Oh God the RUBBER on my SHAFT has gone wrong and is STICKING to things

My stiff rubbery shaft is sticky. I have tried applying water, gentle detergents and even screen wipes but the stickiness of my rubber remains. It is sticky along its full length from tip to end and even my wife, who has tried to peel off the rubber, agrees that the shaft feels unpleasant in her hands. The next time I buy a …

[Anonymous Coward]

All too true

The makers of cheap rollerball pens can fit them with removable polymer sleeves and charge less than £1 for them. Possibly some marketoid was shown a sample like that and said no, it's too much like a cheap rollerball pen. We need something different (from this optimal solution) to preserve our brand image.

But icons...in my experience, it's simply the case that the higher in the organisation the person sits and the less they know about design, the more invested they are in icons, the more effort they demand be dedicated to them and, and this is critical, the less money they are prepared to spend on getting a real graphic designer in to do them. (And, in fact, the less likely they are to be able to tell a real graphic designer from a tosser with a Macbook Air and a funny hat.)

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: All too true

Are icons today's bicycle shed ?

[ecofeco]

Re: All too true

With ANY project in every industry.

[gregthecanuck]

Suggestion

Try talcum powder - really!

[Fred Flintstone]

Re: Suggestion

Try talcum powder - really!

Nope, no dice, and my skills to get things clean (and the resources I have access to in order to achieve that ) are a bit beyond average.

I know what Alistair is speaking about because it happened to me a couple of weeks ago myself - I was just unaware that it was the pen rather than something I did myself during my travels.

As I move around a lot (geographically), I have bits of kit scattered in various places and it means I thus don't see kit for months, as was indeed the case with the Bamboo tablet. My need for a digitiser is pretty much taken over by an iPad (with a Wacom pressure sensitive pen) although that may not last because it's apparently illegal to provide a pen tip thinner than a broom handle or stiffer than a cheap sponge. Although there is *potential* for better accuracy, everyone seems to be going out of their way to prevent end users from getting that. But I digress.

It was as if I'd stored the stylus near some very old tape that had since decided to decompose, like the stuff that remains on your suitcase after you peel off airport labels, or the crap that remains in your passport after yet another idiot decides that sticking a luggage ticket inside an expensive ID document you need to keep functional for years is the right way to make you happy. Thankfully they have not yet resorted to sticking it to my smartphone which holds the ticket, but that's because I reclaim that before the temptation even begins to form. I wonder what these people do at home.

I know a reasonable amount about materials, surfaces and how to keep them clean (which is why people with matte paint on their cars amuse me), so I sighed and tried to clean it off. Which isn't possible. Well, it isn't possible if your definition of cleaning involves getting to a stage where it will not spontaneously glue itself to whatever it touches. If you favour the now more improved "grip" I'm happy for you, and please don't ever come near me again.

In the end I did the only thing I could do as a faithful consumer.

I threw the whole thing away.

[Malcolm 1]

Re: Suggestion

I seem to be having exactly the same issue with Microsoft's recent mice. Either the mouse wheel or "soft touch" grippy bits on the side degrade in record time. It's not just me as my Logitech mouse at home is absolutely fine despite a similar rubbery finish.

[Tom 35]

Re: Suggestion

No he already has the answer... cat fur!

[benjymous]

The thumbsticks on Playstation2 controllers are coated with the same substance, as I discovered when I pulled my old console out of the cupboard.

I also used to have an Amstrad PenPad (very early touchscreen PDA that I got in a bargain bin in Tandy) - years later I dug that out and found the entire surface had turned into this evil unstoppable glue,

So this stuff has been in use on gadgets since at least the mid 90s - why it's still being used is beyond me!

[Tim Roberts 1]

@benjymous

Yes, something similar has afflicted several gadgets or plastic boxes for gadgets that I have bought or been given. Fortunately the ones I have, have a nice plastic "skeleton" and the gunk can be rubbed off with alcohol. Still very irritating though.

