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Do you have yellowed brick and wish to restore it to its original color?
I recently stumbled upon a Maker Magazine article called "Un-Yellow Old Plastics
- Retr0brite!"
(http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/03/unyellow_old_plastics_retr0brite.html)
and I think this might work for yellowed white and grey brick.
According to the blog poster and DIY'er, the yellowing is due to the flame
retardants placed in the ABS plastic. Since LEGO bricks are made from ABS
plastic it stands to reason the flame retardant is what has caused the yellowing
in the brick over the years.
The Retr0Brite recipe is easy enough
(http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Retr0Bright+Gel) but the ingredients must be
found from special sources and might not be locally found easily. The
ingredients make a paste that you apply to the surface of the plastic you wish
to un-yellow. Then you must expose the concoction to ultraviolet light which is
easily done with a blacklight bulb or the sun.
Over a period of hours, the yellowed plastic turns back to its original off
white color.
The question remains, does it work on LEGO elements? Is anyone willing to try
their old yellow, er grey, space baseplate? How about a nicely yellowed white 2
x 4 brick? As soon as I unpack my brick from a recent move, find the yellowed
white brick collection and source the ingredients, I will try this and write up
a report.
Anyone willing to beat me to the end game?
Todd
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In lugnet.general, Todd Thuma wrote:
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Do you have yellowed brick and wish to restore it to its original color?
I recently stumbled upon a Maker Magazine article called “Un-Yellow Old
Plastics - Retr0brite!”
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...
Yes. I tried this last week and the results were very good. Take a look at this
post.
The picture shows the results before and after a exposure of only 2 hours in the
sun. We are having a heat wave here in Brazil and I was afraid of letting the
bricks too much time in the sun and in the end get some melted bricks.
My main problem is to find the liquid Hydrogen Peroxide 10%. I can only find it
in a creamy base that is used to bleach hair. This makes it difficult to apply
to bricks.
I looked at the surface of the treated bricks and couldn’t see anything
different from a new brick. So, it seems that this process is safe.
But, will have to do some more tests as well.
Leg Godt,
Ildefonso.
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