How to solve the problem of a plastic controller that has become sticky (e.g. the ones of Keith McMillen)? – Hardware (Instruments and Effects) Forum

I have to clean the knobs on a bunch of Arturia products and also on my Korg Minilogue (but this is not as bad as the Arturia’s). I have about 100 knobs to clean.

I think I’ll try using “Vim” powder, which I already tried on a knob of my Drumbrute Impact. It cleaned the knob quickly and easily, but… I don’t know if it’s the kind of plastic (or maybe it needs some washing), but it doesn’t feel that good anymore handling it between my fingers (maybe it needs some additional washing? Vim is quite aggressive btw)… but I still need to remove that sticky gum somehow.

I really hate those “soft touch” gum layers, they always end up sticky. I never miss an opportunity to be vocal about this issue because it really bothers me; the best outcome (far from ideal!) is having to clean it, the worst is having to throw away something that would be perfectly functional otherwise (maybe you don’t throw away a synth, but you’d be really tempted to throw away a portable lamp when it becomes sticky…).
It’s a waste of time (needed to clean) and resources (both the soft coat and the cleaning agent). Everybody knows the ending, but soft coating is still used in a variety of products across various industries and I really don’t understand why.