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Cleaning face shields

Jamie Straw said:
Our choices are electricity, propane or heating oil, all seemingly more expensive than pellets. I don't know if they sell corn for burning around here. I've seen stoves that were listed for burning both pellets and corn, no idea how all that works! I guess I could go to a feed store and see what they have, LOL.
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Does this mean ground up corncobs or are we talking about popping corn and heating all in one fell swoop? 🙄

I know that you would not make light of a serious situation. We've had neighbors who worked for Boeing in Everette so we have heard horror stories about the weather. They have said that it doesn't really rain, but at the same time things are always very wet and the sun only shines for something like two days a year. Of course, they were probably exaggerating a bit. I bet that the sun shines for at least five each year.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Does this mean ground up corncobs or are we talking about popping corn and heating all in one fell swoop? 🙄

I know that you would not make light of a serious situation. We've had neighbors who worked for Boeing in Everette so we have heard horror stories about the weather. They have said that it doesn't really rain, but at the same time things are always very wet and the sun only shines for something like two days a year. Of course, they were probably exaggerating a bit. I bet that the sun shines for at least five each year.
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The worst natural disaster we've had since I moved here in 1989 was the 2014 Oso mudslide, which wiped out an entire neighborhood in probably less than a minute. Makes one feel very humble and thankful, and sad.

Far as the corn goes, the popcorn-heating idea sounds good to me! Nope, I just looked it up, and you can combine corn (feed corn, not seed corn, which has additives) with pellets, but really should only do this with stoves and vent pipes that are designed for it, it can corrode the pipes and wear out the burn pot due to the moisture I guess. I'll stick with pellets, even though they're much more expensive now than they were 5 years ago!

I think your Everett friends are just trying to keep you from moving out here. The sun definitely shines more than 2x/year. It is a long, grey winter though (Late October - May at least). Being on an island, we get more sun than the mainland. Very happy about that!
 
I love the sun-can't say as I would move to where some of you folks are.
However, about 20 + years ago (Weather forecasting and the weather is so iffy because of the Great Lakes ) Lansing, Mich made the news as having the least amount of sunshine than any city in the lower 48 states. MY mood is elevated with sunshine!!!!!,
The weather has changed. 25-30 years ago I would get a garden frost in the first or second week in Sept. The last ? 8-10 years, it is in Oct. It is now Oct 27, and I have only had one light frost. Global warming???Gretch
 
I need sunshine!

Gretch Flo said:
I love the sun-can't say as I would move to where some of you folks are.
However, about 20 + years ago (Weather forecasting and the weather is so iffy because of the Great Lakes ) Lansing, Mich made the news as having the least amount of sunshine than any city in the lower 48 states. MY mood is elevated with sunshine!!!!!,
The weather has changed. 25-30 years ago I would get a garden frost in the first or second week in Sept. The last ? 8-10 years, it is in Oct. It is now Oct 27, and I have only had one light frost. Global warming???Gretch
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Panic in the streets this morning! There is a huge yellow ball in the sky. Don't know if a comet or meteor is fixing to nail us, maybe this is a huge alien mothership? Some old timers recall seeing it before but they are often telling big windies, don't know how credible they are. They say it is a natural phenomena, something called the sun. Guess I'll wait and see.

I have come to recognize over the years that I need sunlight. Improves mood, I'm far more active, aches and pains are forgotten or vastly reduced. Worked outdoors the first half of my life and never realized how much I needed sunlight. Working indoors I was very subject to seasonal blues, out of sorts in the winter time when I came to work in the dark and went home in the dark. A few days soak in sunlight worked wonders for me! No amount of vitamin D solves the problem, need that big yellow orb! Not a sun worshiper but easy to see how sun worship developed back in bygone days.

Hu
 
hu lowery said:
Panic in the streets this morning! There is a huge yellow ball in the sky. Don't know if a comet or meteor is fixing to nail us, maybe this is a huge alien mothership? Some old timers recall seeing it before but they are often telling big windies, don't know how credible they are. They say it is a natural phenomena, something called the sun. Guess I'll wait and see.

