No touch paint removal

[Edwin Dirnbeck]

Cheap and easy
This is my hot dip paint removal system. It is an old electric roaster pan.I put in water and 2 or 3 cups of lye .(drain cleaner that has about 85 % sodium hydroxide.) Bring it to a boil for an hour or two and the paint is gone. if YOU DO THIS you must use an old old unit that DOESNT HAVE ANY ALUMINIM. And of course you cant clean aluminum parts.I used this on some vintage home heat wall registers that had about 70 years of paint on them ,it was almost fun to whatch the paint fall off..Edwin Dirnbeck}

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[10KPete]

Used to be that a lot of repair shops (auto, truck, tractor, etc. ) had hot caustic tanks and darn near everything went in them! At the Caterpillar shop my dad ran, back when I was a kid, there was a special shed with an overhead crane and two huge tanks. The shop would tear down an engine and the block and other 'external' parts would go in the tanks and a couple of hours later come out squeaky clean. Oil, grease, paint, whatever...gone.

Pete

[Dave C]

A while back I thought about building a hot tank but couldn't find lye anywhere. Now I see it available at Tractor supply at $14. for a 2 lb. jar. I guess the meth heads drove the price up. Red Devil lye used to be $.50 for 1 lb. can.

[Arcane]

Used to be that a lot of repair shops (auto, truck, tractor, etc. ) had hot caustic tanks and darn near everything went in them! At the Caterpillar shop my dad ran, back when I was a kid, there was a special shed with an overhead crane and two huge tanks. The shop would tear down an engine and the block and other 'external' parts would go in the tanks and a couple of hours later come out squeaky clean. Oil, grease, paint, whatever...gone.

Pete

At one time back in the eighties I had a hot caustic tank in my home shop. I used to rebuild a few engines for my own use back then and then this tank came up for sale at a good price so I bought it thinking it would be ever so handy. Well, it really wasn't all that handy without a good place to wash the parts off (so summer time use mostly) but...HOT TANK AT HOME! After awhile my engine building slowed down and then more or less ended so I sold it. Can't say I missed it...it took up a lot of room and in truth was a PITA to use!

Edwin's little hot tank makes a lot of sense though...I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for an old roaster pan!

[metalmagpie]

I used to soak parts in hot lye too. But the lye made me nervous, and after awhile I switched to a hot TSP solution. But the TSP got to be hard to find, and after awhile I switched to Cascade dishwashing detergent. It doesn't work quite as well, but it still works and I don't have to worry about being blinded by an errant splashed drop and I don't have to neutralize it afterwards.

Clever to use an old roaster oven. I use an outdoor propane burner originally intended to be used with a wok, and stainless pots of various sizes I've picked up cheap over the years. Here's a pic:



metalmagpie