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| Parts were painted with lacquer based paints |
The
removal of lacquer paints is excruciatingly messy. Lacquer paints are
non-soluble in water and have to be stripped using organic solvents. The
problem with organic solvents is that they are mainly oil-based (with the
exception of the alcohols) and would be extremely hard to clean given that the
lacquer would dissolve into it and turn it into a sticky and oily gunk. After
doing a bit of research, I discovered a variety of ways to remove lacquer paints.
Among them were: Isopropanol, ethanol, acetone, petrol/gasoline, thinner and
Dettol. The alcohols (isopropanol and ethanol) were found to be generally
inefficient in removing lacquer paints with the exception of acetone. However,
acetone is such a strong organic solvent that it is also capable of dissolving
plastics & styrene if they are soaked for extended periods of time. Hence,
none of the alcohols could be used. I remember seeing my dad using petrol to
remove spilled lacquers before however, I only left it as a last resort option
due to obvious safety issues. I also believe that plastics will dissolve in
petrol if they are soaked for extended periods of time. Thinners are efficient
in dissolving lacquer-based paints, however, they tend to be oily and often do
not wash off with water afterwards. Even after washing, the parts still tend to
remain oily and sticky.
A method
of stripping paint that I recently came to know about was by overnight soaking
in 100% UNDILUTED Dettol. The soaking time can vary from a minimum of 6 hours
to 48 hours. Longer soaking allows better removal of paint.
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| Dettol Solution |
Dettol is a common household disinfectant containing chloroxylenol (an aromatic chemical compound), pine oil, isopropanol, castor oil and a detergent. It is excellent for removing lacquer based paints because the alcohol (isopropanol) and oils help to dissolve the lacquer while the detergent helps emulsify the oily gunk allowing it to be washed away by water. Dettol can also be used for the highly efficient removal of acrylic and enamel based paints. The removal of lacquer paints with Dettol is significantly harder than acrylic and enamel paints as acrylic and enamel paints tend to just flake off after an overnight soak in Dettol.
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| Parts soaking in undiluted Dettol |
Any remaining acrylic or enamel paint can be scrubbed off easily using a soft toothbrush. lacquer paints on the other hand, tend to dissolve in Dettol producing a mucky gunk and thorough scrubbing with a toothbrush is required the complete removal of the remaining lacquer paint. Fortunately, the detergent in Dettol allows most of the gunk to be washed off conveniently with water. One IMPORTANT thing to remember is that water should ONLY be used for the final rinse and wash.
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| After 24 hours... |
Water
will emulsify the Dettol solution and cause it to lose its organic solvent
properties (i.e. it cannot dissolve lacquers anymore). As a result, the lacquer
precipitates out of the Dettol solution and turns into a sticky gunk that is
extremely difficult to clean. For the last wash/rinse, water can be used as you
DO WANT the dissolved lacquer to precipitate out and be washed away.
IMPORTANT!!!===Gloves are essential for skin protection!!!===IMPORTANT!!!
Undiluted Dettol can cause severe irritation if in contact with skin for prolonged periods of time. In addition, some paints contain lead and when the paint is dissolved in Dettol, the lead can potentially enter your system through your skin! While I was cleaning the parts in undiluted Dettol, I noticed that the Dettol solution was even softening my gloves! I use nitrile gloves and I'm not sure if this is usual... Anyway, some Dettol managed to leak into my gloves and the skin of my hand started to peel after 2-3 days. The effect of Dettol does not always appear immediately and usually starts 2-3 days later. Wash hands immediately if in direct contact with undiluted Dettol! The used Dettol can be reused for stripping paints repeatedly without any decrease in effect as long as the Dettol solution remains undiluted with water. Just allow the residual paint to sediment at the bottom of the container and drain the clean top portion into a new container. This is most easily done if the Dettol was used to strip acrylic or enamel paints. It gets a bit more messy with lacquer-based paints as seen below...
Removal of old "superglue"
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| After 24 hours of soaking... |
An efficient way of removing superglue is by using acetone. A common household product that can be used is nail polish remover containing acetone. However, acetone is also known to dissolve some plastics if they are soaked for extended periods of time. Since I was too lazy to remove the glue from each of the individual parts one by one with acetone (not to mention hours of exposure to the hazardous vapours released from the acetone) I decided instead to soak the all the parts in 100% isopropanol (a.k.a. isopropil alcohol or rubbing alcohol). Isopropanol DOES NOT dissolve the superglue and is totally harmless to most plastics even after extended periods of soaking. It does however weaken the bond between the glue and the plastic allowing the solidified glue to be easily removed by careful scraping with the back of an Exacto knife or blade. The glue can also be peeled off rather easily with fingernails after 48 hours of soaking. The plastic parts should dry rather quickly as the isopropanol evaporates, however, they should still be rinsed with water to remove all traces of alcohol before sanding, priming or painting.
Whew, finally done! The whole process took me nearly a week to complete! Now all I have to do is repaint the parts and reassemble the L.E.D. The original L.E.D. Mirage is supposed to be white but I think I will stay with my old decision of painting the entire L.E.D. Mirage Gold =)
I think I will go for a lighter shade of gold though as the old one was rather dull. This time perhaps, I'll brush paint instead of spray too =D
(-_-)...zzZ
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