Not Mildew...It's Oxidation! (1 Viewer)

[GreekRedEye]

I bought these recently. What I thought was dirt seems to be something else. I think it may be mildew or mold. The spots are greenish and coat each chip pretty uniformly, so I do not think color transfer. They are on white, yellow, red, green, blue, and black chips but most visible on white and yellow.

I tried soaking 20 minutes in dish soap, simple green, oxiclean, hydrogen peroxide, and alcohol and scrubbing with toothbrush. Simple green did best but did not remove all discoloration (left about 20% of discoloration).

I then tried soaking a white chip in diluted bleach. 20 minutes in bleach and scrubbing got it pretty clean and whiter. I could get the same results however by cleaning with simple green then 2 minute dip in bleach. If I cannot find a better solution, I will probably do the simple green + bleach approach for the whites but afraid to try on the colors.

So, has anyone dealt with mildew before? Does this look like mildew to you? How did you clean it? I have not tried ultrasonic as I do not have one.

Chip on left was simple green + bleach. Still a hint of the mildew if you look closely. The other two are representative of what I am dealing with.

 

[GreekRedEye]

Some of the less successful cleaning attempts surrounding an untouched one for reference.

 

[ekricket]

Looks like mutated hooker juice. I thought at first it might be oxidation of the metals in them but that looks like something started living on the grime on those.

 

[GreekRedEye]

Looks like mutated hooker juice. I thought at first it might be oxidation of the metals in them but that looks like something started living on the grime on those.

So...would radiation help or make it worse?

 

[Coyote]

Ship them to someone experienced, with an utlrasonic cleaner

 

[BamaT8ter]

Looks like oxidation to me. I’ve seen some ASMs with heavy oxidation that looked like that.

 

[mike32]

I think it’s greening of the copper in the brass flakes. I’ve seen it many times in old ASM chips.

 

[GreekRedEye]

I think it’s greening of the copper in the brass flakes. I’ve seen it many times in old ASM chips.

Ah...that makes sense. So what works best to remove the oxidation? I find some references to oxidation and rust in the forums but no real solutions. Acids are supposed to dissolve oxidation, so I will try soaking in vinegar. But, the simple green and bleach had the best results so far and they are both alkaline. Hmmm...I will experiment with both acids and bases to see if either is a silver bullet

 

[GreekRedEye]

Edited to change the title to reflect that this is oxidation, and not mildew as I originally thought.

 

[GreekRedEye]

Well, that did not take long!

I ran a couple experiments:

• 20 minutes in an alkaline solution (baking soda dissolved in water) did nothing to the green spots but did seem to whiten the chip a bit like the bleach did.
• 20 minutes in vinegar removed most of the spots after scrubbing.
• The real champ is warm vinegar with salt dissolved in it...only 3 minutes in that and virtually all of the green spots disappeared after a bit of scrubbing.

I prefer the almond-white color after the vinegar baths. The bleach and baking soda seem to be whitening it to an "unnatural" color.

I did not take photos. I am going to run the experiments again tomorrow and better document. But I think the winning approach will be first to clean with simple green, then quick soak in vinegar + salt, then rinse.

 

[MegaTon44]

The colloquial name for this is "hooker juice". It's also bottled by Pepsi as "H2 HO"

The scientific name is "liquidius de street walkerus"

 

[GreekRedEye]

Before cleaning the ones on right. The ones on the left are for reference and were not cleaned.

After cleaning with simple green. Diluted 1 part cleaner to 8 parts water. Sprayed on, let sit for 1 minute, scrubbed for a few seconds with toothbrush. Sprayed and let sit again for 1 minute and scrubbed with toothbrush for few seconds. Rinsed in water.

Soaked in warm vinegar + salt for 5 minutes. Rinsed in water. No scrubbing.

Close ups of the finished chips:

 

[Colquhoun]

All this time, I thought I knew about salt & vinegar chips!

Yours came out great, btw....

 

[GreekRedEye]

All this time, I thought I knew about salt & vinegar chips!
View attachment 1196496

Yours came out great, btw....

I have not tried tasting mine yet. Will have to do that and report back.

 

[theshepherd]

I have not tried tasting mine yet. Will have to do that and report back.

You must do it for science.

 

[GreekRedEye]

The science part...salt + vinegar makes hydrochloric acid, which is more effective than acetic at removing corrosion.

I am happy with the process I have stumbled on. It is quick and low level effort. I can do the 200 or so in about 3 hours while watching a movie. Simple green is great at removing the dirt and the vinegar + salt solution removes most of the oxidation...just a hint of it remains and gives it a nice patina rather than the, ewww yuck! factor they have now. And the chips feel and look like they are not damaged by these chemicals. A longer soak in the vinegar might remove more oxidation, but I am happy with these and afraid too long a soak might damage the chips or the hotstamps.

I hope this helps others dealing with chips in similar condition. You can with confidence buy those bargain, ugly oxidized ASMs!

In a week or two I will post a follow up with photos after I have cleaned and oiled all of them.

 

[TheOffalo]

Thanks for documenting your thorough experimentation!

 

[GreekRedEye]

As promised, here are the chips, cleaned using the method I describe above then oiled. They look great in person.

 

[Budha]

As promised, here are the chips, cleaned using the method I describe above then oiled. They look great in person.

View attachment 1205369

Nicely done!!

 

[BamaT8ter]

That worked amazingly well! Did you notice any degradation of the hot stamps?

 

[TheBigTater]

As promised, here are the chips, cleaned using the method I describe above then oiled. They look great in person.

View attachment 1205369

Great Job! Thanks for sharing the process.

 

[GreekRedEye]

That worked amazingly well! Did you notice any degradation of the hot stamps?

No. Neither the simple green nor the salt+vinegar solution seems to have negatively affected the hot stamps. I don't know if you can see it, but the yellow and white hot stamps are a bit faded, but that is from use, not from the cleaning. That said, you should test this method with one or two chips before committing.

A bit more detail on how I did these in batches:

Step 1. Filled a large bowl with diluted simple green (1 part cleaner to 8 parts water) and put chips in the bowl in batches of about 60 to 80. Let soak a few minutes before starting.

Step 2. I took 6 out at a time, laid them on a towel and used an electric toothbrush to clean the visible side of the 6 chips. I developed a pattern of a couple seconds circular passes, couple seconds horizontal passes, couple seconds vertical passes. I then flipped all 6 and repeated to clean other side. I found it helpful to dip the toothbrush in the bowl to rewet it when doing the backside (since the towel had soaked up the cleaner).

Step 3. Once the bowl was empty, I cleaned the edges of the ones I just finished by holding them in a stack of 10 to 20. I rolled them along the towel as I used the toothbrush to clean the edges. About 15 seconds a stack. Doing a stack is easier than trying to clean the edge of individual chips.

Step 4. Repeat Step 3 until done cleaning all chips. Put chips in colander and rinse with water.

Step 5. Filled the same bowl with a liter of cheap white vinegar, warmed in microwave (bathtub warm not hot) and dissolved about a tablespoon of salt. I then put the chips in batches of about 50 to 60 chips. I let them soak 10 minutes, swirling a few times, then put them in colander and rinsed with water (no scrubbing).

I did not put the black and red in the vinegar because after the cleaning I could not see any oxidation spots. I don't have a kitchen scale, but I suspect those 2 colors are not weighted with brass flakes, so no oxidation and no need for the vinegar bath.

It does not remove all oxidation spots - I would say 90% or more gone. From arm's distance you don't really see them. Up close you can seem them, but I don't mind and kind of like the patina.