White PC Engine should be white

[Bernie]

Well, yeah you're right.  But still more than what ya get in bleach. 

[TheOldMan]

....pure chlorine is a gas at room temperature.

And extremely toxic. That's why I wondered where he was buying it from.

[Bernie]

They actually make it at the plant I work at.  Had two spills in the last couple years.  Hangs low and moves with the wind. Nasty stuff.

[TheOldMan]

Note to self: Stay away from where bernie works

Had a neighbor over-chlorinate their pool once, drawing out lots of firemen and cops. They thought it was a chlorine leak. Nothing I want to mess with

[turboswimbz]

Interesting. I let my yellow PCE sit in bleach for over 24 hours and it barely did anything. It's a little whiter but not by much. The heavily yellowed parts were hardly phased at all. I then let it set in 3% hydrogen peroxide overnight outside and nothing. Albeit it was cloudy all day but nothing seems to have much of an effect on this thing. I was expecting an nice white PCE but no dice.

Maybe some are genuinely stained while others just experience that side effect of the plastic composition?

Nah, this isn't a stain. It's yellow on the entire back and right side as well as around the controller port. It looks like you'd expect from ABS yellowing. I guess I could try to get a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide but I hate having to mess with all these potent chemicals. Makes me nervous.

IF you really don't want to mess with chemicals.  Looking back at the work I was doing with H2O2 3% changed ever few days with constant sunlight should whiten your PCE in about 6-8 months.

And you guys have it all wrong for the best oxidation results, literally bleaching your PCE in minutes:
Step 1: go to food store
Step 2: Buy (ferrious iron) - yeah this is available there but no I won't tell you what product see step 7
Step 3: Buy High concentration H2O2
Step 4: Pile shavings of Iron in glass container
Step 5: throw in ABS
Step 6: Add H2O2
Step 7:

SERIOUSLY DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

[esteban]

Interesting. I let my yellow PCE sit in bleach for over 24 hours and it barely did anything. It's a little whiter but not by much. The heavily yellowed parts were hardly phased at all. I then let it set in 3% hydrogen peroxide overnight outside and nothing. Albeit it was cloudy all day but nothing seems to have much of an effect on this thing. I was expecting an nice white PCE but no dice.

Maybe some are genuinely stained while others just experience that side effect of the plastic composition?

Nah, this isn't a stain. It's yellow on the entire back and right side as well as around the controller port. It looks like you'd expect from ABS yellowing. I guess I could try to get a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide but I hate having to mess with all these potent chemicals. Makes me nervous.

IF you really don't want to mess with chemicals.  Looking back at the work I was doing with H2O2 3% changed ever few days with constant sunlight should whiten your PCE in about 6-8 months.

And you guys have it all wrong for the best oxidation results, literally bleaching your PCE in minutes:
Step 1: go to food store
Step 2: Buy (ferrious iron) - yeah this is available there but no I won't tell you what product see step 7
Step 3: Buy High concentration H2O2
Step 4: Pile shavings of Iron in glass container
Step 5: throw in ABS
Step 6: Add H2O2
Step 7:

SERIOUSLY DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

STATUS: Fenton, of course, went on to establish the mighty PopRocks Candy empire...

[Tatsujin]

[xelement5x]

Interesting. I let my yellow PCE sit in bleach for over 24 hours and it barely did anything. It's a little whiter but not by much. The heavily yellowed parts were hardly phased at all. I then let it set in 3% hydrogen peroxide overnight outside and nothing. Albeit it was cloudy all day but nothing seems to have much of an effect on this thing. I was expecting an nice white PCE but no dice.

Maybe some are genuinely stained while others just experience that side effect of the plastic composition?

Nah, this isn't a stain. It's yellow on the entire back and right side as well as around the controller port. It looks like you'd expect from ABS yellowing. I guess I could try to get a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide but I hate having to mess with all these potent chemicals. Makes me nervous.

IF you really don't want to mess with chemicals.  Looking back at the work I was doing with H2O2 3% changed ever few days with constant sunlight should whiten your PCE in about 6-8 months.

And you guys have it all wrong for the best oxidation results, literally bleaching your PCE in minutes:
Step 1: go to food store
Step 2: Buy (ferrious iron) - yeah this is available there but no I won't tell you what product see step 7
Step 3: Buy High concentration H2O2
Step 4: Pile shavings of Iron in glass container
Step 5: throw in ABS
Step 6: Add H2O2
Step 7:

SERIOUSLY DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

That was pretty awesome.  Could you actually speed up the whitening process by using iron in there?  It would be fun to try with like an old yellowed PC mouse on camera.  5 minutes and a brand new looking mouse!

[turboswimbz]

That was pretty awesome.  Could you actually speed up the whitening process by using iron in there?  It would be fun to try with like an old yellowed PC mouse on camera.  5 minutes and a brand new looking mouse!

Yeah in theory you could if you were especially using nano iron, however the heat it gives off warps the plastic. You can't believe the heat it gives off. I tried with a mouse and the plastic melted, So I'm not sure how much whiting it did. I'm still working on it though for poops and chuckles.  For a much safer way, you can use the tried and true OXY - activating laundry powder and good ol' UV, . as the same principal that whiten the clothes, whitens the ABS, and get results in hours.   - actually much cooler, scientist are using it clean up oil, dyes, and other contaminates by Oxidizing the lethal substances.   

Here is a very nicely done science project showing the principal:

Also I forgot to mention, I checked this out because of Dan's thread. this reaction Hates to be Basic or highly acidic.  In fact it can bring it to a point where whiting won't really occur.  A little Vitamin C may decrease the whiting time in this reaction, but i'll need to find some more brown ABS and get some lab time to try again.   

[xelement5x]

Ahh, that makes sense about the heat released, I didn't even think about that aspect.  Once it gets a bit sunnier I plan to throw out my old SNES and get this going.

[Keith Courage]

I just came across one pc engine where bleach did not work to remove the yellow. First time I have ever encountered that. Anyways, I was able to remove the one yellow stain by using some very fine sand paper. It just rubbed it right off.

[turboswimbz]

I just came across one pc engine where bleach did not work to remove the yellow. First time I have ever encountered that. Anyways, I was able to remove the one yellow stain by using some very fine sand paper. It just rubbed it right off.

Yes this will work - if your not overly sensitive about your stuff (same with bleach as long as you don't go crazy with it.)  you just take off the browned area of the plastic as the Hydrogen to Oxygen reaction can only occur on the surface of the plastic, this is kinda like exfoliating the skin. other good candidates for exfoliating your ABS include Magic Erasers, Brillo, nail files,  and "tough" sponges. 

[mbannick]

So, now that I have everything setup I'm thinking about using some hydrogen peroxide (3% and some oxyclean) to remove the yellowing on my pcengine. It's only slightly yellow on about 55% of the top (looks a little uneven) so I heard the 3% method should produce okay results. The only thing I'm worried about is the logo on the top and the serial number on the bottom. Will this fade the logo? (I'm thinking the serial number will probably be toast so I'll have to find a way to cover it or take it off beforehand.)

[turboswimbz]

the stickers will come off ... somewhere is a thread where Arkhan describes how to get this back on . . . .

[Arkhan]

if you don't want to screw with taking the stickers off, use that blue painters tape to cover that area up to protect it.

Just make sure you've got it covered tightly so it doesn't come off once submerged.  That would kinda blow.

Another way you can do it is to use playdough, or any of those other goofy, malleable things.   I'd be careful with sticky tak or silly putty though, it might strip the text off the label.