[PC Paul]

Talcum powder would be my first choice too. If you're feeling spendy then car trim restorer/protector like the armourall stuff can work well too.

[Anonymous Coward]

ArmorAll would have been my second suggestion after technical-grade alcohol.

[Anonymous Coward]

Carry On Dabbsy

That first paragraph - how much work did that take? Do you watch re-runs of Carry On films with 'pen', sorry, 'stylus' in hand taking 'long hand' / 'short hand' to help gain the 'creative ending' you need?

It is a work of art to write something down that turns the actual Double Entendre into the part that is NOT actually rude.

Anyway, you want to see what I peel off my trackball and trackball receptacle every couple of weeks.

Not to mention the fact I try to avoid look at the keyboard, not because of my amazing typing skills, but more to not see the birth of mankind's next demise forming in the depths between the keys.

[Evil Auditor]

Re keyboard life-forms

That's why I take the keyboard to the sink every couple of months. Not that I'd mind the life-forms per se. But I can't stand when it bites my fingers when I fall asleep again at work.

[Richard Jones 1]

Heat Shrink Tubinng

You might improve the situation with a bit of heat shrink tubing slide over and heated. Avoid any buttons!

[Cliff]

Re: Heat Shrink Tubinng

Or try my new solution-to-everything favourite - vet wrap. That stretchy, glue free stuff they put round injured paws, often blue. It's brilliant. It has a soft touch but is easily removed and replaced if necessary.

Get a roll (even seen it in poundland), and you'll start fixing everything you can find, broken and otherwise.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Heat Shrink Tubinng

I find the surface of heatshrink goes funny after a while, too.

[Old Handle]

Re: Heat Shrink Tubinng

Or in keeping with the theme of this article, perhaps bondage tape would do the job.

[Shady]

Re: Heat Shrink Tubinng

That doesn't work. I find that my wife gets extremely sticky some time after I've used the bondage tape on her.

[tfewster]

Adobe

> .. reputation for holding good stuff back if it’s not entirely happy with it

So they're happy about the bloated security nightmare that is Adobe Reader? A product worth less than its price tag.

[Dan 55]

Re: Adobe

Or Flash. Or Shockwave. Or AIR.

But that's the free stuff. Dabbsy must mean Adobe hold back the good stuff that people pay for, until it's perfect. Like Creative Cloud.

[MrT]

Like Creative Cloud.

Ha! New keyboard please... ;-)

[Tom 35]

Re: Adobe

I think adobe reader is a result of the need to put more crap into a PDF so they could sell upgrades to Adobe Acrobat.

Do people really want sound, and video, and (oh god no) flash in a PDF?

[Not That Andrew]

Re: Adobe

Don't forget embedded 3D models in your PDF's!

[Martin Budden]

Re: Adobe

PDF = Pointless Document Format.

[Novex]

I feel I must resist the urge to post any double entendres about my shaft*, despite being ages old, still being rubbery where it needs it while being silky and smooth where it doesn't.

Crap, I failed to resist that one, didn't I?

*my Wacom stylus' shaft, that is. What did you think I meant?

[Alistair Dabbs]

>> double entendres about my shaft

I have been known to use the tip of my shaft to pick food out of my teeth.

Coincidentally, I have chronic neck pain.

[MrT]

Tip off...

"Ooh no you don't! I saw that film!"

I never had a Wacom tablet last long enough to use the spare tip they bung in the package...

[Stuart Moore]

You could cut the rubber off and replace with some sugru, great stuff. Have used it to fix some apple cables where the sheaving was perishing.

You can get it online, or from maplin if that's more convenient

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheap rubber

Why is it that the most expensive kit is afflicted with the stuff?

Yaesu have this problem on their flagship (or maybe previous flagship, I think they've got a new one) hand-held radio, the VX-8. There's a rubberised knob on the top that operates the menu and controls the volume. Many people are finding that after six months, this knob is turning into putty.

Not good on a radio that costs >AU$500.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cheap rubber

[Sticky] hands up anyone who's seen this happen to their Psion 3?

