Completely removing marker ink from plastics. How-To.

Lots of BS and fear mongering here. Let's try to limit ourselves to specific things that work or don't instead of making blanket statements and saying things like "Anyone using such a strong solvent is a complete and total idiot." this only serves to confuse people.

Seems you do not believe me when I say using magic eraser + goo gone removed all the ink off my snes carts and did not damage the plastic, despite the pictures.

Also, get some of your facts straighter.

-Firstly, Goof off and Goo gone are very different products. While goof off is a pretty strong volatile solvent, goo gone is a citrus oil based product. It is not very volatile and oily to the touch. You can hardly put them in the same basket. Goof off is great for stuff like taking hard glue off wood. Goo gone is good for other things.

-Goo Gone is safe on most surfaces. I have yet to see it cause any damage to any plastic I have used it on. Please show me any evidences of it causing damage to plastic, unless you let it soak in it for a long time, which you should not do anyway. Several minutes of rubbing it on my SNES cart did not soften or discolor the plastic in any way.

-Rubbing alcohol is probably the best thing ( in most household ) to remove sharpie marker. It is what we used to remove sharpie ink from lab equipment when I was in university.
I do not know what you mean when you say "of limited use" but I raise an eyebrow at this. You do not seem to have any alternative beside theorethical ones. I also use pure IPA on many types of adhesives.

-Your recommendation of lighter gluid is a dubious one, it is not safe on all plastics and has been shown to instantly damage some labels like n64 and genesis ones. The safer alternative for those labels is: guess what? : Goo Gone

-Your concern about using magic eraser is valid, but using it with Goo Gone changes the action a bit. I think Goo gone acts as a librucant that lowers the abrasiveness of the eraser, it also acts as a solvent to make the ink lifts. I found softly massaging the plastic with goo gone and Eraser would do the job with no visible damage.

-Using Alcohol instead of goo gone works faster but is harder on the plastic.

Your suggestion of removing the label and putting it on a donor shell seems very dangerous to me, potential for screw up is very big. I would rather try to rub it out with my technique. But I would be grateful if you could teach me a proper procedure to do it safely. I actually asked that question on another forum recently.

Ultimately the whole deal is about learning what works and what doesnt. It is about experience and proper testing procedures to minimize mistakes.

 

wow how i feel just 3 days later i got a very nice copy of megaman X today......i was going to not look at the manual as i hate knowing its there if it is....and GOD DAMN...WHYYYY lol, password all over the last 2 pages :'( felt tip AND biro :'( luckily its a white page so im really considering trying something, but just wondering if anyone has ANY tips at all? im probably going to look back through other manuals for passwords and test it out there first....im pretty confident the felt tip wont be too bad to get off and the biro looks pretty lightly pressed so hopefully i can get that gone too without any major damage

i kinda realise this is OT but i immediatly wanted to come check if anyone else had responded

 

Ok I think I just found a miracle product to remove the ink off the textured plastic, it works 10 times faster than my previous technique, preventing the magic eraser from doing any damage.
It also does not remove the picture from the cart labels, I tested on a genesis cart.

It is a silicone based lubricant spray from Emzone.


Look at those result, cleaning that cart did not even take 2 min.



Sorry this one is a bit blurry but there are no traces of ink left on both label and plastic and no damage done to the cart.
I just transformed a 20$ cart into a 40$ one.

 

Thanks for sharing, that's an excellent cleaning tip.

I actually bought some this past weekend ... I use it on my car's keylock - they have a tendency to seize-up in this cold weather.

I have a couple of Super Famicom carts that I'll try this on.

 

I've been using Goo Gone spray recently. It works great, although I typically do not remove marker or writing from carts... but I do on other things.

 

I will soon do more tests using this stuff and a sponge only, and maybe a brush, to see if I can get rid of the Magic eraser altogether.
I have a few carts here and there with marker. I Will post good pictures and I will actually do a chronometer test tp see how long it takes to clean the carts. Stay tuned.

 

If it's permanent marker I get a dry erase maker and rub it in till it's all wet then just wipe off. I know this is a huge heart attack in a box for most and I wouldn't give my 100% guarantee it will always work since i've only used it on a few cheaper nintendo carts and a dry erase board at work that a knucklehead used the wrong pen on.

But here's what I just did..took me 5 minutes. Just have to go back and hit the few tiny spots still left. I didn't clean anything else on the cart

 

What about WD40? I used this all the time back in Australia to remove marker and sticky residue. I I found a marker remover in Japan that smells just like WD40 so I assume it's the same kind of lubricant spray.

 

marker is alcohol based, said alcohol evaporates leaving the 'ink' behind.
add alcohol back in and the ink lifts.

 

I use a large pencil eraser and after a few seconds of rubbing, the pen marks are off cartridges. Works for me.

 

I tried this with 91% isapropyl alchohol and it didn't work very well. The marker did lighten but nowhere near as much as just using a erase marker. Maybe it's the type of Alchohol I used?

I Like the silicone lube idea, going to try that next since I have to admit: making a bigger mess initially with the dry erase marker still makes me nervous when I look down and see MORE marker on the plastic before I wipe it off.

 

I sold an N64 game the other day, had heavy marker pen marks on it that had been there for at least 10 years; a few seconds vigourous rubbing with a pencil eraser and the marks had all but vanished.