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Paint Stripper


tmerideth

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Does anybody have any sources for affordable paint stripper? I want to get a tank (100 gallon or so) that I can partially fill with some stripper to be able to drop mower decks, tractor sheet metal, etc. into to remove paint for restoration purposes. I can't afford the $16 to $20 per gallon paint store types. I recall hearing about a lye based stripper that could be mixed at home. Does anybody have any home "recipes" or other suggestions? I have a bunch of AC stuff that needs restoring or at least repainting. Any help please?
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I'm sure lye would strip paint but be careful with it. My son used lye and Aluminum foil to produce hydrogen which we inflated baloons with, attached a long string soaked in diesle fuel which we lit just before we let them go outside. High in the sky on long winter nites they made a really nice bang. MPH
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Tom, Just remember, any alkaline or whatever that can strip paint is DANGEROUS. I don't know if I'd want the liability of storing, using, and disposing of a homemade solution in a homemade container.
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Aside from the danger of using lye, it works very well especially if you heat the lye solution. A side effect of using the lye on metal, no rust after the paint is removed. I don't mean it removes rust, only that no further rust will form if the piece is kept dry...You can leave metal in liquid lye forever and no rusting will take place..Woody
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Not so sure about lye and rust, or at least some type of corrosion. I use a mixture of hardwood ashes and water to cause the hair on a deer hide to loosen and raise the "grain" of the hide, prior to scraping, in the process of buckskin tanning. Ashes and water makes an alkaline solution and causes one's drawknife to rust pretty quick. Also, if you are careless, like me, and some of this "juice" drips down into your pull behind seed/fertilizer spreader it corrodes the heck out of the bottom and causes it to seize up. The lye solution also makes your hand feel really slick and hard to rinse off, just prior to drying them out really bad. Brent[A href='http://www.braintan.com']http://www.braintan.com[/a]
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Yeah, I agree the lye thing poses some risks. So how do some of you old pros strip your tractors. I have a sandblaster but that is kind of slow on large sheet metal surfaces. I have my AC 410 torn down to rebuild and repaint. How do you guys strip things like frames and mower decks? I know there must be some innovative tricks out there.
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It's hard work but I used a 9" wire brush on a hand grinder to strip & clean the deck on by B-1 when I did it. Goes pretty fast, makes a lot of dust, and makes for sore muscles but it works. Theoretically, an ultrasonic generator at the right frequency would remove paint but I an unaware of such a device being available. One could also use a torch to burn and scrape paint off provided they were careful not to heat the parts excessively and warp them. Roy
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Tom, Whenever possible, I won't remove the factory finish from anything. For frames (that can't be easily sanded), I'll powerwash with a degreasing agent. Then spray an undercoat of bonder (I use XIM Flashbond 300) under the new finish. On rusted sheet metal that I must take down to bare metal, I use a DA sander if possible. If I must sand blast, I either do it myself (get a pressure blaster not the suction type), or take it to a pro that I trust won't destroy it. For a peeling topcoat that must be removed (like late model auto clear coats, or an amateur repaint that may be found on tractors), I'd use a gentle stripper and try to apply just enough to get down to the factory primer without going all the way to bare metal.
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I use paint stripper and very coarse steel wool with heavy rubber gloves. It works pretty well, though it is messy. It isn't effective for rust, though. Be sure do do this outdoors, in a well ventilated area, or wear a cartridge mask. The fumes are noxious.
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Lye is not that big a risk. In colonial days even women made soap using lye. Just use common sense and don't take a swim in the tub. Methylene chloride is much worse to work with and is cancer causing even through the skin which includes any area related to your breathing...Lye doesn't corrode metal so you can store it when you're not using it. I wouldn't keep a tub of lye laying aroung where kids are sure to get into it...Get a small painted sample and test it using a drano solution. Try different temperatures and notice the change in paint removal speed. You can heat the solution with a small cheap immersion heater coil..Woody
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I cheet as much as possible.I take it to a transmission shop that I worked at and put it in there pressure washer.Does a great job on taking off any paint that was not factory and cleans it so well that it is ready to paint.It really works well to paint it when hot.Paint sticks well and dries fast.Just got done with my standard twin and I had very little to scrape off.Bob At 2 degrees above 0 f.
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