It's not exactly a new phenomenomenon.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cheap rubber

My Psion 3 is glued to the bottom of the drawer I put it in 8 years ago.

I'm leaving it there because it amuses me every time I open the drawer.

Wonderful things Psions, I loved mine for many years, still do if I'm honest, even if it is stuck to the bottom of a drawer!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cheap rubber

I remember buying a Psion 3 back in the day. It proceeded to stink of solvent for weeks. I suspect inadequate curing of the thermoset plastic was the reason, but it literally gave me headaches.

[MrT]

Re: Cheap rubber

Never had a Psion 3, but a colleague had the Acorn rebadged one, which collected fingerprints nicely.

I also remember peeling my UK-model Psion 5 of the nice matt rubber coating after a few months - looking tatty around the edges, flaking away - it looked good afterwards, even if a bit more shiny. Curiously, it wasn't a problem for the later US-model 5MX...

[Roland6]

Re: Cheap rubber

Do't know a bout Psion 3, but I've noticed that mobile phones suffer from it also: My Nokia 6310i suffers from it to a greater extent than the older 6210.

[Old Handle]

Re: Cheap rubber

Probably because it's actually expensive rubber. Cheap products are happy the leave the finish in ordinary plastic. But high end products use some kind of fancy rubber, which, I must admit, feels very nice to hold when it's new.

[Leeroy]

Sticky shaft.

Why can't they make paper pick up rollers out of the same stuff they just go shiny and slippery grrrr.

Back to your 'shaft' problem. ... talc will help as previously posted or you could try fine glitter in your favourite colour and leave a pretty trail of fairy dust in your wake as you fiddle with your shiny tool. Heat shrink is the best option though.

Good luck with your sticky issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sticky shaft.

Paper pickup rollers go shiny and slippery because 40% of office paper, roughly, is a substance similar to talc.

Recycled paper is the worst, that's why it is best not to use it with cheap printers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Whilst I'm on my recently renewed anti-Sony rant...

Front panel failures of Sony DVW machines due to rubber turning to conductive gunk...

http://www.davepick.co.uk/info3.htm

Look for the "mad panel syndrome" bit.

There doesn't seem to be much on the 'net about it, but it is a real problem.

Okay not so much any more with the death of videotape recorders, but they made a mint out of replacement front panel PCBs for many years over the rubber to conductive oil time bomb they manufactured.

On an entirely unrelated topic, the Sony 1602A SDI de-serialiser chip was crap, just wanted to stick the boot in to Sony one more time before I return to sanity.

There's not much on the 'net about the 1602A Sony fuckup either, coincidence?

[thomas k.]

same problem with Swiss Army brand mice

Wonderful portable wireless mice sold under Swiss Army brand, nice comfortable shape with rubberised sides. Eventually, the rubber became very sticky (even the spare one I bought that was just sitting in a cupboard.

I figured it was the adhesive that had leeched through.

[graeme leggett]

Saw similar problem on a pair of compact binoculars

Parts of it had a soft rubber finish. After a few years - kept in the provided faux leather softcase, and generally in car glovebox - these areas became tacky.

Removing these parts I found that they were not rubber all the way through but a very thin layer over hard plastic. so I turned to my available selection of solvents.

No. 1 choice, the "universal solvent" had already proved inadequate, but the second choice - meths - did a fine job of lifting off the layer leaving the black plastic underneath only slightly whitened.

Which was good as my next choice would have been petrol.... dissolves rubber but the smell seldom passes.

[Dick Pountain]

Re: Saw similar problem on a pair of compact binoculars

Trichlorethylene worked a treat when my Wacom Bamboo stylus went the sticky way. It smells delightful, gives you cancer and destroys the ozone layer. I bought mine in Italy where it's still permitted...

[Anonymous Coward]

"project managers have nervous breakdowns and programmers go on holiday."

Hmm - that doesn't sound quite right.

