Boosting with vaseline

says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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No. Not Vaseline. That is not a good idea.

Here, I am going to give some info. You are quite intelligent. I am sure you will figure out why for yourself.

The things that create the biggest boost effect are things like VOCs. Here is why they give the biggest boost effect.

What the booster oil does is sink into the pours of the sponge and cause it to expand. As they cause it to expand, the pours in the sponge get bigger and have more space for gasses.

VOCs are thin liquid oils which evaporate quickly and are highly flammable. Often they are used as solvents for rubber based glues like rubber cement.

The reason the details about thin, liquid and evaporate quickly is important is when those things happen, the oil expands the sponge and evaporates making it so there is more gas in those larger pours in the sponge. This makes the sponge more elastic.

But, because those VOCs which are no longer legal evaporate very quickly, the boost effect wears off quickly too.

Most modern boosters are things that evaporate but evaporate more slowly. So they will last longer.

This information is also why you can boost with baby oil or paraffin. But vegetable oil will have suspect effects.

I will finish later.


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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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So, if you used water, it would expand the sponge too. But it would not give a boost effect because what would fill the pours of the rubber would be water, NOT GAS. Same with Vegetable Oil. Those could make the sponge feel squishy. But they would not make the rubber play better.

With Vaseline, I am not sure it would even be absorbed by the sponge. It may simply be too viscous. So it really might not.

But even if it was absorbed, it would not make the sponge more elastic or more compressible.

The idea with boosting is you want something that will increase the size of the bubbles in the sponge and increase the amount of gas in the bubbles.

Anything that will make a kitchen sponge expand should also make the sponge of a TT rubber expand.

But expansion is not all you want. You want what causes the sponge to expand to also evaporate.

So, gasoline definitely would work. But Vaseline: it would not give the desired effect.


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Hi Carl, thank you for your answer. Vaseline is a brand name turned generic (like kleenex) for petroleum jelly aka soft paraffin. It has nothing to do with vegetal oil. So I think it should work as a booster. The only problem might be its viscosity, although when you rub it on your fingers it kind of turns liquid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_jelly

Julian
 
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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Hi Carl, thank you for your answer. Vaseline is a brand name turned generic (like kleenex) for petroleum jelly aka soft paraffin. It has nothing to do with vegetal oil. So I think it should work as a booster. The only problem might be its viscosity, although when you rub it on your fingers it kind of turns liquid.

Julian

84d9d668da6c42c3da0d4b9a8fff675e.jpg


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_jelly

The key word in the link you provided is:

“is a semi-solid mixture”

That is the pertinent issue. It is petroleum based. However IT IS TOO VISCOUS (read thick) to sink into and be absorbed by the sponge. Also, I highly doubt it would evaporate.

But feel free to try it on an old rubber that is dead.


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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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The paraffin I was referring to would be like this:

cf1f06d45da6ff32f62d60c0f183075e.jpg


Paraffin liquid lamp oil. The key word is LIQUID. It is actually quite thin liquid.

If you poured a tablespoon of it on a plate and left it out, most of it would evaporate within a day. The Petroleum JELLY in a substance like Vaseline a quarter teaspoon would still be there a month later.

This is why I used the term Viscous. Maybe you should look that up. Something that is thick, viscous, semi-solid jell would not sink into the sponge well and would not afford more elasticity to the sponge.

Something like Vaseline, if you could get it to sink in, like by heating it, it would likely clog the pores and make the sponge less elastic and less compressible.

But try. Tell us what happens. It would be a fine science experiment on a rubber that has served its usefulness already.


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