Wintergreen to soften rubber is not new idea, was doing this twenty five years ago. It works much better lasts far longer if you just massage wintergreen into the rubber after softening it first in just more than the hand can stand hot water.
Hi, a couple of months ago, I tried the alcohol+wintergreen treatment to various hardened rubber objects which included four turntable idler wheels ( 2 from a 1970s BSR, a 1960s Dual, and, a 1970 Matsushita), rubber gasket mounts for a BSR motor, and a 30 year old rubber/vinyl camera strap. The soaking times varied from three to five days. The treatment was tested first on a damaged BSR wheel which was soaked for 5 days. It softened after about a day and a half, but I decided to leave it in the solution for 5 days, following the instructions found in other sites. When I took the wheel out after 5 days, it crumbled. The soaking times were shortened to 2-3 days. Indeed, the rubber objects came out soft and supple, and smelling good from the wintergreen. The Dual relied on a very pliable wheel to make the platter spin. The softened idler wheel did make the platter turn, but only for a couple of days. All the parts lost their suppleness in about 3 days, and a week after, all were back to their old hardened states. The old camera strap, though, is an exception: it took slower to stiffen up again. While it is still pliant today, it is no longer as soft as it was when it emerged from the alcohol+wintergreen solution, when it rolled nicely like fabric. Now it is about as stiff as thin card. :)
Interesting. Thanks for sharing your results. One of these days I'll dig out the turntable I did the treatment on and see how it's held up over time. Given what you have found, I expect to see either a pile of rubber or an idler wheel that needs replaced.
Just from my own experience. I do a lot of audio stuff, and this issue comes up in old reel 2 reel decks. I tried the alcohol wintergreen thing. And while it did soften the rubber, after a few days in the open air, it turned hard again. As for lumpy/rumbly sound, I mount idlers on my drill and use 150 grit hard paper to round the corners down. Also pack the spindle (bearing) with good quality heavy weight moly. But after this vid, I am thinking I need to look back, and maybe try this method one more time. About a month later and I'm going to try this again on an old BSR idler. I'll let you know how it goes. BSR idler about 40mm diameter. After 24 hours it disintagrated. Oops.
I sent an idler wheel for an (then) unknown brand turntable to Russell Industries in NY for rebuilding.They are nice people.A RU-vid man kindly put me onto them.
I'm not sure if you read backwards with comments, but this just popped up on my feed. I have no idea if this could actually work, but if it does, it's a brilliant (and very inexpensive) solution to rock hard idler wheels (depending on whether or not the configuration is compatible). Have a look if you wish: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F0sgOosqf84.html