The IT title "Project Manager" seems too often to have been worn by someone who thinks their role is to produce a pretty chart at the beginning of the project - then reacts only when delivery is overdue. The first thing to be cancelled when that happens are programmers' holidays.

One old school project manager had a motto "Start running as soon as the project starts - you'll eventually find an unexpected reason why you had to run".

[Alistair Dabbs]

Project managers

My experience of project managers has been generally good, so perhaps I'm lucky.

[Wensleydale Cheese]

Oxymoron alert!

"Ah, give them a free U2 album, that’ll cheer them up"

"U2 album" and "cheer up" in the same sentence?

Shirley shome mishtake.

P.S. Tim Cook is a cold hearted bastard for foisting that crap on us

[TheProf]

Re: Oxymoron alert!

If they really want to piss people off, Coldplay.

[Anonymous Coward]

P.S. Tim Cook is a cold hearted bastard for foisting that crap on us

So is U2...

[Alistair Dabbs]

>>P.S. Tim Cook is a cold hearted bastard for foisting that crap on us

>>So is U2...

And they're both Ireland-based tax dodgers, so it's trebles all round.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bono

Bono (and his band) is now a Netherlands-based tax dodger and pays next to naff-all in Ireland nowadays. Even if the sod lived here full time, he'd get a 'creative artistes' let-off for tax, as I understand it. I don't think that little perk was done away with in the recent blood-letting.

[DropBear]

I expect this is the same class of problem that causes every remote control in existence to ultimately "sweat" out some mysterious (and yes, sticky) gunk one invariably stumbles upon when trying to clean the remote because it no longer works...

[Hank Waggenburger III]

sticky remote controls

That's what I always tell my wife as well

[Neil Barnes]

Am I seeing the glimmerings of a business opportunity here?

Handcrafted eco-friendly earth-mother stylus casings made from pure wood...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Am I seeing the glimmerings of a business opportunity here?

I don't pick natural materials out of some Green-Holier-Than-Thou goodness. I pick them whenever available because they have known qualities. Back when mechanical mice was the only option (well, aside from the Boing! mouse which I also owned), I was very picky about my balls.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Am I seeing the glimmerings of a business opportunity here?

Thee and me both. There are too many new materials around whose immediate properties are wonderful, but whose longevity is at best suspicious.

There's a reason pencils are made from cedar wood, and plenty of reasons why styli could be.

[Dr_N]

Talc does work in the short term, but for something you're continually fingering I doubt it'll last more than a day.

Sun HDD enclosures used to use the same rubber in the feet pads and they used to weld themselves to the top of the SunBlade workstations over time.

[earl grey]

something you're continually fingering

Au contraire. I've been fingering my stylus the last 50 years and other than a few wrinkles here and there, it's just like new.

[Vociferous]

"someone --- designing the user interface --- must have been abusing prescription drugs"

Microsoft Zune.

I bought a Windows Phone back when Windows Phones were still a bit hip and happening, and found out that the only way to transfer files to and from the phone was via a media player, Microsoft Zune. It turned out to be a 300 MB download, and it installed half a dozen drivers to enforce DRM, requiring reboot, but eventually it was installed.

I fired it up, and a window with two buttons opened. I moved the mouse pointer to the first button, and it jumped away from the pointer. WTF? I moved the mouse pointer to click the button again, and again it jumped away.

Microsoft Zune used a "simulated touch interface". You weren't supposed to move the mouse pointer to the button, you were supposed to use the mouse to move the "screen" to the pointer!. My mind boggled. A billion dollar company had released a flagship product with an interface which imitated the functionality of the old Magistr joke/virus from 1999.

I had an epiphany. In a flash of insight I realized that this product getting the OK meant there were no adults in charge at Microsoft any more, at least no sober ones. I realized that Microsoft had absolutely no idea what they were doing. And that Windows Phone stood no chance at all.

[Fred Flintstone]

OK, QotW material

I hereby nominate yours:

In a flash of insight I realized that this product getting the OK meant there were no adults in charge at Microsoft any more, at least no sober ones.

