Cleaning Plastic That’s Gone Sticky

The plastic sheath on my Kryptonite D lock has started to become sticky.

It’s the surface of the plastic which appears to be breaking down rather than it having had anything spilled on it.

The lock works absolutely fine so I’d like find a way of making it not sticky any more.

Is it salvageable?

Can anyone recommend a cleaning product for this?

If that were mine, I’d not try to clean it but cover it in a layer of heat shrink tubing. Either over the old cover or cut that off and replace entirely. You can get short lengths of it in various diameters cheaply off eBay.

No specific recommendations but I’d try meths, white spirit cellulose thinners and acetone in ascending order of aggressiveness and because that’s what I’d have to hand.

Then I’d give up and wrap it in duct tape!

edit ^or that if you want to buy something specially and do the job properly.

I have a guitar stand that the same thing has happened to – I used isopropyl alcohol to clean it off and it seems to have worked, but I expect it will happen again. Tthew’s idea is probably better in the long-term?

I’ve had some kitchen knives do this after a few years, just had to bin em nothing worked but I’d just cover the lock as advised about.

Thanks folks.

I though it would end up being a gaffa tape job.

Will have a look at heat shrink tube though, sounds like a neater solution.

It must be the type of plastic, I’ve got a cable lock which is much older and the plastic on that is fine.

My late mum gave me a bread knife years ago. The handle was at 45° to the blade and made cutting bread easier. Sadly the rubber handle went sticky, as if something was oozing out.

Cleaned it several times, but it kept on oozing.

Don’t have it any more.

I would suggest removing it if possible.

Recently had this with a small pair of Bushnell binoculars.
Weirdest thing ever, must be the compound breaking down!

^ I bought a pair of sticky-plastic/rubber binoculars from a charity shop. My skinflit hopes were high as they were £100 binoculars in their day and I’d shelled out a grand total of £3.50. The optics are great (Sunagor 10-30×25) as is the zoom function, thumbscrew etc…but the compound of half of the body is just slowly breaking down. Same on the focus barrel. Am not bothered with restoring the surface (probably impossible) but would like to arrest the process maybe by coating it with something. At least to stop the stickiness and dust/dog-hair magnetism. Any decent suggestion gratefully pursued.

*edit

Found a picture of a half-decent pair to compare. Mine are clearly heading back to nature at faster rate 🤣

I’m interested too – I’ve inherited my father-in-law’s Canon EOS 650 film camera and played with it a bit over the summer. It came with a pleather case type of thing, which is now disintegrating and has left weird sticky residue on the places it’s come into most contact with the camera. :/

The fake leather/rubber is a nightmare when it gets old – I have a coffee grinder that had the matt grippy surface on it that went sticky.

What worked for me was isopropyl alcohol. If you’re lucky it comes off with that plus a kitchen towel. otherwise a nail brush does the trick.

Seems to be a common thing – I’ve had a few items with a matt “rubber” finish that went sticky and unusable, so now I steer clear of it, even though it looks nice in the sop!

I had a gaming wheel with soft touch plastic that turned into a gooey mess. I’d heard of the plastics in Ferrari’s of a certain age going the same way and cleaning with meths was the recommended solution, so I spent an afternoon on it and it came up nice and shiny. I think it’s only a coating so once it’s removed it shouldn’t come back.

If its on the D itself just cut it off with a stanley knife. Put the edgw against the metal and pewl a slither off all the way along.

You can or used to be able to buy replacement plastic bits of different colours. But you don’t need it.

I think it’s only a coating so once it’s removed it shouldn’t come back.

Depends on the implement but yeah, I sorted my sister in laws hair curlers with some IPA as it was just a coating, if it’s solid you have no chance.

What worked for me was isopropyl alcohol.

This. I recently cleaned up some older walkie-talkies that had gone horrible and sticky.

Another +1 for ipa. It’s done the job on several things for me over the years.

Talcum Powder (unperfumed of course)

Add water to bicarb of soda mix into a paste. Rub all over.

Then remove. It will remove all the sticky & the outer coating.

Did this on the toaster (dualit) and a hair trimmer.

It will make the plastic matt instead of glossy.

I had a similar issue on an old Nikon camera, the rubber grip parts were going gooey & generally unpleasant.
the Isopropal alcohol worked a treat, took some effort mind. Didn’t appear to be doing anything at first but persistence paid off.
It also hasn’t returned since I’ve started using it again.

I’ve had a few items with a matt “rubber” finish that went sticky and unusable

Same here with a garden rake. Tried everything but nothing stopped it being a super-sticky green mess which was nigh-on impossible to get off my skin.

Throwing it on the fire was satisfying, if not very environmentally friendly.

If you can cut the rubber off, you could try plastidip (and you can paint it on rather than needed a 3 litre can thats big enough to dip the whole item

You can definitely cut it off.

Or if its the lock barrel it just slides off but don’t dip that!

You can buy new plastic bits although i just left my shackle bare because the plastic does nothing.

Sticky stuff remover from lakeland.

Its probably heavily plasticised PVC and the plasticiser is leaching out. There’s not really anything you can do to stop that happening (and eventually the PVC will become brittle as a result, although that could be decades away). Depending which plasticiser you can probably wash it off with meths/IPA as others have suggested.

Talcum Powder (unperfumed of course)

Will probably help with any residual

Brillo pad if you’re not arsed about the finish as it’ll scratch.