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O/T - Decent paint stripper these days?

Terry Keeley

Titanium
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Location
Toronto, Canada eh!
Used 3m's Tal-Strip II aircraft coating remover in the past but it's no longer.

Wondering if there's any decent strippers left with methylene chloride being phased out?
 
The two that have worked well for me on paint over metal have been Peel-away #7, and plain old "Citri-strip" that you can get at HD.
 
Go to an auto paint supply store and ask for what their customers use on the toughest stripping jobs. The guys in the auto refinishing business keep current on that sort of thing.
 
I would also like to know, because I cant find anything that's worth using since they banned methylene chloride. The citrus strip and all the rest of that new garbage takes like 5 applications to get it all off, then you have to use the wire wheel to get what it can't. I used to use Jasco or Aircraft paint remover in the past before the ban, they worked great.
 
When I used the Citri-strip, the paint just blistered up and came off in strips, first try. Used in on a machine base, and was very happy with it. Might have been whatever that particular paint was, but it worked.

The SDS shows it to be 30% or more N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone, somewhat nasty stuff, but seems to work.

http://www.citristrip.com/uploads/documents/QCG73801T_SDS-CS61040.26.pdf

The peel-away #7 worked well on old paint, but did not just blister it up, it took a bit more work.

Peel-away #1 is lye in a paste, and takes off 8 or more layers of paint at a time, but requires time to penetrate. Best used on flat surfaces, because it has to be covered etc to work best.

I never liked the methelene chloride stuff, it just made the paint into a nasty paste that was hard to remove completely. But I never tried it on metal, got tired of it for removing finishes on wood, and quit messing with it.
 
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! Go to hardware store and get 1 pound of lye crystal, stop at grocery store and get 3-4 pounds of corn starch. Mix the lye into 5 gallons of water (slowly) then add corn starch to consistency of your liking. Best used in first few hours while its hot. Wear gloves, bunny suit and eye protection.
 
Thanks for the reply's, sounds like Citri Strip might work. I'm doing a chip guard for my lathe, the paint is coming off with coolant so it can't be that tough. I'll keep Dalmation's recipe for urethanes and epoxys.

Anyone try PTI from Aircraft Spruce?

PTI PRG URETHANE & EPOXY REMOVER - AIRCRAFT PAINT REMOVER | Aircraft Spruce

Says it's for urethane and epoxy but it has some mixed reviews.

Looks like you have to be a commercial shop to get the good stuff anymore...
 
I do not know how my recipe works on urethane or epoxy, it will lift off latex and oil based paints much faster than citri strip. I tried a bunch of the "safe" products a few years ago, outdoors, tried to cover with plastic but wind (mild breeze) kept ripping it off, they all dried too quickly and barely touched the paint. Working with small pieces you can wrap well, and time, might yield better results.
 
I used a boiling lye solution to strip a few parts and it worked real well.

Will blind you good though at first opportunity. I prefer to use a face shield when using it.
 
My wife used Citri-strip a couple of years ago on stripping the paint off of some furniture and it worked great. She was refinishing furniture last year, and started with the old Citri-strip she still had. It still worked fine. When that ran out she bought another container. It didn't do anything. They took out the main active ingredient and it was worthless. After three applications of the new formula the majority of the paint was still there.

She tried Smart Strip and that worked alright. Not as good as the old Citri-Strip, but it got the job done.
 
If you can remove the part from the machine, I like abrasives.

Usually loose abrasives, accelerated pneumatically at high speed....:skep:
 
Not sure if it's old stock or not but I found a gallon of "NAPA" brand stripper at my local outlet. The counter girl looked up the MSDS, said it was up to date it contained methylene chloride.

Here's a video of a guy doing some testing, looks like he's handling a Corona Virus patient but the results are there. The only one that contains metylene chloride is Strip-X:

YouTube
 
Didn't read the whole thread so do not know if this was mentioned but horrible fright has gallon bottles of cleaner get the yellow liquid it will take the ugly of of hil..... c....... use it straight from bottle
 
Nothing to add on the previous posts about chemical strippers, but don't rule out heat gun and scrapers for mechanical removal.

If you can get the right rhythm there are circumstances where it's a fairly speedy process.
 
Although finding paint stripper in the US with methylene chloride in it is difficult these days, the chemical itself can still be purchased. I buy it on Amazon and mix it in to whatever paint stripper I have and it works great. You can also use it straight for tough jobs. Use it outdoors and keep it off your skin.

As for using lye, yes a good choice for paint removal but it will also attack many materials. Aluminum it will eat away fast and keep it away from wood.
 
Any harmful effects of using brake fluid? It does a reasonably fast job. I assume brake people work with the stuff everyday. I had used it for honing brake cylinders in order to keep oil off them, felt no adverse effects even though I did not wear gloves doing it.
 








 
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