:)

[Dr_N]

Golf

"I bet some of them even play golf, which of course is the saddest, sorriest and bastardest thing that can possibly be blamed on anything close to sentient life anywhere in the universe."

There is a 9-hole golf course across the road from the office and colleagues from around the globe all say how great it must be. Pity no one in this office play golf then.

BTW, Anything with "health" in the title or any kind of "medical" application has the corp lawyers quivering in fear of massive US based lawsuits.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Golf

Have an upvote for not liking golf.

The game is bad enough, but even worse are the fucking people who play it.

[jake]

In summary ...

... so-called cutting-edge consumer products suck.

[Graeme Evans]

The Reasoning

Here's an interesting treatise on the subject. Looks like there's multiple reasons, not necessarily easy to segregate:

http://www.bouncing-balls.com/chemistry_tech_conservation/ageing.htm

[Paul Hovnanian]

Pen sleeves

I've had some nice pens with rubber sleeves go this route. Solution: A lathe and some hardwood pen blanks.

[DropBear]

Re: Pen sleeves

Lucky bastard with access to a LATHE... :)

[BinkyTheHorse]

My favorite has been mentioned!

[...] and a funnel.

Let me guess - it was meant to be an ideogram for "filtering"?

Seriously, I don't know who's responsible for the proliferation of that particular metaphor, but I'm betting diamonds against chestnuts they never actually used a funnel - except, perhaps, as a hat.

[Cpt Blue Bear]

Re: My favorite has been mentioned!

There's a special circle of hell reserved for the person responsible for that. Waiting for him are a bunch of people like us each with a funnel in varying sizes.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: My favorite has been mentioned!

Oh, is it a funnel? I always thought that filter icon was a pair of old style underpants...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: My favorite has been mentioned!

coffee drinkers, ie almost all developers.

[BinkyTheHorse]

Re: My favorite has been mentioned!

coffee drinkers, ie almost all developers.

Wow, so it's supposed to represent a coffee filter over a drip spout?

Unfortunately, this does not remove the crime.

Witness Exhibit A:

Google Image search for "filter icon"

While, on closer inspection, a small amount of authors do indeed demarcate the two components, an at-least equal number have decided to add a friggin' handle to a clearly contiguous object!

[Malcolm 1]

Re: My favorite has been mentioned!

While I don't particular wish to defend the choice of a funnel for filtering, handled funnels have existed for some time

[Anonymous Coward]

Cat

Has it occurred to you if you did not have that "cat" (also known as a filth bag for the "endearing" way they spread contagion across your kitchen-- you do have a kitchen?-- counters), you would not have a sticky shaft problem.

Better to have a horse. At least they don't walk on your eating utensils and kitchen counters.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cat

Better to have a horse. At least they don't walk on your eating utensils and kitchen counters.

That's only because they haven't yet figured out how to work the latch with those hooves.

[We're with Steve]

Re: Cat

It's just sour grapes because my new cat has got thumbs and a higher Xbox Gamerscore than them.....

[Phil W]

Texture

"what feels like a coating of caster sugar dissolved in PVA glue and jizz."

Speaking from experience of that texture Mr Dabbs?

If so I daren't ask the circumstance.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Texture

How exactly did you think his hand got stuck to his shaft...

[Terry 6]

Something I'd long assumed...

...after many years of trialling a lot of new products, working alongside tecchies and discussing new products with them and other users.

Quote,

"the moment a project kicks off, a wayward gang of obnoxious louts – newly appointed IT directors, mid-management bosses and "oh-I-have-an-idea" types – pull it to pieces while the marketing bods who sold the idea to the clients in the first place without caring about dreary matters such as reality and possibility tell the poor programming sods"

Except that I felt that the marketing types were a lot more culpable. Too many products that had some annoying feature that clearly only existed to promote further sales.

