PSA: PBP Finish Not Tolerant of Lacquer Thinner

[deviantgnome]

Within hours of receiving my PBP the other day, I went to take the little sticker off then clean the residual adhesive with a touch of lacquer thinner (thinking the finish would handle that). Alas, even with a fairly quick wipe, my white paper towel was black. Luckily, the "damage" is only noticeable if you're looking for it.

Also, to be clear, I'm not complaining, just letting everyone know! 

Edit: this was on the plastic keyboard deck, not the outer magnesium shell. I haven't hit the shell with any chemicals yet (not that I'm explicitly planning on it )

[MrTester]

Within hours of receiving my PBP the other day, I went to take the little sticker off then clean the residual adhesive with a touch of lacquer thinner (thinking the finish would handle that). Alas, even with a fairly quick wipe, my white paper towel was black. Luckily, the "damage" is only noticeable if you're looking for it.

Also, to be clear, I'm not complaining, just letting everyone know! 

Thank you!
I used isopropyl 91% with no issues.

[Arwen]

We should probably be clear you were doing this on the keyboard side of the case, correct?

That's plastic as far as I can tell. (Of course, plastic can refer to >100 different types...)

[deviantgnome]

@Arwen yes, the keyboard side. I hadn't looked at it that close, but I think you're right that it's plastic, where the outer shell is the magnesium business. Good clarification!

[MarshalDan]

The PBP could do with a skin, preferably a clear one. Keyboard is plastic, so it susceptible to chemical damage (which sucks for me cause cnc milling fluid eats plastic like hell) and the magnesium finish is extremely easy to scratch.

[deviantgnome]

Oh yeah, I bet!

And good point on the easily scratching shell. Again, not complaining. I love my PBP and will continue to promote it, Pine64, the other products, and the Linux community in general. But, I was surprised how easily it scratches. 

I walked across the building at work the other with a spiral-bound notebook adjacent to the lid (held with normal pressure in my hand against my side how most people would walk around an office with a notebook or laptop) and found when I arrived at my meeting that metal spiral binding had scratched the lid a bit.

[danielt]

I've been wondering how hard it is to deliberately damage the finish using a laser cutter ;-) (you can't cut metal with a CO2 laser cutter but you can blast away a finish to leave bare metal) I suspect there is some scope for some really cool artwork although I'm not planning to experiment until I can buy spare panels from the pine64 store!

[Diakonos]

Lacquer thinner is usually a combination of several solvents.  Thus, it can dissolve lots of different substances.  The downside is... it can dissolve various substances, and you won't know until you try.  Some lacquer thinners contain acetone, which you don't want anywhere near your laptop; it will eat right through the plastic.  When you're trying to preserve a finish, it's generally better to use a single solvent that's known to be safe for both the finish and the substrate.