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Ooey Gooey Rubber Feet

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IRstuff

IRstuff

Aerospace
Jun 3, 2002
44,453
So, I have a desktop (from a long time ago) that's been sitting in a room in my house for about 8 yrs, I just notice that the two front rubber feet have turned into a gooey mess. But why did that happen? No solvents or whatnot nearby.

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I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Only two feet, your lucky 😊

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
 
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So, what are you implying here? Have I got a mushroom farm in my library? I don't think so, but who knows?

Oh, the two back feet don't have rubber, so all of the feet are affected.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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IRS:

Some organisms thrive on rubber products and can turn them to mush... don't really know what your issue is, but as VE1BLL noted, it's possible. Maybe Aerospace stuff is treated with fungicides or maybe different materials to provide longevity.

Dik
 
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There's a possibly related problem with the molded soles of shoes. The material just falls apart into crumbs.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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This type of degradation is called rubber reversion. It is due to a slow reversal of the curing process, where the crosslinks between the rubber molecules breakdown and the rubber reverts to its original gummy state. It depends on the original formulation and cure process. High quality rubbers will be properly mixed with stabilizers and fully cured so that they do not revert. Cheap rubber parts are likely to be poorly formulated, poorly mixed, and inadequately cured. They just have to look good enough to be sold the first time.
 
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I've got a portable SW radio where the entire case is coated with a rubberized coating that has reverted to a sticky goo. Annoying to say the least.
 
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I've seen that many times.

Slightly different material but vinyl binders do this with a vengeance. You probably remember your lovely hand crafted school works put proudly into brand new vinyl binders that within a year the glued-on labels start falling off and the Sharpie written labels begin to run and smear? Ultimately the whole binder becomes gooey and sticky. I believe that's the vinyl esters leaking out of the matrix they're supposed to be locked up in onto the surface.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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Cheap bar grips on my neglected bicycle did the same. I started noticing what looked like bits of tar on my wood floor. Eventually traced them back to a gooey mess on the end of one handlebar that was breaking away on contact.

Steve
 
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I have a 20+ year old espresso machine that has done this. The little rubber feet got all gooey a couple of years ago. I stuck little pieces of tin foil under them to keep them from marking my counter top. All the internal seals still work.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
 
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This has happened to one (out of four) step pad on my 4yr old F-150 running boards. The peculiar thing is the pad that has deteriorated is in the least used position, rear passenger, driver side.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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Maybe it's like inverse cold flow in Teflon, the ones that are placed under load tend to stay in place. My HP was lying on its side the last 5 years.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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I get the tin foil from my hat.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
 
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Thanks for explaining the rubber degradation - I have some cabinet door bumpers that have turned into an obnoxious sticky mess and I was wondering why that'd be.
 
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Yech, found another one this weekend. Luckily, it was white rubber feet on a white shelf, so not as horrifically obvious as the black rubber feet on same shelf.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Greg's shoe comment reminded me of a crazy afternoon - I had met with one of our distributors for a morning meeting and lunch before going to visit a customer site. As I walked from my car to the restaurant, the entire sole of my left shoe fell off abruptly. Needless to say, I took a detour on the way to the customer site. The shoes were not particularly old, but the material on that foot had somehow been degraded. Best idea at the time was that I might've stepped in something in the shop or at the gas station ... but never gave any effort to tracing that.
 
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