One thing people who REALLY understand me know, I hate being wrong. It's not that I hate being proven wrong, heck, I sometimes enjoy that. I hate BEING wrong, so I always try to double check what I think I know, and every so often I look at things I thought I knew to make sure they still work the same way I thought they did. Seeing so many people on forums talk about magic erases removing the finish from games, something I've already looked into myself, I decided to try it again.
I took a cracked nes cart back and wet down a magic eraser in WATER, not IPA like I generally use, incase the IPA acted like a better lubricant than water. I scrubbed the cart hard, 20 passes, and it did like I thought it would. The scrubbed area looked dull, but still had texture. Then I cleaned it, and just like I thought, the texture returned like magic (Because I was clearing all the gunk in-between the ridges, making the cart look duller than it was). Since I've seen so many people claim they have carts that are smooth from magic erasers, I decided to try it again, and did a rough count of the scrubs.
Around 200ish I noticed it started grabbing the cart a LOT more, almost like when you sand through a clear coat\veneer and start catching the softer paint below. Did about 50ish more strokes, cleaned it, and could see where it was cleaned. So there was a definite loss of texture, but you have to hold it at an angle to see it; dead on you can't see a difference.
So anyone have FIRST HAND experience with a magic eraser causing damage? Don't say you have a cart with magic eraser damage unless you saw it done. I'm just wondering how it could happen, I couldn't reproduce it this time. I didn't try it with a dry eraser, I'm assuming it would just tear apart, but maybe it could cause more damage, have to try it later when my last eraser dries.
And before you ask, I took pictures, and the before and after look exactly the same. I'd need something better than my camera phone to show the difference I did.
So I'm still sticking to my stance: Magic eraser wet down with IPA is amazing for cleaning, but don't SCRUB with it. Dab, let the IPA soak a bit, then rub. It's a cleaning sponge not a sanding block.
