I am in the middle of doing this for some of my consoles etc. I have an NES top loader in bad shape, a pce and pce cd-rom in, and an NES max controller in the middle of the process.
Before I get into the details i'll comment on ingredient and parts retrieval.
I used the "original" recipe, as it is referred to on the Retr0Bright wiki. There are four ingredients:
I used the gel recipe, I think the "original" recipe is the liquid one with no xanthan or glycerin.
The hydrogen peroxide: I used Claroxide, 40vol., one 16oz bottle.
My woman friend had some left over 30vol that was several years old and so far its working, but I never did get the gel to foam up as seen in M3rl1n's gallery pic, age of the peroxide is my only possible reason. So I went to a beauty store and bought some new 40vol for $5. Funny story, the hottie asked me if I was dying skulls! Maybe because its halloween time or whatever, but some guy was in earlier for the same stuff for that reason! But no hassle to get a hold of really.
this is the main ingredient of the mixture, and will mess your hands/eyes up good, so use rubber gloves and safety glasses when handling it.
No kidding! I failed to pick up and gloves and the gel in ready form found its way onto my finger tips and it stung and bleached the skin!
The Oxy stuff: I used Clorox Oxy Magic: This can be found anywhere that sells laundry stuff. You need a really small amount of this stuff so just try to buy the smallest container you can get in powdered form. It won't break down very well in room temperature Retr0Bright gel, so I mixed it in with a very small amount of very hot water before adding it to the mixture This is done last, btw, and begins a reaction, so only add it to the gel you will currently be using. Unused gel (minus the Oxy) can be kept in a light-proof jar until needed.
I used the same stuff and did the exact same thing with the left over of the batch and the hot water trick.
Glycerin: I found the best way to buy this was, humorously, in the form of liquid suppositories. A company called Fleet makes four packs with 7.5ml each, which is more or less the perfect amount. Purchased from a CVS pharmacy.
I found a 4oz 118ml bottle of liquid glycerin at Fred Meyer for cheap. Used 2.5ml or 1/2 tsp for half batch making so bottle of liquid was easy to measure out and I wasn't buying suppositories.
Xanthan Gum: This will be the hard one for most people.
I called around Spokane, wa and found that Huckleberries food store had it and so did Mothers Cuppboard, got a 8oz jar for $6 at Mothers. GNC was a no go.
I used sunlight for the UV in the daytime, and a fluorescent UV light from Lowe's at night.
I found what I thought was the perfect bulb at Petco, it has its peak wavelength in the 300-350nm area, but was $40!!
The rest is pretty straightforward. Disassembling one of these set-ups is pretty complicated. If you are doing just a PCE, that's no problem. The CDROM2 and IFU on the other hand are a bit more complicated.
The only thing I read about on the wiki for concern here is that it will attack metal parts so I disassembled till it was only plastic left. If the metal is no where near a yellowed area dont worry about it and just apply the gel so its not on the metal I guess.
BTW I also had to buy a set of measuring spoons as I didn't have anything and I got a thrift store blender for $2 just for this stuff, so i'll never have to use it for food.
I'm not real satisfied with the blender action as the mix gets real thick and a ball of it just kinda bounces around on top of the blender blades after just a couple seconds, plus its hard to get it all out, but it still came out ok in the end.
I'd like to have two or more UVB bulbs and a rotating base to cover all the shaded areas, but I just kept moving stuff around all day instead. I'd also like to use mirrors, but ended up just covering the inside of a box with aluminum foil and laying the light over top of it all. Would also be nice to have a big glass tray to put it all in so the gel doesn't leak out onto counters etc.
Like I said earlier I didn't see the stuff foam up after applying, I thought maybe the bulb wasn't strong enough but wasn't ready to blame it completely yet, thats when I went for the 40vol, but I haven't used that batch yet and I am seeing results anyway. So keep in mind you have to be patient.
Also get prepared before you start mixing stuff up. Have a mixing bowl and paint brush ready, clear out a large area to work in, try to find a well vented area as it does smell a bit. It will also expand on its own out of the mixing bowl.
Pics before process, I took the pics on my toilet because the light in there is better and reproduce-able.
I will post pics of finished pieces in a couple days.
