How do your remove powder coat, or other such coating?

Ok, so I have this aluminum part that appears to have a very strong black coating on it. I believe it could be powder coat. Anyway's, I need to get the coating off. and I've tried Turpentine, steel wool, Emery cloth, sand paper, and oven cleaner, and so fair I've had almost no success in removing it. (I did take a little off with the wire brush on my rotary tool, but it took a lot of time to removie a very small area. )

I don't have a lot of tools, or a very good work space, so I'm looking for a quick, fairly easy way to do this.

Re: How do your remove powder coat, or other tuch coating?

I know you said you're limited on tools, but I ran into the same problem and the only thing that worked great and efficient was sand blasting. Home Depot may have one to rent along with a compressor. You'll probably have to buy tips though. Cheap play sand works well for the blasting.

Re: How do your remove powder coat, or other tuch coating?

Dichloromethane (Methylene chloride... ie Klean-Strip Aircraft stripper or Permatex Gasket Remover) will remove some powdercoats... success varies with different powdercoat manufacturers & powdercoat thickness. Caution: this stuff is nasty & if there's any seams/nooks/cranies for it to get into and not get neutralized it will come back & ruin the new finish.

Like JtotheP said, sandblasting is usually the most economical, but you have to have the right respiratory safety equipment (especially if using any type of sand).

How long did you let the Oven Cleaner sit on the part? if it is by chance anodized, Oven Cleaner should remove it if left on long enough but could damage/pit the surface.

A decent Lye (NaOH) solution will probably strip it also, but it could also eat away the part if not careful & release hydrogen gas creating an explosion hazzard too.

I think Eastwood.com has a few things for striping aluminum car trim too, might want to take a gander over there.

Re: How do your remove powder coat, or other tuch coating?

I remove powder coats at work with black 3M brillo pads. Granted, it's on an angle grinder, but it does the job without scarring the metal.

Re: How do your remove powder coat, or other tuch coating?

Ah, good thread! I've got a couple of the black Riddick knives from a few years ago, that I need to strip one of these days.

-Sarge

Re: How do your remove powder coat, or other tuch coating?

To remove the powder coating from both the MR Solo Blaster EE and the MR Skywalker Blaster:

disassemble
put parts in closed Tupperware of ACETONE.
wait a day or so
then scrub off with soft brass brush, toothpick, slow Dremel wire wheel etc.

Repeat process until it's all gone and down to bare Zymac Zinc.

ZZ is not harmed by this process.

Wear chemical gloves: regular "latex-painting-a-wall" gloves will dissolve.
use a respirator: Acetone evaporates very quickly and can be overpowering if in enclosed space.

Take caution due to fumes etc.

It will work, just be careful- not dizzy/ dead for quick removal.

Re: How do your remove powder coat, or other tuch coating?

Ok, so here is where I'm at.

I came across the tutorial on how to make a Force pike, from a ski pole. I saw it years ago, but I for got about it, and when I saw it again a couple of weeks again, I thought now is the time.

I looked all over, and all my local thrift stores but they said "we don't take ski poles in, any more because no-one buys them, and we can't get rid of them." Then I found a set for $2. at my yard sail. (Yay!)

The piece that held the "snow basket" isn't as close to the real prop, as the the one in the tutorial, but at 2 for $2. I'm not going to complain.

I tried all the stuff I mentioned at the top of the thread to get the thick black finish of of them to no avail.

After reading some of the ideas posted here, I when over to Meijers and bout some extra strength oven cleaner, sprayed it all over the poles, an let it set for a long time. (8 hours, maybe even a day, I forget.) It did very little, if anything.

I like the idea of using ACETONE (mostly because I already had some laying around, and that ment I didn't have to anywhere, or spend any more money. :lol). There was no way they were going to fight in tupperware.

So, here is what I did. (well I'll skip all my failed attempts to find something that the acetone wouldn't eat, and cut to the chase. ) I took a length of steel 1" (it was labeled that, but it was actually a little wider.) tubing I had laying around from other projects. I plugged up one end with a gob of clay, and then pushed a tite fighting plastic film canister down. over the end. I put the ski pole in, pored in some acetone, and capped off the open end the same way I did the other end. I moved it around a bit, to get the acetone all over the ski pole. I laid it down on its side, and rotated it ever once, in a wile, to give it even time in the pooled acetone. (hey it made since at the time. )

I left it in the tube for about a day, or more, and when I took it out, I did still have to use some elbow grease to get the finish off the ski pole, but it wasn't that bad at all.

The first pole is out, and cleaned up, and on it's way to it force pike future, and the second one is doing it's time in the tube, so that I can clen it off in a day or two.

I just removed powder coat from a steel tube originally used for a coffee table leg (it's now going to be a metal stormtrooper blaster). All I did was spray the piece down with some paint stripper that I bought at Lowes for $5. I forget the brand, but the label said it was good for stripping Acrylics, Latex, Oils, Enamels, and Epoxy.

The paint started to bubble and slough off after about 2 or 3 hours. A couple little spots still managed to cling on, but were weekened enough that I knocked them off with some sandpaper. The stuff worked like a charm, and there were very very little fumes. That powder coating is a b***h to get off. I tried oven cleaner, acetone, turpentine, and brake fluid. The brake fluid was the only thing that came close to working, but even after soaking in it for 12 hours, it still wouldn;t come off very well.

I would try aluminum oxide or if you want strippers that are sold by Eastwood as mentioned. Sandblasting will leave a surface profile. There are a few other options to remove powder coating but I would go with chemical or blast.

Necro thread but ive not seen an old skool method mentioned, oven cleaner. Old timers used to use it to remove anodizing from aircraft supply lines when fitting them to cars simply because they didnt like the colors of the parts. Same with clear coats on wheels. Keep in mind clear coats and anodized finishes are used as a protective surface so any removed finish will leave the metal exposed. You can clean then oil the surface but your now on a routine to maintain the surface. Ive seen a lot of old skoolers use axle grease as a longer term method of maintenance but again, its trial and error as to what the surface underneath will be once that surface protectant is chemically removed.

TridCloudwalker said:

I tried oven cleaner...

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robstyle said:

Necro thread but ive not seen an old skool method mentioned, oven cleaner.

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you just missed it!

You can't take anodization off using solvents. It's a hardened oxide layer of the parent metal itself and can only be abraded off. What oven cleaner does is leach out the colored dye applied to the anodized surface.

renegadecow said:

You can't take anodization off using solvents. It's a hardened oxide layer of the parent metal itself and can only be abraded off. What oven cleaner does is leach out the colored dye applied to the anodized surface.

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The anodizing is on the surface. Ive removed anodizing for many, many years with oven cleaner then polished, buffed or had them re anodized or clear coated. For some odd reason the pic hosting site I use is down. Ill update with pics later.

Again, that's only the dye you're taking out. If your intention is just to change the color, that works perfectly fine and the hardened layer remains. If you have a solvent/acid strong enough to dissolve the anodized surface, it should eat up everything else as well because it's aluminum all throughout and not some kind of paint or powder coat on top.