MELTED PLASTIC ON JEWELRY
Sabine
broach and ring, intricate gold bracelet etc) in a plastic ziplock
bag. Then I had the stupid idea to put it in the oven (for hiding
purposes). Then, predictably, I forgot about it and turned on the oven
to bake a cake. I remembered the jewelry shortly after, but by that
stage the plastic had already melted (both the clear bag and the
coloured zip-lock top). Jewelry is now covered in hardened plastic.
This question is not about my IQ, but ways I could get the plastic off
the jewelry, without destroying it in the process ...
Sabine.
dave....@web.de
similar prob here once.... stored a plastic bowl filled with lab glass
(flasks etc.) in an oven and a colleague brought his offspring with
him, who turned on the oven (about the only button/switch the lil
bugger could reach). The result was a glass/plastic composite cake.
The only way to get the glass back was to put the lot back in the
oven, soften the plastic and fiddle it out again.
If you try it that way, a lower temp will do, so new damage is
unlikely to occur.
cheers & good luck
dave
John Spevacek
Assuming that you used a common household type of bag, not anything
fancy, then you are probably dealing with a type of polyethylene.
Polyethylene will not dissolve in any solvents at room temperature.
but it will dissolve when the solvent is heated. Take a trip to the
hardware store and get some xylene (I've also seen it listed as
xylenes, which is more technically correct but doesn't really matter
as far as you are concerned). I've seen this in most Home Depots.
Working outdoors, carefully heat the xylene. You don't need to boil
it, but a slow simmer is hot enough. Xylene is extremely flammable,
it's nearly gasoline, so keep all open flames far away. Avoid
breathing the fumes, don't put your hands in it, etc. Drop the
encased jewelry in and let it go for a while, stirring occasionally,
or gently poking at it with a metal rod. After you get the rings
clean, be sure to properly dispose of the xylene - or maybe keep it
around for the next time :)
John
Steve Turner
>Working outdoors, carefully heat the xylene. You don't need to boil
>it, but a slow simmer is hot enough. Xylene is extremely flammable,
>it's nearly gasoline, so keep all open flames far away. Avoid
>breathing the fumes, don't put your hands in it, etc. Drop the
>encased jewelry in and let it go for a while, stirring occasionally,
>or gently poking at it with a metal rod. After you get the rings
>clean, be sure to properly dispose of the xylene - or maybe keep it
>around for the next time :)
It bears mentioning that it may not be necessary (or even possible) to
completely dissolve the plastic. The warm xylene should soften the
plastic enough for it to be mechanically removed from the jewelry
after a few hour's soaking. It may not even need to be heated.
Steve Turner
Real address contains worldnet instead of spamnet
Joe 123
off enough to manually pick off.
"Sabine" <sab...@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:6529301a.03062...@posting.google.com...
Dr. Rev. Chuck, M.D. P.A.
>
> try ultrasonic cleaner
Hope there are no pearls...
> with toluene and maybe a little heat. should lift
> off enough to manually pick off.
>
> "Sabine" <sab...@attglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:6529301a.03062...@posting.google.com..