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Old 18th Oct 2017, 4:32 am   #1
Bazz4CQJ
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Default Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

The horrible decomposition of the black foam that was used in various 1980's far-eastern radios has been discussed on the forum previously. The foam breaks down chemically and parts in contact with it begin to corrode.

Opening up my old FT-290R for the first time in quite a while, I found that this foam has just started to go bad on this rig - see pics below. I've been lucky in so far as it has only affected (so far as I know at this stage) the outer casing of what looks like a filter block. I managed to clean up the goo on the electronics using Q-tips and IPA. I was able to scrape off most of the foam (slime!) from both the covers using the edge of an old credit card. I then got the underlying adhesive off using white spirit (a bit slow).

I'm not sure what replacement to use that will offer the insulation and the physical padding that the foam originally did.

This is nowhere near the worst case I've seen, so I'm just happy that I happened to open the set up to check the lithium cell used for the memory. These have been known to leak when they age, but mine (the original) was fine, but I replaced it anyway.



B
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Old 18th Oct 2017, 9:56 am   #2
Refugee
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

I have seen and cleaned up some of that stuff from the air filter foams in a Racal 8010B frequency counter from the same period.
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Old 18th Oct 2017, 11:53 pm   #3
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

Bazz, is that an FT290R, or an FT290R2?

I have the latter, maybe I should take a look inside (for the first time ever, I have owned mine from new and never had a reason to open it up).
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Old 19th Oct 2017, 12:29 am   #4
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

It's the FT290R, which has large areas of foam inside both the top and bottom covers.

The worst case I've ever seen was not in a radio, but a laboratory spectrometer made by Hitatchi in the early 80's. That had a large area of foam in direct contact with the track side of a circuity board. I never heard whether or not they managed to sort it out, but the replacement instrument was priced at £36k.

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Old 19th Oct 2017, 10:00 am   #5
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

I have had a lot of trouble with foam decomposition mostly in TV camera flight cases.

It's best removed at the first hint of trouble but it bad cases I discovered that "Swafega" the engine hand cleaner, is good at removing it from kit as well as your hands.

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Old 19th Oct 2017, 10:03 am   #6
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

It's also used in boxed albums of LPs from the 1980s, as filler if the box is slightly wider than the LPs and booklet. I had a Philips set from about 1982 where it had gone very gungy and made a horrific mess of one of the records.

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Old 19th Oct 2017, 12:05 pm   #7
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

A few years ago I bought a bargain 100-CD flight case and when I got it home I found it was fitted with a plastic moulding (like in a cutlery drawer) for holding the cd's. I ripped that out and lined it with foam instead. Once filled it went under the bed for storage. Years later when cataloguing my precious CDs I opened the box and found the foam had 'melted' all over the jewel cases in a blue sticky mess.

I used white spirit to get rid of that but it wasn't a pleasant job at all.
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Old 19th Oct 2017, 12:49 pm   #8
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

A while back I discovered that the black foam in my rather-expensive Greenpar inter-series coaxial-adapter kit had turned to goo: in places it had messed-up the silver plating on the outsides of the connectors.

Black Foam is evil!
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Old 19th Oct 2017, 4:23 pm   #9
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

A timely heads up!

Around 2-3 years ago this horrid product was found in three of my Kenwood amateur band hand mic's,I removed it all and went off on a hunt and discovered it in my little FT290R just at point of becoming a scunge but before it contaminated any wiring or components-removed with aerosol clutch and brake cleaner outdoors and for insulation some silicone baking parchment begged from my daughter went in before closing the patient up.Checked again just now out of curiosity and there has been no further sign that the black scunge was ever there.
How much untold damage is this muck doing to precious kit of all types?
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Old 21st Oct 2017, 6:54 pm   #10
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

Quote:
How much untold damage is this muck doing to precious kit of all types?
It's certainly becoming a problem with some expensive microphones (for pro audio applications) that use foam in their pop filters. The stuff can either crumble to dust or, much worse, turn to sticky corrosive goo.
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Old 21st Oct 2017, 7:07 pm   #11
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

Then of course there are issues with the filters through this foam in KW gear. I am sat here on two KW2000's to sort out.

Foam like conductive glue is a problem.
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Old 22nd Oct 2017, 12:17 pm   #12
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

I think both can be counted as something which seemed like a good idea at the time, but now when we put on our 20/20 RetroSpectacles it's revealed as a mistake.

It must be remembered that most of the gear where foam/glue are now causing problems is probably 3 or 4 times beyond its original design-lifetime.

[Still, it's not *quite* as catasatrophic as the DTD683 aluminium/zinc-alloy whose crumbliness caused the premature withdrawal-from-service of the Vickers Valiant]
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Old 22nd Oct 2017, 12:59 pm   #13
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Default Re: Killer Black Foam in FT-290R

Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post
Bazz, is that an FT290R, or an FT290R2?

I have the latter, maybe I should take a look inside (for the first time ever, I have owned mine from new and never had a reason to open it up).
I opened up my FT290R2 after reading this thread, thank the Lord there was no foam in it.
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