Looking for epoxy stripper

60 grit sandpaper. If you find a chemical that will soften epoxy let me know. I have several pair of jeans standing in the corner of the shed that could use some. :-)
jtaylor wrote:

Dont know about epoxy strippers but I'm sure silicone enhanced ones abound. ;)

You may try heating the epoxy with a hot air gun and scraping the stuff off hot.
Alot of epoxies get really soft (like wax) when heated, some don't budge. I haven't seen anything like finish stripper even come close to dissolving any epoxy.
A few fellow 'glass airplane builders suggested this for a mistake I made on a layup. I was using Vinylester resin and it just didn't budge with the heat. I ended up grinding it off. (LOTS of work there!)

Go to your local body shop supply joint and get some aircraft stripper. This is what airplane painters use to strip 2-component, catalyzed urethanes. Basically, it is thickened methylene chloride. Pretty nasty stuff, so don't try it in an enclosed area. Wait till it warms up, paint or spray on a thick coat, cover with a polyethylene dropcloth, and give it 24 hours to work its magic. Should be fun. ;-)
BTW, expect to pay around $25+ /gallon; you will likely need at least 2, and maybe 3.
DLG

Urethane paint stripper has no effect on epoxy at all that I can see. I used some to remove some sample of Awlgrip that I tried out on my hull. The Awlgrip softened up very nicely but the epoxy just laughed it off.

There was a Brownell's tech note about their epoxy glues. If I recall correctly they said epoxy glue starts to lose strength around 190 degrees and loses most or all by 300 or so. Not sure if I would want to expose the wood to that kind of temperature.
Steve.

Hardened epoxy is about as inert as a Hostess Twinkee. I don't think there is a solvent for the catalyzed form that you can easily use. Nitric acid might take it apart, but that's not practical. JR Dweller in the cellar
jtaylor wrote:

Don't tell anyone, but Glenn's helpers are behind the shed, leaned against the wall.... JR Dweller in the cellar
Glenn Ashmore wrote:

Stripper canoes make nice planters. If you have a Victorian house with a long porch, it's a natural.
There is a chemical used in industry to strip some pretty tough epoxies, but I think it turns wood into something like apple jelly. It will not work with the ETC (elevated-temperature-cure) types, I'm told. But that's not what you have. You probably have some type of RTC epoxy hardened with polyamide or something like that, and it's pretty resistant. If you get lucky, it may soften up a bit with methylene chloride paint stripper. But more likely not.
There are many different formulations of epoxy, and you never know for sure what will make them go "tilt," if anything. Again, I'd consider the planter idea, with some tall perennials in the background and some bright little annuals in the front. A paddle, tastefully arranged part-way in the dirt, contributes to the effect.
Now, if it was my canoe and I really wanted a canoe out of it, I'd get out my Porter-Cable siding sander, the disk sander with the two adjustable rods that let you set the depth of cut, and put on my best respirator and some clothes I intended to throw away immediately, and have at it. It's not really a bad job. In fact, I've done exactly that, although it was to sand off a crappy fiberglass/polyester job on a 26-foot boat, not to sand epoxy, which is a lot tougher to sand. I was well paid for the work and it actually went pretty quickly. Then I went at the remains with a belt sander.
BTW, use a Porter-Cable plated-carbide metal disk. It's fantastic.
Ed Huntress

Methanol will dissolve some types of epoxy, it's a SLOW process though.
William....

How about using a router ? Set up two parallels to sit either side . I think it would not be too hard to set this up . Maybe set a guide rail lower down to follow and just go slow ? Ken Cutt

What I would do is just fix what's broken. I doubt that this is something that's worth a lot of restoration. Grind/sand back enough to get where it's tight, feather it and apply the fix. You'll save a lot of effort stripping it AND the cost and effort of re-glassing it. That much epoxy and fiberglass is not cheap.
If you're willing to do the strip and re-glass, you might as well just build a new one. You can make is as nice as you want.
My $.02, Bob
BTW - I have built a stripper canoe, so I am familiar with the cost and effort.

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 01:24:16 -0800, Ken Cutt vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
Router with TC tipped bits. the glass part would rip anything else to bits INT.
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