A simple example, that I assumed was in this category - the "app" for Box cloud storage. This piece of software installls itself to autorun from the registry for " all users" in HKLM with no option for just one of the users on the machine to use it. So on a single PC with more than one user ( a typical SoHo setup) the dratted thing pops up to annoy any other users when they log-in with their own credentials. I am pretty conviced that this is deliberately done so that ( in their minds) the other user(s) will choose to register and log in to their product.

[Barry Rueger]

Icons and Goop

My eternal gripe has been with companie that INSIST on putting stupid stickers on things. Stickers that serve no purpose. Stickers that cannot ever be entirely removed, or which leave behind some kind of eternal glue film that will never, ever look clean.

At one point I even managed to get Brother to replace the handset, the paper tray, and at least one other removable part that came with a brand new fax machine, arguing that the garish stupid stickers made it unsuitable for a professional environment.

Icons? Like it or not the icons used by Microsoft are more or less the defacto standard. Why oh why can't we also define an Open Source standard for common icons? Why does EVERY Open Source software insist of inventing new icons for common activities?

Yes LibreOffice, I'm talking to you.

Then again, after six months I'm still finding the icons used on my Blackberry Z10 to be utterly unintuitive and baffling.

(Paris, surely iconic?)

[nanchatte]

Re: Icons and Goop

Back in the day, I bought a hideously overpriced 14 inch LCD monitor with what I swear was a 6 inch bezel, touting "Super Twist Nematic RGB" in bold, rainbow psychedelic letters on a giant triangular sticker stuck in one corner. It was a stubborn little cunt and as I pulled it off, carefully at first so as not to leave that nasty snot like gunk behind, but with increasing pressure as my confidence built, I went and cracked the panel with half the sticker still remaining.

After much to-and-fro, the shop replaced my screen when the shoprat failed to remove the rest of the sticker.

But still, what numpty marketing dept. would stick a sticker directly on a display device? Beggars belief, it really does.

[razorfishsl]

Mostly occurs to cheap crap from China.

Seems someone discovered you could use really cheap crap materials if only you increased the Plasticizer in them.

Shame most of these chemicals are known carcinogens

[nanchatte]

> Shame most of these chemicals are known carcinogens.

I say im glad they ARE carcinogenic. If they weren't, everything would be made from these cheap crap materials.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sun tan lotion

I used to sell binoculars and cameras, something in suntan lotion accelerates the demise of rubber coated technical goods.

To be exact I used to work sell and repairing cameras and binoculars on the coast, the issue is less apparent in the winter.

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor choice of words?

I'm pretty confident that something which "feels like a coating of caster sugar dissolved in PVA glue and jizz" is not easy to scoff.

[imanidiot]

Cheap material, bad testing

The problem with a lot of materials testing is that they just expose it to more UV and a bit of extra heat to simulate the aging of the material in a shorter timespan. This completely ignores the influence of skinfats and other stuff the material comes into contact with in normal use.

Another problem is mentioned by razorfishsl, chinese manufacturers will use the cheapest material they can find, often by using insane amounts of plasticizer. And very often without the client they are manufacturing for knowing.

(I'd recommend reading: Poorly Made in China by Paul Midler. It was recommended to me here on the Reg, and I enjoyed every page of it)

[Missing Semicolon]

Ditto tape drive

..has a rubber drive wheel that presses on a pulley in the tape cartridge. This turns into a black JellyBaby over time. No drive is safe. aagh!

[Daedalus]

Bodge and run!

If you happen to be a roving consultant of no fixed abode and you work for a well-known TLA company (no, not the obvious one) that specializes in DB type applications that users can theoretically use to, oh, look up documents and fetch the latest version, you can get away with GUI's so bad they would be thrown out by even the sozzled sots in the boardroom.

And the funny thing is, the bigger the client and the more you charge, the less likely you are to be called back after you run for the exit.

[earl grey]

clean that gunk

Start with dish detergent....no luck?

Go to denatured alcohol...no luck?

Go to MEK or Toluol...no luck?

go to flames