While waiting for First Light to answer with their peel off cleaning kit prices, I decided to experiment on a pair of VERY dirty, boogered binoculars.
I bought some make-up artist rigid collodion, rubber glue, nitrocellulose dope and liquid latex masking fluid. I further worsened the binos with big oily thumb prints on the objectives and EP ends.
Results were surprising.
1. Rigid collodion dried almost instantly. It definitely attacks paint, rubber, plastic quite aggressively (it is nitrocellulose mixed with highly volatile solvents). It adhered well - TOO well - to glass. I managed to get it off, but never in one single sheet. This could be very problematic. The longer I left it , the more adherent it became. It removed the oily thumbprint entirely, and lifted ALL the dirt and crud.
2. Rubber glue took a while to dry. Good adherence to glass. Also solvent based, so avoid anything plastic, paint etc. Lifted the oily thumbprint entirely as well as dirt. Was easy to peel off, and if it broke in places, was easy to remove the remnants without touching the glass.
3. Nitrocellulose dope - same stuff used in old aircraft manufacture and with tissue and balsa model aircraft. Almost same constituents as collodion, but uses acetone and xylene as solvents, so same cautions as above. Dried fairly quickly, though dried solid as a rock, almost impossible to remove without redissolving it, which negates the purpose! Sure did remove ALL oil though - no surprise.
4. Liquid latex masking fluid. NON-solvent based, but smells a little of ammonia, so not sure what the solvent there is. Does NOT harm paint at all (hence it being a paint masking fluid - derr!) nor plastic. Took a good hour to dry fully, but as expected, peels off beautifully, and left a totally immaculate surface underneath, with NO residue. My only concern is it DOES have ammonia in it, it MAY affect coatings. Didn't SEEM to, but...
The MSDS for this one:
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION/PROPERTIES
APPEARANCE: PALE YELLOW LIQUID WITH A PUNGENT ODOUR
BOILING POINT(
OC): APPROX 100
OC
VAPOUR PRESSURE (PASCALS OR MM OF HG AT 25
OC): NOT DETERMINED
SPECIFIC GRAVITY: 0.95 - 1.00 AT 20
0C
FLASHPOINT (
OC): NOT DETERMINED
FLAMMABILITY LIMITS (%): NOT FLAMMABLE
SOLUBILITY IN WATER (G/L): DILUTABLE
OTHER PROPERTIES: PH 8-10
INGREDIENTS
THE COMPOSITION IS AN AQUEOUS LATEX COMPOUND CONTAINING AMMONIA. THE EXACT
COMPOSTION OF THIS PRODUCT IS PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, DETAILS OF
COMPOSITION CAN BE OBTAINED FROM RUBBER LATEX AUSTRALIA P/L
So, wrapping up, liquid masking fluid worked the best BY FAR. Had no issues with removing oil and dirt, and peels off easily. Next test is on the Tak Fc-100... GULP!
