Removing "Yellow" Stain from White PCA Secondary $1's? (1 Viewer)

[churlbut18]

I have two racks of mint White PCA Secondary $1's, however the majority of them have this yellowish tint to them. Not sure what it is or what caused it but I received them this way. They are not the nice white chalky color one would expect or desire.

I've read through most of the maintenance threads in this forum and understand different methods such as the ultra-sonic cleaner, the warm water and dawn soap, oxi-clean, magic eraser, tooth brush, etc...

But besides the ultra-sonic cleaner because I don't currently have access to one and only need to deal with these 200 chips, what method would be recommended to try and remove or lighten some of this yellowish tint and try to restore these back to that chalky white?? Oxi? Magic eraser?

Has anyone else experienced this and had success?

Thanks,

 

[abby99]

My best results were with Oxi.

 

[churlbut18]

My best results were with Oxi.

Thanks. Can you describe your process briefly. Did you mix pure Oxi with water? What was ratio? How long did you soak? Scrub with brush? etc... I've also seen members express caution when using oxi because it could damage chip, inlay, or fade (I can't remember exactly)?

 

[BGinGA]

A scoop of oxi in a large bowel of hot (not scalding) water for 5-10 minutes, rinse, a pass or two with a damp magic eraser and rinse if needed. Round inlays should be fine, and any fading of the edgespots will come back with a light oiling.

 

[abby99]

When I cleaned my PCA secondary $1s, I started out conservatively with a weak solution and a short soak. Eventually I found that I got the best results with a stronger solution and was relieved to find that it didn't harm the chips at all.

My method is almost exactly the same as @BGinGA's. I used 1-2 scoops of Oxi in a container of hot (not scalding) water, mixed until the Oxi was dissolved, and soaked the chips for about 15 minutes. I used a magic eraser on the edges only. Give them a good rinse and dry thoroughly. The edge spots did not fade.

This is the Oxi that I used, shown with a cleaned chip:

Before cleaning:

After (cleaned chips on the right and in the center, minty fresh chips on the left). The slight variation in spot colors is due to the lighting. While not perfect, they came out pretty well.

 

[churlbut18]

Thank you very much @abby99 and @BGinGA for this information. Looks like I have a small project next week.

 

[pltrgyst]

And after you get them cleaned, don't forget to store them up high enough that the dog can't hoist a leg again...

 

[churlbut18]

I'm going to try this over the weekend. So no need to scrub with a toothbrush after the Oxi bath? And as for drying, anything special there or is it just a matter of patting with a towel and then laying out to air dry (any length of time)?

 

[abby99]

I'm going to try this over the weekend. So no need to scrub with a toothbrush after the Oxi bath? And as for drying, anything special there or is it just a matter of patting with a towel and then laying out to air dry (any length of time)?

Seems like I missed a step -- it's been a while. At the end of the soak, I used an old washcloth and washed the chips like I hand-wash dishes - was each surface with the oxy-water-saturated washcloth. My chips didn't have any gunk that needed to be removed, just a little accumulated grime that wiped off easily after the soak.

For drying, I patted them on both sides with a towel and laid them out on an old bath towel to dry for 24 hours, flipping them over half way through. I did not oil mine.

 

[churlbut18]

Perfect. Thank you again! I want to make sure I do this right and not screw up 200 otherwise perfectly mint PCA chips. I may do a barrel to start all the way through before doing the remaining 180 just to be sure of the results/effects first.

 

[churlbut18]

Finally was able to test this out with 8 chips... WOW!! It worked fantastic... Below are a few pics of the before and after... I can't believe how well the Oxi lifted the yellow stains... I don't think the iPhone pictures are doing this justice... The stained chips (left) were very yellow and the clean chips (right) are a nice crisp white...

Thanks @abby99 and @BGinGA

 

[abby99]

Finally was able to test this out with 8 chips... WOW!! It worked fantastic... Below are a few pics of the before and after... I can't believe how well the Oxi lifted the yellow stains... I don't think the iPhone pictures are doing this justice... The stained chips (left) were very yellow and the clean chips (right) are a nice crisp white...

Thanks @abby99 and @BGinGA

I'm so glad this worked for you.

 

[churlbut18]

Bumping this for @John G and @TheBigTater