fix your cloudy cylinder.

This is for anyone who has a tube thats gone that horrible cloudy or milky colour.
It’s only for acyrilic thickwall tubes ie ones with 5-6mm wall thickness, the risk to thinner tubes would probably be too great.
Also a warning, do this at your own risk, the tube could shrink, bend or come apart at the joins.

All you need is a heatgun or blow torch, basically heating the surface of the plastic removes any scratches or imperfections and puts a nice glassy shine back on it, you can see it happen when you get to the right temperature.

I used a 1500 watt heatgun on my vacutech cylinder which was completely opaque and in 5mins it looked like new again.
Be carefull round any glue joints and remove the qwik connector and o-ring first.

Hope someone finds this usefull.

I think I went a little overboard. ;)

I’ve wondered about using fine cutting paste, such as I use on my car - it works wonders on acrylic light covers etc., but I’m not that bothered about a bit of cloudiness.

Yeah I tried that and if anything it made it worse.
I watched a video on working with acyrilic and they used a blowtorch to polish the cut edges.

How long did it take for your cylinder to go cloudy? I have been pumping for a year and mine is still in pretty good shape. You must be talking years?

Used mine for nine years and it’s still crystal clear.

Over about 3 years, a lot of use.

Current cylinder, about 3 or 4 years. It’s only a bit cloudy at the base where the silicone ‘cushion’ is fitted, and only started to get cloudy when I left it stored with the silicone ‘cushion’ on it. If I’d never used the cushion and stuck entirely to water based lubes rather than experimenting, I think it would still be totally clear.

Agreed, I think it was oil based lube or moisturizer that affected mine.

Okay cool,good to know guys. So tips for guys for preventing cloudiness is to not use oil based lubes and leaving cushions on them? Any ideas why these things make cylinders cloudy?

Oil is not good for acrylics.

Works.

I do this on plexi parts for my PC’s watercooling. Sand from around 600 grit all the way up to 2000 grit and polish with PlastX afterwards. The better and longer you sand the better the results.

http://www.megu iars.com/en/aut … cleaner-polish/

Agree it can work, I’ve polished enough paintwork over the years to know.
However I tried it twice on my cylinder polishing right up to 4000 grit micromesh abrasive and it was still cloudy, it also took about an hour whereas the heatgun took 5mins !
I guess if the problem is just surface damage then polishing will work ok but maybe heat affects the plastic right through ?

http://m.instru ctables.com/id/ … ishing-acrylic/

This has been discussed in the watercooling community. Using a heatgun to repair cracks in plexi tops around threads and gaskets. It seems that this reduces the plastic’s strength and is usually discouraged.

That said, a waterblock is rated for higher pressure than we put on our privates so it may not be as much of an issue.

Well it worked perfectly for me.
Treat it as a last resort.