Cleaning my long-lost Megamat

[wingsandsword]

I need some serious advice on cleaning my gaming mat. It's a Chessex Megamat, one of the one-sided ones they don't make anymore.

Back in summer of '06 I bought it, used it for a while for various games, and then as my life was getting a LOT busier I packed it up.

I had tried to find it several times, and presumed it lost. Well, two moves later, while packing for a third move (finally into an actual house, with a wife and kid I didn't have when I packaged it up years ago), I find it folded up and packed away in a corner.

I unfold it (yeah yeah, I know about folding them, a case for it was on my "to do" list 6+ years ago) and find that apparently in it's last use I hadn't erased it. It still had some Star Wars-type deck plans for a freighter drawn on it. Also, how I folded it over apparently caused the drawing to transfer over to another part of the mat.

I first used just plain water. That washed out some of the dye. More specifically it made the drawing go from purple to blue as apparently one of the dyes in that marker was easily water soluble, the other not so much.

I tried a detergent solution, which had little to no impact. I also tried rubbing alcohol, which again had minimal impact.

There are faded, but quite visible, blue lines on the mat in two places.

As to the markers, again, as I recall I was using Crayola Washable Markers at the time, under the idea that they were water based and "washable" so I could clean them up off the mat easier.

I would hate to have to buy another mat, especially since I honestly don't actually game as much as I used to anymore and have really cut down on my gaming purchases in favor of expenses like gas, food, and bills.

 

[Mark CMG]

I've had good and bad luck with any number of suggested methods over time, so I'd always take these with a grain of salt and be sure to test things in a corner area first -

http://www.chessex.com/mats/Mat Maintenance.htm

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?298362-Annual-Chessex-Battlemat-Clean-Up-Reminder

 

[Alphastream]

This will sound strange: shower with your battlemap!

In all seriousness, I've been surprised by how effective this is as compared to using a wet cloth or running a hose over it. You optionally don't need to get in the shower/tub (especially if the mat is very big). But, the key is lots of running water and just use a normal soap (I use Dr. Bronners Peppermint Soap) and rub it into the mat.

In my case, the mat gives off a surprising amount of color with an initial wash, then some more if you wash it again right away, and then finally stops losing color. Some color may remain, especially if you used the wrong kind of inks. If you ever use permanent markers, try using a washable marker on top of it immediately. The chemicals combine and can actually allow most of it to come out. This doesn't work after the permanent marker has dried. Permanent marker can fade with time, but it won't usually do so significantly.

For tough stains you might need something else, but showering your battlemap works pretty well as a maintenance tip! Also, it is fun to tweet things like, "I just showered with my battlemap. It was a mind scrambler!"

 

[RSKennan]

I've had good luck with engine degreaser. I used the one by the people who make WD-40. Make sure to do it outside or in a well-ventilated area, and get all of it off before you use it. I'm sure it does some damage to the surface, but it wasn't anything we noticed.

 

[Tanstaafl_au]

Going over the ink with another non permanent mark can work wonders. Try a small section first but often the most recent marker and the older marker come off together. I do this on school white boards with someone uses permanent markers.

 

[Nytmare]

I too lost an old Megamat to the evils of Crayola. Mine was only left marked for a couple of weeks. I tried most of the suggestions above (never a degreaser) but the problem was that the marker had actually stained through the vinyl surface. For years every battle included a ghostly blue treeline along one side of the map. Eventually I got one of the Crystal Castle mats and tried running the old Megamat through an industrial washing machine, but it didn't help. I ended up cutting the mat into a smaller square map, and a handful of large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal blanks.

Man, I really miss that mat. Does anyone know if the current Mega and Mondomaps are still that same, heavy, almost cloth material?

 

[Ferghis]

Alcohol, the kind in a first aid kit. Seriously.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I've heard scribbling over the marks with the same kind of pen then erasing works wonders.

In general my progression for stubborn stains is rubbing alcohol, bleach, mineral oil, nail polish remover, paint remover, sandpaper. Somewhere along the line either the stain comes off, or the object is melted. Either way the problem is resolved.

 

[Super Pony]

Vinyl cleaner (usually near the car-washing stuff at a multi-mart of your choice next to the leather cleaners) & a fingernail/detail scrub brush (the little white baby hair brush thingies they give you at the hospital work great too..just don't use a SOS pad, sandpaper, or steel wool or anything like that). You want to be careful with chemical applications so that you don't damage the actual vinyl (I'd steer clear of bleach because it's so easy to over-do it on concentrations, etc). But first, I'd recommend hanging it up in the shower on a nice toasty hot water setting...or shower with it as mentioned above if you are into that kind of thing (I won't judge ). That way the creases work themselves out, and the surface will respond better to the scrub brush, since the polymer will relax a bit.

If the lines and stains don't come out? You could always have a retirement ceremony, play taps, and use your mat as the material for reupholstering a dinning room chair cushion

 

[crossmlk]

I've heard that Simple Green degreaser works pretty well even on old marks.