I have come to recognize over the years that I need sunlight. Improves mood, I'm far more active, aches and pains are forgotten or vastly reduced. Worked outdoors the first half of my life and never realized how much I needed sunlight. Working indoors I was very subject to seasonal blues, out of sorts in the winter time when I came to work in the dark and went home in the dark. A few days soak in sunlight worked wonders for me! No amount of vitamin D solves the problem, need that big yellow orb! Not a sun worshiper but easy to see how sun worship developed back in bygone days.

Hu
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I don't mind the absence of the sun as much anymore now that I have the basement and my lathe~!~!!!!!!!! Gretch
 
Gretch Flo said:
I don't mind the absence of the sun as much anymore now that I have the basement and my lathe~!~!!!!!!!! Gretch
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I hear ya Gretch....😀

Not only that, but sometimes, there is a distinct lack of time! 😛

The only outside influence that can penetrate the world I've created for myself......is temperature. 😱

(......and, the darn telephone! :mad🙂

ko
 
odie said:
I hear ya Gretch....😀

Not only that, but sometimes, there is a distinct lack of time! 😛

The only outside influence that can penetrate the world I've created for myself......is temperature. 😱

(......and, the darn telephone! :mad🙂

ko
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The other interference would be loss of power. -sure is windy, Gretch
 
odie said:
Products like Windex are not good for plastics, because of the ammonia content.
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That's as to polycarbonate specifically.
There's a carbonyl molecule group in Lexan (polycarbonate) and the ammonia bonds to it and can even lyse the molecular chain
It makes a mess.

Face shields and eye glasses are usually polycarbonate

But polymers that don't have the carbonyl molecule group don't react that way.


As an aside; a Carbonal group is a ketone or an adehyde. They have Carbon and/or hydrogen at the end of the molecule The reaction of Ammonia to them is called a Shiff Base where the ammonia and the carbon or hydrogen ends up producing an imine. To do this the ammonia has to destabilize and disassemble the other molecule.

We see this as haze or cloudy surface on the polycarbonate. It's unzipped molecules taken apart and the remains are left as a cloudy layer much the same as when UV unzips the surface of the polymer in a plastic lounge chair that sits out on the sun and gets a cloudy hazy surface.
 
Jamie Straw said:
Hmmmm, I'm kinda surprised you use Simple Green (either green or yellow), as it's an extremely alkaline solution (pH 8.5-9.5), which is why it cleans so well. My impression is that's not healthy for the plastic. You haven't had any problems, though, sounds like. I found this article about cleaning motorcycle windscreens and face shields, figured it would be a start on info. I didn't know Go-Jo has a product without pumice -- what's it called?
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I use Plexus which is made for faceshields. Not cheap, but lasts and works great.
 
Cleaning agents

For reference the Johnson co lists the ingredients of the cleaning and other products at:

http://www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com/us/en/brands

It seems there is a Windex product that has no ammonia, it uses vinegar as one of the cleaning agents. There may be others but just use vinegar and alcohol and water. There are many glass cleaning formulas on the web to choose from. ( Fixed error.)

Stu
 
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stu senator said:
For reference the Johnson co lists the ingredients of the cleaning and other products at:

http://www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com/us/en/brands

It seems there is a Windex product that has no ammonia, it uses vinegar as one of the cleaning agents. There may be others but just use ammonia and alcohol and water. There are many glass cleaning formulas on the web to choose from.

Stu
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Did you mean to say use vinegar, alcohol, and water rather than ammonia, alcohol, and water since, as Raul pointed out, ammonia will haze polycarbonate.
 
Dawn worked!

