Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sticky

eeeew, that tile is tacky...

sandra_s — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:05:11 -0800

There is a tacky (as in sticky) film on top of my newly installed tile floor. Help me make it go away! (the tacky film, not the tile floor, mind you) Just had a professional, total rip-out and reinstall of a real tile floor (as opposed to vinyl tiles) in my kitchen, hallway, guest bathroom. I waited the requisite time, plus 2 days, for everything to be set and sealed and dried and ready to go. Then last night I gave it a good scrubbing with the same tile floor detergent I used on my old floor. Then a thorough rinsing.

Now there is a subtle sticky-ness to the entire surface. I realize I will have to clean it all again, but how do I make the stickiness go away?

I heard that some suggest vinegar for cleaning tile, but the smell of vinegar makes me gag, and I have guests coming tomorrow night, and I have concerns about the odor.

Thanks in advance!

Gimme Friction

Robert Angelo — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:04:12 -0800

Need help keeping it up! My car sun visor, that is. My car is over seven years old, and the sun visor no longer stays up on hot days. Instead, it keeps falling down in front of my face. It turns on a metal rod attached to a plate that screws into the car ceiling. When it's hot weather, the thing loosens up and the visor refuses to stay in place. During most times of year, it's fine, but our Texas summer makes it droop.

I've tried tightening the screws, to no avail. I've tried putting pieces of velcro on top of the visor and on the headliner, thinking that would hold it up. The glue on the velcro comes off, leaving it stuck either on the visor or on the headliner.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Maybe there's some sort of bizarro-backwards-antimatter version of WD-40 I could spray in it to give it more friction while still allowing it to be turned?

Removal of sticky residue.

kidbritish — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:11:50 -0800

What's the best way to remove thoroughly sticky residue from furniture that appears to be vinyl? I've got some old chairs that appear to be covered in a material like vinyl, and they are covered with a severely sticky residue. Like a thick layer of it. It's like the residue left behind by a sticker, but lots of it. What's the best way to remove it? The manufacturers' note states that it should only be cleaned using water and mild soap. No solvents or abrasives should be used.

I've read this thread and other similar pages on the internet, and there's so many different products recommended. Is there one right answer? Or one answer that's better than the others?

Should I disregard the manufacturers' warning against solvents? Is this just a by-product of the material itself?

Sticky Fingers

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:20:18 -0800

How can I fix sticky keys on a Guitar Hero controller? One of the "fret" keys on the guitar's neck is sticky, which makes playing anything more than quarter notes a bit challenging. Sometimes pressing the key on one side is easier than the other side (except that the "other side" is the side I am more comfortable hitting when I'm rockin' my solos).

Please avoid "search Google" or linking to Google results, as the advice there is not very helpful ("don't play songs with that key", "buy more RAM", etc.). I'd obviously appreciate advice from people who have firsthand advice for maintaining one. Thanks!

I can't keep touching it up.

Netzapper — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:20:45 -0800

I'm looking for an adhesive-backed ink-jet printable plastic suitable for use as masking/stencils for airbrushing. I've tried a couple of options, but have failed in some subtle ways. (Now with related bonus question!) At first, I simply tried stencils. But, they really don't work very well unless the underlying object is flat--which most of mine aren't. I printed out transparency, cut it with a hobby knife, and taped it down. Overspray galore, even if I worked carefully.

What I'm trying now is an Avery adhesive-backed "label" designed for making signs. It's basically an ink-jet printable sheet of transparent sticky plastic. Apparently perfect. It even comes off well and cleanly. But, if I've done previous coats of paint, but haven't finished the piece yet, the adhesive tears off my earlier coats of paint. This makes it impossible to overlap elements.

So, in an attempt to ameliorate the stickiness, I've been swiping the stencils with soap and water on the sticky side to cut their adhering strength. This is a little messy but primarily inconsistent. I'll get a good medium of adherence for 95% of it, but I'll miss a spot, and that will tear up paint; or I'll get too much soap somewhere, and it won't stick and bubbles.

