Brittle orange t-mold from a pacman cabinet - how to remove

[leapinlew]

I'm having some issues removing the orange t-molding from a pacman cab. It's just about disintegrating into small chips and leaving the tail of the T-molding in the slots. Anyone have any suggestions?

[TheShanMan]

Needle nose pliers?

[spacies]

Maybe a bit of heat?

[leapinlew]

Maybe a bit of heat?

Pliers aren't working - it's breaking off in 1/4" pieces.

I was wondering if some heat would make it more pliable, or hold together. I'll try to take a hair dryer to it. Thanks for the tip.

[RandyT]

I was wondering if some heat would make it more pliable, or hold together. I'll try to take a hair dryer to it. Thanks for the tip.

Give it a shot, but I'm doubtful it will help much.  If it's falling apart that badly, there's probably little that can be done to keep the pieces together.

You might end up just having to pull off what you can and then carefully use a "linoleum" or other hooked knife to pop out the pieces.  If they're stuck in there good,  the other option would be to carefully line up a slot cutter with the existing slot and clean out the chips.

Good luck!


RandyT

[Bluedeath]

maybe and i say maybe  the dremel cutting disk (the one used for the fiberglass) carefully used into the slot (but you need to have a veeeeeeeeery steady hand) could speed up your work

[fixedpigs]

maybe and i say maybe  the dremel cutting disk (the one used for the fiberglass) carefully used into the slot (but you need to have a veeeeeeeeery steady hand) could speed up your work

why not just chase it with a router & a slot cutting bit...?

[Neverending Project]

How about taking a shop-vac with a wedge or funnel tip to the slot to take out the remaining t-molding spine?

[Bluedeath]

maybe and i say maybe  the dremel cutting disk (the one used for the fiberglass) carefully used into the slot (but you need to have a veeeeeeeeery steady hand) could speed up your work

why not just chase it with a router & a slot cutting bit...?

Nothing against it but the dremel (or similar) tool is more common, easy to use and a litte dangerous.  i think that using the slot cutter would be a little overkill (I'm italian, forgive me if the word that i used are not correct)

[Ginsu Victim]

Your English is fine.
I agree. A dremel is what I've thought as well. Just be careful and it should work fine.

[QuarterJunkie]

I think a dremel is going to want to wander around and not make a clean cut. I vote for the slot cutter and router. Razor knife all around first to take off the top then route away.

[Ginsu Victim]

The dremel when operated with a foot pedal is much better. Here's how to make a variable speed pedal control:

http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/foot-pedal-mod-for-rotary-tools/index_eng

[Bluedeath]

man you 're a genious! the foot pedal idea is very smart im going to buld one.

[rrcade]

Look closely at your cabinet, your tee molding is probably stapled in place, that might be why you are having a hard time, either that or it was glued in.  No matter how old or brittle you should be able to pull it right out unless one of the things I mentioned was done.

[CheffoJeffo]

Lew -- had the same problem with mine -- was an ugly deal picking out all of the bits without hurting the slot (o/w I might have just run the router or dremel through there).