retrOBrighting some sun yellowed Electrolux 600's

[ultimatevacman]

Wow, they look really nice James, great job! I might give this a go on my friend's 614 that's badly yellowed.

- Joe

 

[dysondestijl]

Well James, if I put it next to my white 156 then it looks really yellow!

 

[tolivac]

You can get strong,powerful UV lights from Raytech and UVP products-these are marketed to Gemologists and lapidary-they are more intense than what comes from the sun.Mainly-the artifical UV light is closer to the item than the sun.Another powerful source of artificial UV light is a suntan light or tanning machine.To sum up the most powerful manmade shortwave UV lights are from quartz glass flourescent bulbs without the phospors and short arc quartz lamps-but be careful with these-don't expose skin to them and do not expose your eyes to them.They can blind you or damage your corneas-sunlight can do that,too.LEDS just cannot generate strong SW UV energy.They are LW only.

 

[james]

Thank you Joe, it's well worth a try!

In that case George it best be retrobrighted

Thanks for the information tolivac, very useful!
Hope something cheapish comes up, I don't want to spend to much on a UV light source. A sunbed was my initial idea for the source of something a bit more powerful

The yellowing does eventually start to come back, the 615 is yellowing up again, and I keep it locked away in a dark loft, although its not as bad as it once was. The 614 hood has also turned yellow again.
However if you laquer the plastic after retrobrighting then apparently it will be fine.
I have noticed that some bits such as the bag door, which took about 30mins to de-yellow, is taking longer to re-yellow.

 

[tolivac]

Another low cost UV light is a germicidal lamp-its a quartz T8 36" or 48" flourscent bulb without the phospors to give white light.You can use them in a fixture that uses the 3 ft or 4 ft T8 bulb.You will have to take the lens or diffuser off the fixture-otherwise that will block the UV rays-again be very careful with these UV sources-they are powerful enough to burn your skin or eyes even being in the same room with it.So if you use it to "expose" something to the radiation-don't stay in the same room.Wear glasses over your eyes to protect them.And the area should be ventilated-shortwave UV lamps generate ozone-toxic form of oxygen.Germicidial lamps are used in sterile cleanrooms,goggle and mask cabinets(the door on the cabinet is connected to a switch that turns the UV lamp off when the door is open)Thought of another UV source---an EPROM erasor light.These are available from electronic parts suppliers.They are handheld or a small cabinet that has the UV light and a timer and door switch-you put the EPROM IC's in it and their programming is erased by the UV light so they can be reprogrammed with a new program.Sometimes these show up at surplus sales.The good thing about EPROM erasors is you can put the item to be radiated in it-if its small enough-and the case prevents stray radiation.