Simple Green Will Strip Paint - Vintage Craftsman Drill Index

I forgot who asked me about this but I'm sure others are interested.

If you have a project that requires paint to be stripped, soaking the item in pure uncut Simple Green will remove the paint.

This is an early Craftsman drill index. The original paint was scratched up but the emblem is in great shape. I removed the pins and set the emblem off to the side. Then I dropped the index into a Simple Green bath for about 4 hours.

When I returned a few hours later, you can see that the index was stripped clean of the old paint. No scrubbing, scraping or anything.

A fresh coat of matched original paint later, I have a nice little index. I put the bits in for demonstration purposes. I have a good set waiting to go in over the weekend.

Ya its a great paint stripper! One time I was using Simple Green to clean up my old Craftsman tool tower an sprayed some on the top of the lower cabinet and for whatever reason I let it sit got sidetracked and forgot wipe it up.

Lifted a large portion of the paint on the top

I forgot about 2 pair of ViseGrips that I was degreasing in Simple Green. 4mos later, I found the bucket and almost all of the chrome was missing.


As an aside, this weekend I learned a trick for testing for genuine Bakelite.
Formula 409 !
Put a little on a Q-tip.
Swab the Bakelite with the Q-tip.
If the Q-tip Turns pink, it's the real deal.
If not, it's fake.
The 409 doesn't affect the Bakelite.

I haven't tried this yet to test it, I just overheard two women who collect Bakelite talking while I was at the flea market Sunday. Found the info interesting.

jakemac said:

I forgot about 2 pair of ViseGrips that I was degreasing in Simple Green. 4mos later, I found the bucket and almost all of the chrome was missing.


As an aside, this weekend I learned a trick for testing for genuine Bakelite.
Formula 409 !
Put a little on a Q-tip.
Swab the Bakelite with the Q-tip.
If the Q-tip Turns pink, it's the real deal.
If not, it's fake.
The 409 doesn't affect the Bakelite.

I haven't tried this yet to test it, I just overheard two women who collect Bakelite talking while I was at the flea market Sunday. Found the info interesting.

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Yep! Funny you mention. I learned this trick years ago the same exact way. I asked a woman why she was doing this and she explained the test. I use it to verify that bakelite grips are real/original on WWII bayonets.

Yep, I posted about a mistake I made by spraying a bandsaw serial number plate with the stuff, and it took the paint right off. I had another one luckily. Did it take the paint off your CM emblem?

Zeeman said:

Yep, I posted about a mistake I made by spraying a bandsaw serial number plate with the stuff, and it took the paint right off. I had another one luckily. Did it take the paint off your CM emblem?

Click to expand...

Nope. I removed the emblem before I gave the drill index a bath in Simple Green.