Re: ATM "Astroturf" substitutes

[ran@netgate.net]

In <2.2.32.19981106220946.00700ea4@mail.sltrib.com>, on 11/06/98 
   at 03:09 PM, Glen Warchol <glenwarchol@sltrib.com> said:

>I use it to line the bottoms of trays, tubes, boxes, and drawers I use
>for my optical junk and also on the work bench surface

That's actually one of the few places I *won't* use it.  I discovered it
about 10 years ago,  being marketed to boaters and RVers as "Slip-Stop".

I literally used a couple of square yards or more in my trailer,  keeping
all kinds of things (including computers and electronics) in place.  It
worked great.  On more than one occasion,  I forgot to properly stow 
something  and would find it still sitting where I'd left it after a  few
hundred miles of towing.

But ...  I discovered that there were a few plastic items it interacted
with.  Not just staining:  more like "dissolving",  leaving the surface
remolded in the shape of the Slip-Stop.

Since I don't know what the reagent was,  I don't use it around coated 
optics.  What I use for that is the black conductive foam used for chip
storage,  and the pink foam wrap used for PC boards.  I'm hoping that,
because of the amount of damage outgassing could do,  the manufacturers
have made them essentially inert.  But I don't have enough experience to
attest to that.  Just that I've had some lenses stored on them for a year
or two with no visible ill effects so far.

I have to add that I don't know whether the Rubbermaid product is 
chemically the same as "Slip-Stop".  It *looks* identical,  and seems to
work identically.  I'd love to hear an authoritative source say that  it's
different,  though:  I'd like to use it for some things (like optics
storage) that my experience makes me uneasy about.

There seems to be a new version of it on the market:  a somewhat coarser
weave,  and much thicker.  I haven't seen it in the stores,  but someone
used some to pack some optics he sold me (obviously he agrees that it
looks like it provides good padding).  Dunno about its availability in 
designer colors,  but it definitely looks like it should be the first 
choice of manly men   ;-)

Ran


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