if you're concerned about reflection.
Thank you for the tip. I'm considering spraying a plastic container with reflective paint (waterproof!) or a mirrored fish tank, so we might be able to remove that risk.
You can easily make a custom sized aquarium tank for cheap, you only need to order your glass panels to be cut at your specified size (you can cut it yourself, but why the hassle when already cut glass is so cheap), some silicone, and some sandpaper to remove the cutting edges of the glass (easily done). Duct tape can also be useful to hold plates in place, but the silicone is really sticky and holds the plates in place once you have the bottom, and two sides panels doing a 90° angle.
It should take you no more than half an hour to do all by yourself, even if you did never assemble such a tank.
What takes time is when you try to make nice silicone joints, and/or clean the excess afterwards. In this case, it doesn't matter, so put a liberal amount of silicone, stick it together, and the next day you have your tank. You can then paint the outside with metallic gray to obtain a mirror like finish in the inside (white should work as well) with a spray can.
For the height you're going for, 4mm glass should be enough, and you should spend less than 20€ in glass, cut to size.
You can even let a panel unpainted, or mask a window when painting, and stick a camera there (or a raspi with camera module) to timelapse the process.
With the raspi and a relay, you can easily auto turn off the lights as well after N hours.
By the way, doing hypothesis, and designing tests to assert the validity of those IS the scientific method.
You had a control, you did study the impact of each variable separately, that's pretty good scientific testing to me.
The only thing that could be said is that your sample size is to small to tell for sure that X method does Y for sure, but
even from the sample size, we know it will, using previous other data that correlates it.
So i'd say a scientist is a person that does science. Doing science is about using the scientific method :) For sure, in some context, you'd need experience to tackle a problem, but that's what reading is for : acquiring the experience/knowledge of others
(in a good scientific paper, a portion is always reserved to "the state of the art" : what others did, what are the other methods, etc, with references).
Anyway, good job :)
+Audrey Robinel really nice suggestions thank you I like the idea of a pre assembled tank built to size if it's cheap. I'm off to look into that now Professor 🖒
for reference : my 50cm*30cm*30cm tanks, made in 6mm glass, did cost me 22€; a tube of silicon usable for multiple tanks can be bought for 5-10€ and the caulk gun costs 2-5€ tops. If using thin glass (4mm) i'd recomand a plywood base to make it stiffer when you move it :)
I wonder if you could use a glass (or clear plastic) tub with an LED panel mounted underneath. That way you heat and circulate from the top, illuminate from underneath. The plastics would be turned upside down of course. Perhaps distribution of light would be a factor here, though.
This is amazing. Good job Retro Man Cave.
Great video and interesting findings. I have a 500 that's in need of some "treatment" so I'll certainly be looking forward to some experimenting
You might want to consider using a mirror or light-pipe to to get the light evenly over top of your project while keeping the potentially sparky bits away from the water.
Now I have the perfect excuse to buy an old non-working Acorn Electron and fit it with a Raspberry Pie emulating the 6502. It would look smashing after a clean and retrobright! It would blow the old kit out of the water - with roms on a memory card! - Clack clack clack goes the keyboard!!
Thanks for putting your sous vide machine in harms way! I am really leery about per oxide base on the stove if you know what I mean!
Beautifully done. Definitely answered a couple of questions I had in mind. May I suggest making a commercially available Retr0bright machine? I will provide the pots and pans :D
Wonderful work here! Asking myself about investment vs waiting that the sun arrives. Anyways, it made me want to try ;)
Very impressive 👍 Great approach, must try this on my Atari ST 🕹️
Nice Artificial Sun . Case is Nice .I Always Like the Cream and the Sun , Your System mimics the Sun Well :) QC
Some really good stuff in this video. My own experiences were not great, it ether took hours and hours to remove anything at all or chemically burned the plastic
Wow mate what a fantastic video. I have tried the retrobrite on an A500, 80vol cream on a 43 degree day in Australia. Ruined it.. heavy marble effect on everything and the grey keys at the bottom are almost white. And the part of the housing that goes around the keys bent up where it connects to the main body. Now I think I’m going to paint it black or put it in a tower.. since then I have really held back from giving anything else the treatment.
Results look great ! Nice retro cooking here :D
Thanks sir for doing these experiments!