Cleaning and storing your cartridges (methods, etc.)

[TDIRunner]

followed by a light amount of 91%+ ipa

I love IPA, but I've never thought about using beer to clean my games. 

[e_brugal]

I am against the use of magic eraser on video game related stuff unless it's absolutely necessary. It's sandpaper killing off the original texture and making it look odd on most occasions. Solvents too are a concern when just soap and water is sufficient (for surface jobs).

I have used magic eraser to clean plastic on cartridges and I never had any problem or neither had seen any degradation on texture, and I have clean markers and dirt on them

[Ozzy_98]

I think it's mostly just a myth on how they work, some people think they work like sand paper. They work more like a pencil eraser from my understanding, the open cells of the foam trap the dirt and grime, where it's rolled away.  It's not the carts you're sanding away, it's the erasers being sanded down by the cart,  The water allows the dirt to lift up and enter the cells.  Without some sort of mild solvent (like iso), some items are more attracted to the cart.

I like using iso with magic erasers vs water for a much more pratical reason too, it dries much much faster, so less water damage. 

[e_brugal]

I haven't try it with isopropyl, but I will do it now to see how it works.

[wiggy]

I think it's mostly just a myth on how they work, some people think they work like sand paper. They work more like a pencil eraser from my understanding, the open cells of the foam trap the dirt and grime, where it's rolled away.  It's not the carts you're sanding away, it's the erasers being sanded down by the cart,  The water allows the dirt to lift up and enter the cells.  Without some sort of mild solvent (like iso), some items are more attracted to the cart.

I like using iso with magic erasers vs water for a much more pratical reason too, it dries much much faster, so less water damage. 

It's an abrasive, no question. Not convinced?  Take a magic eraser to any shiny plastic you have and watch the shine "magically" disappear.   Think of them as 1000 grit sandpaper in a foam pad form. 

[monjici]

I think it's mostly just a myth on how they work, some people think they work like sand paper. They work more like a pencil eraser from my understanding, the open cells of the foam trap the dirt and grime, where it's rolled away.  It's not the carts you're sanding away, it's the erasers being sanded down by the cart,  The water allows the dirt to lift up and enter the cells.  Without some sort of mild solvent (like iso), some items are more attracted to the cart.

I like using iso with magic erasers vs water for a much more pratical reason too, it dries much much faster, so less water damage. 

It's an abrasive, no question. Not convinced?  Take a magic eraser to any shiny plastic you have and watch the shine "magically" disappear.   Think of them as 1000 grit sandpaper in a foam pad form. 

I second that, Magic Eraser is a melamine foam: "its polymeric substance is very hard, so that when used for cleaning it works like extremely fine sandpaper"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_foam

[Ozzy_98]

yeas I guess I should say, not an abrasive to a nes cart, it'll mess up clear coat and a CD case. I have NOT seen it change the texture of a nes cart though.  You shouldn't be scrubbing with it like it's a sanding block, and it shouldn't take more than a few swipes over anything, if you're altering the texture of the nes cart, you're doing it wrong. It's not close to 1000 grit sandpaper though, not even close 2,000



This is dry, left is 1500 grit sand, right is the magic eraser, one pass.  IF you do them wet, the left isn't as deep, and the right is undetectable from most angles.  You have to do a few passes to do make damage.

My understanding of the foam, yes, there is some abrasion working, but it's not just sanding away the gunk, otherwise I'd be wet sanding my carts.  The open cells break off like an eraser, with the gunk trapted inside.

Edit: Ok, so photobucket resized it so you can't see ANY mark on the right, it looks like a haze.  Think about the damage done by rubbing two cases together, same thing.  

Edit 2: Some drop box links, here's the photo above:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1elmwdbe8b4nohf/2014-04-26%2023.04.12.jpg

Two pics of Chuck Rock II, cleaned about 15 mins ago with magic eraser + IPO, followed by armor all
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h7u6udcjtzaqkcg/2014-04-26%2023.16.51.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n5hgu42e4jm4sh1/2014-04-26%2023.17.10.jpg

And I was going to see if you guys could spot which nes cart I cleaned this way, but it's not really fair.  The one that I didn't use the magic eraser on looks like it has texture issues on the edges for some reason.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9dh1sswb7sqs0f/2014-04-26%2023.18.07.jpg

^-- game should be relabeled as "Adventures of Slowdown and Flickerboy"