Media for Stripping Paint / Powder Coating

[GarageDreamer]

Hello, I'm new to the forum,but look forward to see others awesome garages and learning from others.. for my ultimate build.

Ok.. on to my question. What are the recommendations for the type of media to use in my blaster for stripping powder coating off my aluminum ****** case? I'm thinking aluminum oxide would be the best.

Any experiance out there?

 

[terabyte]

aluminum oxide would be the best

 

[Jokeman]

Go with the least harsh blast media that will remove the PC. Im sure glass bead or walnut shell will remove it.

 

[Vicegrip]

PC is hard to remove. Al/OX will do it but will eat into the case real quick too. Walnut shell might do something if you had months of time to sit and watch it bounce around. glass bead is somewhere in the middle but would still be slow on even a reasonable thickness of PC.

i found that heat works well as part of a removal procedure on powder coating. Care is needed to not inhale toxic fumes and not to overheat the base metal. On steel this is not an issue but on aluminum it might be. PC goes full soft around 400 deg.

 

[LoneGunman]

Walnut shells for PC will work if you burn the coating off first, if not you will die of old age first. I PC a good amount, if I screw up and need to strip something from a part that is either a large part, has any details, close tolerances, or made out of aluminum ETC, I use D-zolve 1012.

http://solventkleene.com/pcstrip.htm

 

[MXtras]

I used to blast to remove paint. Now I chemically remove as much as possible and only blast what's left behind. From my experience, chemical stripper is cheap, works better than blasting and it is a lot less wear on your compressor, your media and your power bill.

Scott

 

[Passenger]

I recently stripped the powder coat off an old nitrous bottle I had laying around. I used Permatex brand gasket remover. An aerosol product that's VERY potent.

I just sprayed it on the bottle in about 8 inch long sections then used a wire brush or a razor blade to peel it off (which was super easy)

Jesse

 

[buening]

Aircraft paint stripper, found at your local auto supply store

or I've used Black Beauty in my sandblaster, which is basically a coal slag byproduct and is not as aggressive as Al Oxide

 

[TheToolMan]

I use silicon carbide media in my blaster, It is the best media i have ever used, Even better than aluminum oxide, The thing with silicon carbide is it is so sharp that it will eat your consumables up quick

 

[Kevin54]

I use silicon carbide media in my blaster, It is the best media i have ever used, Even better than aluminum oxide, The thing with silicon carbide is it is so sharp that it will eat your consumables up quick

Silicon carbide media is fine on something that you are not going to paint or powdercoat. The powdercoating place that I take parts to told me that if parts are done by myself to use aluminum oxide as that is what they use. They won't and don't use silicon carbide because it will cause problems with the coating and they won't guarantee their work. The silicon carbide will get imbedded into the metal. And any paint/powdercoating and silicon do not get along well.

 

[TheToolMan]

I blast motors everyday and then paint them. I have found that when i use the silicon carbide that the paint lasts longer and is harder to strip off and dosent scratch as much.I have used every media TP tools offers and i fave found the carbide to be the best for this application. The finish is pretty coarse and the paint had a tooth to stick to. I guess everyone has their own prefernces

 

[GarageDreamer]

wow.. all sorts of great ideas.. thanks I'll let you know that works for me..

 

[Danglerb]

So far all I have learned from trying to strip paint and powder coat is that I hate to do it. I spent a week wire brushing and bead blasting on an intake, and still have a patchy layer of powder coat inside. I'm thinking the smart thing is to leave the stripping to somebody with a tank of stuff to dip it in.

 

[Passenger]

Try the Permatex Gasket Remover Dangler! Its about $5 a can (roughly) at Advanced/Autozone. I was in the exact same boat you are in. I sanded with a wire wheel, sanding disks, sandpaper, I tried everything. I know its sort of off topic but it'll take powder coat off.

Here are some pictures of my bottle after using the gasket remover on it.
Not only was there blue powder coat on this bottle, there was also a THICK coat of grey primer, yellow spray paint, orange spray paint, and olive green spray paint..

Here is the handle on the valve itself. I didn't do this for comparison.

Here is the bottom of the bottle. This was after spraying it with the Permatex a time or two, and them wiping it off with an old towel.

I highly recommend wearing long sleeves and gloves if you use this stuff. It burns like no other when it comes in contact with your skin. It'll eat threw latex (and similar) gloves.


Jesse

 

[GarageDreamer]

ok.. I've tried the Permtex method and it seems to be working, but is slow and requires alot of scraping, I've tried Stripeeze.. and its slow too.

The bead blaster.. Unknow media (bought used) cleans it all up nice, after I get it to the aluminum.

I'm going to keep trying, but wondering if glass beads would be the trick, another member, on another forum recommended that..

 

[Vicegrip]

ok.. I've tried the Permtex method and it seems to be working, but is slow and requires alot of scraping, I've tried Stripeeze.. and its slow too.

The bead blaster.. Unknow media (bought used) cleans it all up nice, after I get it to the aluminum.

I'm going to keep trying, but wondering if glass beads would be the trick, another member, on another forum recommended that..

No. I use glass bead al the time and you would be able to remove it faster by gnawing it off.

 

[pharmon]

Yes aluminum oxide would be the fastest to remove powder coating or garnett as well but alox tends to cut quickest. As mentioned sometimes chemical stripping or burning off is faster overall.

 

[ChrisLS8]

Raised an 8 year old thread from the grave

 

[CudaChick1968]

Buy some Powder Coating Stripper. If the job was well done, you'll be too old to enjoy it if you decide to blast it off no matter what kind of media you're using.