I’ve been considering making a small but irreversible modification to a PD335 Pop’npop.
As far as I can tell, from some light googling, the clip is probably polypropylene. Further to that, it seems likely that acetone will damage the plastic if I was to use it to remove the Pop’npop printed label. It’s suggested to use rubbing alcohol to remove ‘paint’ from polypropylene.
So, has anyone tried this, and if so, what did you use and how did it go? Any lessons you learned and wish to pass on?
This is a hypothetical at the moment. I would rather find an original purple non-Pop’npop but if I can’t, I might try to make my own, so to speak.
I’ve never had any problems with removing markings, sticker residues etc. from polymers with rubbing alcohol. However, some markings withstand rubbing alcohol, e. g. the one on the Pentel 205. To remove these, I used metal polish. Of course this could also increase the shine if the pencil wasn’t shiny before.
I haven’t tried removing stickers from pencils, but I have had success removing stickers from other plastic items using a hair-dryer and no residue was left. It worked a dream.
I went all the way to 100% acetone to test the strongest option for removing the ink, sacrificing one for the sake of experimentation. As expected, the acetone was a bit too aggressive and slightly damaged the plastic. To fix it, I carefully step-sanded and buffed the area until it looked good as new.
If I were to try this again, I’d dilute the acetone with three parts water and focus only on the inked areas to avoid unnecessary damage.
In the end, even the worst-case scenario turned out surprisingly well after some TLC—and this piece is now definitely collection-worthy.
This is different, it won’t come off with alcohol because it’s on acrylic. Acetone will tarnish it. But after several years of intense handling it will eventually come out.
