Ozone source?

[Stumpy]

I keep a small quantity of rubber bands in my garage that degrade rapidly.
They crack and fall apart in ~2 months. The larger quantity which is in a
plastic bag in the house stays flexible for at least a year or maybe 2.

There are no volatile chemicals except gasoline, oil, and a few cleaners and
insecticides. The lighting is 1/2 incandescent, 1/2 fluorescent but is only
on for ~2hrs/day. No direct sunlight, dark garage. There are no high
voltage sources that I know of. A dormitory style refrigerator is running
in the corner.

I will probably try some sealed container experiments, but was looking for
any known issues with rubber storage. 2 months seems too short to be
natural aging of a commercial rubber product.

[Jim Thompson]

On Fri, 3 May 2013 08:14:51 -0700, "Stumpy" <peri...@spamnet.con>
wrote:

Some rubber bands seem to degrade, even in the dark, so I don't know
if it's even a light-related thing, probably more heat related.

I had a box of large rubber bands in a closet inside the house...
after about a year they're crumbling.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

[amdx]

On 5/3/2013 10:54 AM, Jim Thompson wrote:
> On Fri, 3 May 2013 08:14:51 -0700, "Stumpy" <peri...@spamnet.con>
> wrote:
>
>> I keep a small quantity of rubber bands in my garage that degrade rapidly.
>> They crack and fall apart in ~2 months. The larger quantity which is in a
>> plastic bag in the house stays flexible for at least a year or maybe 2.
>>
>> There are no volatile chemicals except gasoline, oil, and a few cleaners and
>> insecticides. The lighting is 1/2 incandescent, 1/2 fluorescent but is only
>> on for ~2hrs/day. No direct sunlight, dark garage. There are no high
>> voltage sources that I know of. A dormitory style refrigerator is running
>> in the corner.
>>
>> I will probably try some sealed container experiments, but was looking for
>> any known issues with rubber storage. 2 months seems too short to be
>> natural aging of a commercial rubber product.
>>
>
> Some rubber bands seem to degrade, even in the dark, so I don't know
> if it's even a light-related thing, probably more heat related.
>
> I had a box of large rubber bands in a closet inside the house...
> after about a year they're crumbling.
>
> ...Jim Thompson
>

Some pencil erasers degrade (harden) quickly also.
I hate when that happens!
Mikek

[Jim Thompson]

My pencils have no erasers.

I use an eraser stick ;-)

[Tim Wescott]

It may be the various petroleum vapors.

You do not have a furnace in the garage, right? Oil furnaces use a HV
spark to ignite, as do a few gas furnaces ("pilotless").

If you start engines -- cars, mowers, weed whackers, etc. -- in there
you're probably releasing a bunch of partially-combusted hydrocarbons,
which I bet are as bad as anything else.

Why not just keep them in a plastic bag in the garage? I have an old tea
tin that I keep my rubber bands in, and they last and last and last.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

[amdx]

You just got used to the way it was, I was born after they came up
with the idea of putting an eraser on the other end of a pencil. :-)

Speaking of pencils, for those of you who have not read it, I recommend,
I, Pencil http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html
or another source
http://www.fee.org/library/detail/i-pencil-audio-pdf-and-html#axzz2SGR0qqU0
Mikek :-)

[Stumpy]

>>
>> I will probably try some sealed container experiments, but was looking
>> for any known issues with rubber storage. 2 months seems too short to
>> be natural aging of a commercial rubber product.
>
> It may be the various petroleum vapors.
>
> You do not have a furnace in the garage, right? Oil furnaces use a HV
> spark to ignite, as do a few gas furnaces ("pilotless").
>
> If you start engines -- cars, mowers, weed whackers, etc. -- in there
> you're probably releasing a bunch of partially-combusted hydrocarbons,
> which I bet are as bad as anything else.
>
> Why not just keep them in a plastic bag in the garage? I have an old tea
> tin that I keep my rubber bands in, and they last and last and last.
>

No furnace. The CFL bulbs have presumably <1,000V

I try to start an old motorcycle once a month, but that is with the doors
open.

I'm rounding up various containers, the big bag of bands in the house is
just standard clear LDPE. It might just be exposure to free air.

[Jim Thompson]

I've always preferred the eraser stick dispenser to erasers on the
mechanical pencils, since the latter tend to be weenie erasers... and,
as an old style, do the design math on paper, kind of guy, I do a lot
of erasing. Though, now, it's mostly CAD schematics >:-}

[George Herold]

On May 3, 4:38 pm, amdx <a...@knology.net> wrote:
> On 5/3/2013 11:27 AM, Jim Thompson wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Fri, 03 May 2013 11:02:13 -0500, amdx <a...@knology.net> wrote:
>
> >> On 5/3/2013 10:54 AM, Jim Thompson wrote:

> >>> On Fri, 3 May 2013 08:14:51 -0700, "Stumpy" <perilm...@spamnet.con>

> or another sourcehttp://www.fee.org/library/detail/i-pencil-audio-pdf-and-html#axzz2SG...
>                         Mikek :-)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Hmm "the pencil" by H. Petroski is a nice read.

George H.

[Steve Gonedes]

My grandmom used to take a wad of aluminum foil and wrap the rubber
bands around that. They seemed to last well. Don't know if there is a
relation/correlation.

Then again what is rubber and polyvinyl these days?