The ideal material would be a little bit lighter weight than an overhead transparency, adhesive backed, ink-jet printable (at least kinda, temporarily), clean releasing, and of minimally strong adhesion. I thought about static-cling stuff, but I don't think it would hold up to being sprayed with the airbrush without bubbling and puffing.

Bonus question: I have my stencils in vector format. They print beautifully. Is there some way to automate the cutting of them?

When the Mouse IS the Sticky Trap

Doctor Suarez — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:39:04 -0800

How to stop my mouse from feeling all greasy and sticky. (Despite the sound of the question, this is in fact SFW.) My writing partner and I work all day on my computer. He uses the mouse. His nervous habit is to touch his hair. At the end of the day, my mouse has a revolting greasy, sticky feel to it. And rather than be a dick and ask my partner to never touch his hair again, I'd like to know if there's a way that I can simply and quickly clean the mouse when he's done.

It's a Logitech MX-510, so it has smooth plastic and rubberized parts. Both sections get like this, but the rubberized sections more so.

Fixing sticky latex paint

Foam Pants — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:59:49 -0800

A latex-painted dresser's drawers are sticking closed. Is there any hope? I received an old dresser and I wanted to paint its ratty face red. Under advice from a local paint retailer, and against my better judgement, I painted it with latex paint. Now the gummy surfaces of the drawers and frame are sticking together so violently that pieces of wood are actually coming off! The drawer-faces are made to sit inside of the frame so it is doubly bad. Taking all of the paint off is not an option. The frame is in such bad shape that, without the paint, it looks like hell. I have no designated workspace, so any really nasty chemicals are out. Is there anything that I can do to salvage this dresser?

Disable Sticky Keys

my_thai — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:18:55 -0800

How do I permanently disable sticky keys? I accidentally engaged sticky keys in Windows XP last week. I figured out how to turn it off, however everytime I reboot and log in the sticky keys are back.

How do I get rid of them forever?

Yoga mat is not grippy

whir — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:36:05 -0800

How do I make my yoga/exercise mat stickier, so my hands and feet don't slip around when I'm sweaty? I did see this earlier question, which makes me suspect that I might have better success just buying a new/different mat, but I'd like to see if there's some way I can improve the one I've got first, mostly out of pure stubbornness. That is actually one of the rental mats from a yoga studio that they sold to me for a dollar, so it's already seen some use. I thought of just spraying scotch guard or something on it, but I don't want subsequently ingest it through my skin.

Would wallpaper paste work?

Solomon — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:59:55 -0800

Please help me locate a suitable fixing for my posters. I have several large posters on my walls that keep falling down. They are roughly 75 x 50cm, on slightly glossy paper. I got them from Allposters.co.uk. They're not especially heavy, and they're only going onto a normal white matt painted wall.

I've tried glue dots, blue tack and white tack. They all last for a while, then the posters tend to fall down and get damaged.

I'm looking for an "invisible" fixing - no tacks, drawing pins, sellotape, etc, because they're going to show up. Apparently it needs to be a strong fixing.

Where can I find something suitable? Preferably online, or a UK based store(s) is fine too.

Stuck with some Sticky Hands

dumbledore69 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:18:25 -0800

What should I do with almost 2-dozen novelty sticky hands? I really needed one of those novelty sticky hands, but I wound up having to order 2 dozen in order for the cost & shipping to make any sense (I could buy 1 for $0.99 or 24 for $2.50).

I really only needed one though. So I have 23 left. Is there any particularly creative or fun way to use these guys, other than just handing them out to friends & coworkers for a laugh? I want to make the most out of my $2.50 investment.

I particularly love playing little tricks on people as long as it's not mean-spirited or even a little bit illegal.

Pop goes the soda... pop.