A warm bath in Dawn detergent and water worked great (and almost instantly) on my grimy shield. The stuff on it must not have been as gnarly as I thought. Stu: might be a good time to take advantage of unlimited editing to fix the post that had "ammonia" instead of "vinegar." I love that aspect of this forum, the other one I spend time on has a 60-minute time limit for editing.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Goo-Gone, Simple Green (the lemon scented one that isn't green despite the name), and Go-Jo (not the one with pumice) are what I use. Use the Simple (Yellow) Green after using either of the others in order to remove greasy residue. A microfiber cloth can be useful. There are cleaning kits for LCD TVs and computer monitors. Stay away from glass cleaners like Windex. There are restoration kits for polycarbonate which is same as Micromesh. That is a lot of money and elbow grease, but for less money you can get a couple replacement visors.
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Im searching how to clean my soon to arrive 3M Airstream helmet. I found this thread. I hope you saw my thread where I described how simple green ate my Uvex policarbonate shield!! Aloha
 
The guys in the Motocross sport use "tear-offs" which they cover their lenses/helmet visors and simply tear off the dirty/muddy cover. I have been meaning to try it. Other than that just use a dish-washing liquid and a sponge. Tried a window cleaner once and face shield ended in the bin. Also found that when shield gets gunked up with sap from green wood , clean it immediately don't wait till tomorrow.
Also use overlays on our Trend Air shields. Only use the Airshields for sanding, for wet wood use the normal safety face shields. And downgrade to anglegrinding then dump when they get too messed up. They are a comsumable.

richard
 
Most of the time I just used Palmolive dishwashing detergent if plain water didn't get everything. Occasionally, I used Simple a Green for tough bug juice and tree sap.

It's possible that Simple Green could be the cause, but as I mentioned in another thread recently polycarbonate, despite its impact toughness, doesn't like to be put under constant bending stress (as appears to be the case with the Bionic face shield). It can develop internal stresses that make vision difficult.

I recently read that you can't polish out scratches in polycarbonate plastic the way that can be done in acrylic plastic.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Most of the time I just used Palmolive dishwashing detergent if plain water didn't get everything. Occasionally, I used Simple a Green for tough bug juice and tree sap.

It's possible that Simple Green could be the cause, but as I mentioned in another thread recently polycarbonate, despite its impact toughness, doesn't like to be put under constant bending stress (as appears to be the case with the Bionic face shield). It can develop internal stresses that make vision difficult.

I recently read that you can't polish out scratches in polycarbonate plastic the way that can be done in acrylic plastic.
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Makes sense that the cracks were stress cracks, I can t see simple green doing that, fact is, I had cracks all around the edges... I dont want to ruin my airstream visor, so I will start with just water, and some mild dish soap if needed...
 
Bill Boehme said:
I forgot to mention using overlay sheets that are available for the 3M Airstream, BreatheEasy, and Versaflo. They are low cost and disposable. I believe that the sheets are polycarbonate since they are very durable. They could be used with other faceshields by trimming the corners where they protrude past the edge. I usually add tape around the edges to heed dust from getting between the visor and overlay sheet.
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What a great tip, question is, what kind of tape. Some tapes might make more of a mess than its worth... I bought the protector that was offered to me at Enviro safety company, not sure what I'm getting...
 
Emiliano Achaval said:
What a great tip, question is, what kind of tape. Some tapes might make more of a mess than its worth... I bought the protector that was offered to me at Enviro safety company, not sure what I'm getting...
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I agree with you on the tape. The covers for Trend do get trash on the adhesive, but not in my line of vision . So why waste time on cosmetic areas, I think Bill may be OCD........LOL.
 
For daily maintenance cleaning of face shields, I've been using those little disposable lens wipes that are available at the grocery store, and intended for cleaning prescription glasses. I have some of them here next to my pc, and the two brands I've been using are nice n clean, and Zeiss. They are good for plastic lenses, and work on my Bionic shield very well. I probably use them about every other day.

As with any lenses......never touch......that will make the dust stick worse. Only used compressed air to take off the dust. Because you're breathing on the interior surface, that's where the build-up normally accumulates. (Well, except for those times you're turning very wet wood! 😱)

-----odie-----
 
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