Walnut Shell Stripping

What kind of paint are you trying to strip? I've been very successful with Easy-Off oven cleaner and 90% Rubbing alcohol.

Dan-tot wrote in news:96927d47-d3a7-4998-9e2f- snipped-for-privacy@u10g2000yqk.googlegroups.com:

I would think walnut shells or any such thing might be to rough on resin or plastic.

Another poster suggested Easy off oben cleaner. That hasn't always worked for me.

Pollyscale has ELO Easy Lift Off and the model railroaders have another stripper Scale Coat II Wash Away that is fantastic.

Frank

Both walnut and corncob tumbling media are used to polish brass shells for ammo reloading. I can't see how they wouldn't wear plastic or resin.

I think walnut shell granules are used in sandblasting. They are supposed to remove paint without scratching or marring surface. But, you have to have a sandblaster that takes such abrasives. Don't know if that miniature one sold by Micro Mark awhile ago would take those or not. Don't know where you would get ground walnut shells, but I suppose places that sell sand for sandblasters might know.

I dunno, Don

I'd feel much safer using the good old Castrol Super Clean or if you're worried about what CSC will do, Greased Lightning or Simple Green can also take off paint - takes longer, but much less danger of affecting Styrene or Vinyl

Ken Lundquist - also in Minnesota

I have been told that ground walnut shell is used instead of sand in a sandblaster when stripping epoxy paint from aircraft before repainting. The ground shell granules will not scratch or mar the surface of the aluminum skin because the granules are softer than the aluminum but harder than the paint. The ground shell is used because using a manual paint scraper would leave scratches in the aluminum which could start cracks. The plastic or resin is liable to be much softer than the ground shell which is being propelled at a high velocity so I would expect erosion.

Again - you're talking metal vs plastic or resin. Aluminum is harder than either. Also - removing paint from an aircraft surface by blasting will eventually damage the structural integrity of the underlying aluminum skin if you do it enough times. Same with polishing, only it happens far slower.

As I mentioned before, both walnut and corncob media are used in tumblers to polish brass ammo cartridges for reloading - which does erode the metal slightly. Any and all polishing media does remove some surface material from the metal.

Tumbling your workpiece might work better than air blasting it, but you are still going to remove detail from the underlying surface. A chemical paint remover would be a far better approach.