MsMolly — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:01:06 -0800

How can I remove the residue of a soda explosion from the interior of my car's seat belt? So I was trying to balance a pizza and a six pack of root beer and put them in my car when the six pack slid off the top of the pizza box and hit the seat belt on the driver's side of my car. (The bit that you snap the buckle into. Can't think if it has a name or not.) Can of soda went boom, sticky soda everywhere, including down inside the buckle mechanism. Now when I go to buckle or unbuckle my seat belt the button sticks.

What do I do? I'd rather not find out if it would work to wait until ants discover the soda residue and carry it away. This is a 2001 Toyota Prius in case that's useful. I couldn't see any easy way to disassemble the buckle.

Help me paint less

jet_silver — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 08:04:06 -0800

The covering power of French wall paint rivals the covering power of egg whites. The British paint we bought for €_BIGNUMBER has the covering power of clotted cream but goes on as thickly. What do Europeans do about getting decent interior paint? What a mess. The stuff you get at the Bricomarché covers in six coats and the Dulux Valentine that comes from the UK is as thick as Béchamel sauce. I am hopeful that Kelly-Moore or another reputable American paint vendor has an outlet somewhere in France. The British expats swear by Dulux but I swear at it, the way it goes on. I would love to have suggestions for what to do short of shipping five gallons of Kelly-Moore over here, but I will do just that if there isn't some more elegant solution.

How can I add descriptions to a category listing in Wordpress 2.1?

Milkman Dan — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:00:01 -0800

WordPress 2.1 help: How can I add descriptions to a category page? Using Wordpress 2.1, here's what I'm trying to do:

1. Publish a post to a selected category (easy)
2. Have the post automatically listed on the category page (easy)
3. Have a "sticky intro" at the top of the category page (don't know how)
4. Display a POST DESCRIPTION (or a 2-line excerpt from the post), rather than just a list of titles or the entire freakin' post, for each post in that category list.

Is there a plug-in I can install that will let me do this, or some code I can modify? Go easy on the techno-speak, I'm a designer, not a coder. Here's a text-only example of how I'd like the page to end up (or something close to this):
-----------------------------

Category Page Title

This is a welcome message that stays at the top all the time, explaining the page to new visitors. The rest of the page will be descending chronological summary of posts in this category, that looks a little bit like this:

[horizontal divide]
Linked post title * Date
# Comments * Posted in Category by Author
Brief description of what this post is about, or a two-line excerpt from the post itself. Brief description of what this post is about, or...
[horizontal divide]

[another box just like above]

-----------------------------

Does anybody around here have any ideas? I know I should be asking the WordPress help forum (and I have), but you guys are smart, too. Any help would be appreciated. Bonus points if the solution looks nice and is easy to create.

Sticky problem

arse_hat — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:46:27 -0800

Please help with a sticky photo album problem. I have been scanning thousands of old family pictures and have a problem coming up. I have about 40 pictures in an old album from the early 70's. It is the old kind with sticky pages with plastic covering the page. Many pictures came out quickly but this last group is stuck tight. Any suggestions as to how to get the pictures off the pages without tearing them?

Sticky pink mess

purplefiber — Tue, 23 May 2006 16:14:36 -0800

How do I get the bubble gum out of my car seats? I just bought a used car, and although it's running well and mostly in good shape, my backseat passengers were a little disgusted to discover old bubble gum stuck to the seat belts, seat, and door handles. Probably at least a year old, presumably from the kids of the previous owner. The gum is hard, and pretty stuck. I've scraped away at some of it but it's hanging on for dear life. Is there some sort of tool/cleaning solution that I could use to get it off and make my backseat more hospitable? Bonus points for something that works for paint too (these were messy kids, it seems!). Thanks!

Clean the Carpet, Honey!

ubersturm — Wed, 12 May 2004 00:56:03 -0800

large broken bottle of honey + carpet = much sticky unhappiness. any suggestions on how i can get the carpet cleansed before the ants arrive?