Re: Paint Stripping Experiment

[rclough]

Paint stripper is strongly alkaline and it will attack the aluminium, making it white/dull.  You need to wash it off as soon as it gets the paint peeling.   Experiment suggestion.   If you feel like paint stripping is the go, you can make up a stripping bath. Here is a suggested easy paint stripping method.  Note:   I would "test run" another painted alloy component that you dont need first, to see how much aluminium corrosion occurs overnight, before putting your alloy wheels through a caustic bath.   How to make and use a paint stripping bath.   In a lockable area, eg your shed, use bricks or similar, to build 4 walls in a square shape, slightly larger than a wheel. Lay over the walls and floor between, a single piece of black builders plastic, the stuff they use under concrete slabs, to form the liner for the bath.  Buy a new length (no holes) from a hardware, its called "Visqueen". Use it at least double thickness to reduce the chance of puncturing/leaking.   Fill up this plastic liner "bath" with water, deep enough to submerge the item to be stripped.  Then slowly add 4-8 Kg of Caustic Soda to the water - NOT the otherway round!.  (Caustic used to clean dairy equipment, so rural supplies places stock it cheap in 9 kg buckets). The water may "locally" boil as you add it, (an exothermic reaction?) so be well protected, especially eyes and skin, from splashes.   Gently lower in the item to be stripped and leave it overnight.  Fish it out in the morning and hose off any remaining paint and caustic, avoid splashes to the body.  Normal or high pressure hosing will usually remove every trace of paint and grease.   Repeat with each component in the same bath.   When finished, allow the paint solution to settle and slowly syphon off the clarified caustic solution into containers for disposal or reuse.  Allow the paint residue to dry in the plastic and then dispose of this by taking to a chemical recycler.   Same process can be used to strip all removeable panels on cars, if you build a suitably shaped bath.   I emphasise, use extreme care.  Total security from other people and animals is critical, as caustic soda is a nasty solution.   This paint stripping system works great on painted solid timber doors, cast iron veranda hardware etc.  I dont know how the alloy wheels would handle 12 hours of caustic solution  ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 8:03 PM Subject: Re: Sand Blasting That's good info, thanks mate. I think it's a grit of some sort anyway, I was referring to "sand" as a generic term for blasting. I started with the paint stripper and it looks like these rims were painted a long time ago coz they are shmick underneath.. hehehhe   Not going to paint them again tho, the TRX rims look fine when they're bare.   ----- Original Message ----- From: rclough To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 7:11 PM Subject: Re: Sand Blasting Depends on the air pressure, blasting medium used, and length of time blasting occurs on each area.  Sand will erode the paint, then the alloy, so controlling the blasting time will achieve a reasonable finish if you can get it right over the whole job.  The sand blasted finish is actually good looking in my view, and it makes a good surface for another paint job. You can spin the wheel in a lathe, or on the hub, and machine/polish up the areas that can be repolished.   Lighter blasting media, such as plastic beads may achieve a better finish, quicker. ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 4:09 PM Subject: Sand Blasting I have a set of TRX alloy rims that have been painted a couple of times, and I want to try sand blasting the paint off. Tried paint stripper but it's not getting them completely clean.   Does anyone know if sand blasting will damage them at all???   Thanks --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------