Here are some tips for improving retro-brighting making it better and faster. Before you start, it's highly recommended to wash all the parts using a nail brush with soapy detergent like dish-washing liquid and warm water, then rinse it several times with clean water to get rid of any residue, which will help the bleaching process to be more even. Using peroxide cream is relatively weaker than peroxide liquid (also in higher concentration), and tends to leave shadow lines due to uneven coverage. I recommend using a standard Rubbermaid/Hefty or similar plastic storage tray at least 5 inches tall, and long and wide enough to fit your largest parts.
1. Use a 20-30% peroxide liquid available at swimming pool supply stores sold as "Pool oxidizer/disinfector" in one gallon jugs (about $30usd/gallon).
2. As a common bleaching activator, add a quarter cup of TAED (Tetra-Acetyl-Ethylene-Diamine) to each one Liter (quarter gallon) of peroxide. TAED is available online as powder and in some OxiClean formulations (read the fine print), or Clorox2 at supermarkets. Pure TAED works well, but there's even a better one, read on.
3. If TAED is unavailable, add a quarter cup of 30% Hydrochloric acid (HCL is sold at hardware stores as Muriatic acid) to each one Liter (quarter gallon) of peroxide. HCL may be substituted with one cup of vinegar (a weak Acetic acid) or citric acid (even weaker), but HCL works best due to the formation of Peracetic acid, a very strong bleaching agent (HCL is my favorite method).
Feel free to experiment with various activator to peroxide ratios, and see what works best for you. Whenever working with corrosive and oxidizing chemicals, always wear rubber gloves and safety glasses for protection!
Contrary to popular belief, basically it's not the UV or the Sun's light what speeds up the bleaching process, rather it's the heat from those sources. So, you can just leave it outside under the Sun, or put a water heater coil set to low/medium into the peroxide mixture, or under a heating lamp or space heater, or place the tray into the oven set to low/medium with the door open (important!) for a couple of hours. If you have a cooking thermometer, try to adjust the peroxide mixture at around 70C degrees or 160F (higher could melt the plastic). Stir the mixture often with a plastic or wooden spoon, and check on the color change.
Once it looks satisfactory, wash all the parts thoroughly using a nail brush with soapy detergent like dish-washing liquid and warm water to get rid of all the chemicals, then rinse it several times with clean water. I've done many retro-brighting jobs, and this method works really well.
P.S. There's still one more thing to try, which is using plain and strong Clorox bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite 10%) for a couple of days, since that's a really good bleeching agent too (we shall see ;).
Hi what a great comment. I will have to see if I can get my hands on all that and give it a try! I've done ok in the past with the cream, but I've always kept going back to it and massaged it around, which may have helped avoid streaking, but anything which makes it more fool proof has to be worth a try. Thanks 👍
I retrobrighted a SNES a few years ago but the case showed geometric pattern after the process. I had covered the case with food film and it was folds of the plastic that create these pattern. And I retrobright last week an Atari 520ste but the keys on my keyboard had not yellowed exactly. So at the end of process I kept a gradient of beigeon my keybord. But the top case is perfact. I will do the same with bottom case.
Interesting video. I suspect the Atari ST plastic is not very good for retrobrighting. I've seen numerous videos of the ST case producing streaks after retrobrighting, there is a video from Phil Kruman ua-cam.com/video/kCjsGeRvHhU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=PhilKruman, which you may find interesting.
Here are some tips for improving retro-brighting making it better and faster.
Before you start, it's highly recommended to wash all the parts using a nail brush with soapy detergent like dish-washing liquid and warm water, then rinse it several times with clean water to get rid of any residue, which will help the bleaching process to be more even. Using peroxide cream is relatively weaker than peroxide liquid (also in higher concentration), and tends to leave shadow lines due to uneven coverage. I recommend using a standard Rubbermaid/Hefty or similar plastic storage tray at least 5 inches tall, and long and wide enough to fit your largest parts.
1. Use a 20-30% peroxide liquid available at swimming pool supply stores sold as "Pool oxidizer/disinfector" in one gallon jugs (about $30usd/gallon).
2. As a common bleaching activator, add a quarter cup of TAED (Tetra-Acetyl-Ethylene-Diamine) to each one Liter (quarter gallon) of peroxide. TAED is available online as powder and in some OxiClean formulations (read the fine print), or Clorox2 at supermarkets. Pure TAED works well, but there's even a better one, read on.
3. If TAED is unavailable, add a quarter cup of 30% Hydrochloric acid (HCL is sold at hardware stores as Muriatic acid) to each one Liter (quarter gallon) of peroxide. HCL may be substituted with one cup of vinegar (a weak Acetic acid) or citric acid (even weaker), but HCL works best due to the formation of Peracetic acid, a very strong bleaching agent (HCL is my favorite method).
Feel free to experiment with various activator to peroxide ratios, and see what works best for you.
Whenever working with corrosive and oxidizing chemicals, always wear rubber gloves and safety glasses for protection!
Contrary to popular belief, basically it's not the UV or the Sun's light what speeds up the bleaching process, rather it's the heat from those sources. So, you can just leave it outside under the Sun, or put a water heater coil set to low/medium into the peroxide mixture, or under a heating lamp or space heater, or place the tray into the oven set to low/medium with the door open (important!) for a couple of hours. If you have a cooking thermometer, try to adjust the peroxide mixture at around 70C degrees or 160F (higher could melt the plastic). Stir the mixture often with a plastic or wooden spoon, and check on the color change.
Once it looks satisfactory, wash all the parts thoroughly using a nail brush with soapy detergent like dish-washing liquid and warm water to get rid of all the chemicals, then rinse it several times with clean water. I've done many retro-brighting jobs, and this method works really well.
P.S. There's still one more thing to try, which is using plain and strong Clorox bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite 10%) for a couple of days, since that's a really good bleeching agent too (we shall see ;).
Hi what a great comment. I will have to see if I can get my hands on all that and give it a try!
I've done ok in the past with the cream, but I've always kept going back to it and massaged it around, which may have helped avoid streaking, but anything which makes it more fool proof has to be worth a try. Thanks 👍
I retrobrighted a SNES a few years ago but the case showed geometric pattern after the process. I had covered the case with food film and it was folds of the plastic that create these pattern.
And I retrobright last week an Atari 520ste but the keys on my keyboard had not yellowed exactly. So at the end of process I kept a gradient of beigeon my keybord. But the top case is perfact. I will do the same with bottom case.
Thanks for the comment. I've certainly learned it's more of an art than science retrobrighting.
Interesting video. I suspect the Atari ST plastic is not very good for retrobrighting. I've seen numerous videos of the ST case producing streaks after retrobrighting, there is a video from Phil Kruman ua-cam.com/video/kCjsGeRvHhU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=PhilKruman, which you may find interesting.
Thanks for commenting, John. Yes I've seen a few vids on the ST case. The plastic on these is so brittle now which doesn't help