Metal Control Panel stripping. (Need advice)

[BUCKETHEAD]

I have this Metal Control Panel.

Which has this ugly generic sticker art on it.

It covers the whole control panel, And is not going to be easy to peel off.

It is thick like GRIP TAPE on a skateboard.

I thought about sanding it off ?

Any suggestions on how to get this junk off easily ??

Thanks!

[CheffoJeffo]

Have a similar situation ... started cleaning up a panel (thickly encrusted with messy overlay that ain't coming off easily) this past weekend

Belt sander wasn't bad, but not great. Palm sander was useless.

Drum sander on a Dremel has been best so far ... but it is going to take some time (owing to small drum size).

Cheers,

JAKD

[APFelon]

Do you have access to a heat gun? A heat gun and a plastic putty knife works pretty well for stripping overlays. It'd be a lot faster than a Dremel tool and you'll get cleaner results, too.

APf

[BUCKETHEAD]

I have a belt sander and dremel.

But damn i didn't want to go that route

[BUCKETHEAD]

No access to a heat gun.

I have a Hair dryer?  LOL!

But i guess that ain't gonna throw out enough heat.

[APFelon]

Heat guns aren't that expensive. If you are dreading grinding away at that panel, the cost of a heat gun may be worth it to you.

Something to look into, anyway.

APf

[CheffoJeffo]

I had thought about the heat gun, but the kids were home before I could try it ... will give it a shot tomm.

Tks.

[Arcadiac]

Hi there.  Take a look at this thread, replies 24,26. 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=10%3baction=display%3bthreadid=17788

I had gone thru more frustration trying to get to a bare metal control panel using all the techniques offered, wasting money on chemicals, sanding etc. 

Finally someone suggested taking it to a machine shop.  They baked it in the oven to burn off the crap encrusted on it and then ran it thru a machine called an abrader.  I got back a clean, ready to paint or whatever cp within a few days.  Look at reply #32 for a pic. 

I would never try to remove any gunk from an old cp any other way again, personal preference of course.

If you decide to paint your bare cp, be sure to prime with a rustoleum type primer, let cure a day, paint a couple of coats gloss enamel and let cure a couple more days so the paint will harden.

Best of luck!  ARCADIAC!

[dirt]

i use industrial adhesive remover from home depot and it works very good but is really messy.


dirt

[Ken Layton]

Go to the hardware store and over in the paint section buy some M.E.K. (Methyl Ethyl Ketone). It removes most control panel adheisives.

[Stingray]

Laquer thinner works well for cleaning almost any kind of adhesive from metal.

-S

[CheffoJeffo]

I just tried the heat gun on mine and the overlay(s) are coming up like butter.

Nice! Tks.

[BUCKETHEAD]

Coming up like butter!

That sounds right up my alley!

How much are HEAT GUNS?

And where is a good place to get one?

I suspect GOO GONE will clean it up nicely

After the overlay is off.

[Ken Layton]

You can usually find cheap heat guns at Harbor Freight in the range of $15 or so. Generally any hardware store sells heat guns in the paint or tool section.

[RayB]

Umm, it's not that hard getting overlays off of there. I've done it to 3 metal panels in the past. All you need is one of those scrapers (the ones with what looks like a razor blade). Use the scraper to lift parts of the overlay, and when there's enough to grab just pull and rip off.

Then you'll be left with a layer of adhesive. Goo Gone, left to soak on it for 5 minutes will do the trick. Then again you use the scraper to scrape the goop off.

[CheffoJeffo]

I started with a razor scraper on mine and got most of the first two layers off easily, but the third layer is very thick and brittle (so there is no way you can bring up a corner and pull). The heat gun softens it up so that (if I don't mind burning my fingers) I can pull off big strips.

Cheers,

JAKD

[SirPeale]

A blow dryer will also work.  Just get close (six inches or so) and set it at it's highest setting.

[NIVO]

another alternative might be taking to a auto body shop and having it media blasted, will not leave a mark on it afterwards. And the part being so small you could literally have the guy do it in 10 minutes. Pricing would vary. I had steel cabinet media blasted for $25 and it took 30 minutes. YMMV.

In your case I would go for the heatgun, was on sale at harbor freight last week for $9.99

[Kremmit]

Was still $9.99, as of 5:30 Pacific time today.  Got mine.

[Raven..]

I had a lot of trouble cleaning the old crap off of my new Galaxian CP.  I ended up just peeling it off by hand, leaving all of the mess behind.  Then I soaked it with Orange Formual 409 and scraped it with a razor scraper.  Finished off with a palm sander.  It took me almost 2 hours total, but it looks great!

[Stingray]

another alternative might be taking to a auto body shop and having it media blasted, will not leave a mark on it afterwards. And the part being so small you could literally have the guy do it in 10 minutes. Pricing would vary. I had steel cabinet media blasted for $25 and it took 30 minutes. YMMV.

In your case I would go for the heatgun, was on sale at harbor freight last week for $9.99

Blasting won't take off a CPO, at least not at all quickly. Also the guy won't want to get all that crap in his blast cabinet, at least I wouldn't want to get it in mine.

-S