It sound like there may be a few untested alternatives. I like the sand blasting idea. The ultra sonic idea sound intriguing too.
I think Tim had said a while back that he actually tried using an ultrasonic cleaner. Someone, Harold Grady maybe, found something that took the paint right off, but couldn't remember what it was. Frustrated Tim to no end. Randy
How about burning the epoxy, Put it in a oven and max the temp to 500F or more if your oven can, Brass melts at ~1700F, most epoxies burn up by 400F so you might get a clean brass loco with some ash on it, just like cleaning an oven. if you are careful you could try a propane torch. Kim
what about the solder holding the brass parts together? at what temperature is it rated? just a thought. dave f.
Maybe instead of sand blasting, try media blasting, where they use tiny plastic "beads" that don't damage the surface, like they use on cars?
Solder melts at ~600+F for lead based ones so it may not be good idea to heat it to 500F if it is soldered with lead. Kim
I mostly use on plastic brake fluid, but this will not work with epoxyd painting, but acetone could work because it attacks everything appart PE, PP AND TEFLON.
Not sure if it was here or somewhere else, but once upon a time, Tim gave a pretty detailed description of everything he had tried (and not been successful with) and I think it included oven cleaner (although I don't think he actually baked it) and acetone. Not sure though. Tim will have to chime in unless it makes him go into convulsions. I only know of 5 AZL brass pieces that have been repainted. Of those, 3 of them just painted over the existing AZL/Ajin epoxy finish. The other two were the one Tim did and the one that I mentioned earlier here (Harold Grady?). Randy
Hi guys, yes I stripped a AZL dash-9. I bought the solution from Sears about 4 years ago. It was a paste/gel combination. Took the paint off in about an hour and a half. Very stinky. But I cannot remember the brand name.
I have to admit, a few SW-1 paint job was a kind of screwed up, so tried a few different ways to strip the paint. Unfortunately I use a very tough two part primer, that was very stubborn. The most advanced paint strippers failed. but the good old Paasche air eraser (mini sand blaster) worked wonder using AEX (aluminum oxide) and AE (pumice) as media. I never tried on an AZL locomotive, but no way, any paint will resist to the Paasche mini sand blaster. Try it, you'll like it.
Lajos, I played around with my sand blaster last night on a MTL caboose and I used 50 micron sand. It does take the paint off, but eventually it will eat away at the plastic. I wonder if the same would harm brass at all? I suppose the worst it would do is give the brass a rougher surface which might be better for primer? What think? I also have glass beads I can put through the nozzle, but I find that it isn't near as abrasive as the sand. It actually does a nice job of giving the metal surface a semi gloss finish. I used glass beads on my gold gondola before actually polishing the surfaces with tripoli and rouge. Loren
I think the sandblaster with appropriate media should be used as last resort for brass shells only. As the size of sandblasting unit, bigger than table top jeweler sandblasters and air erasors are prescription for diaster. For plastic shell stripping you can use the already proven methods.
Hey Bob; My father ownes several auto rep-manufacturing parts shops and each shop has an extensive array of blasting and finishing equipment. I can't even begin to tell you all how many times i glass-blasted the paint off my bike and re-painted it when i was a kid. In the "blasters" that my dad uses in the shops, there are multiple different types which use many different aggragate agents to do the stripping work without destroying the parts. On soft plastics he has enclosed blasters that uses buck-wheat hulls. Bak-a-lit and composit plastics are blasted with fine glass, and only cast metal housings are subjected to sand and steel shot. In addition he also has high-speed paddle driven steel shot machines for refinishing alumonium. You should be able to talk with an adrasives dealer and find either the glass or buck wheat for soft material blasing. WHERE A MASK!!!!!if your blasting outside. You do not what to breath in the glass particals...there a killer!!!! Tony B... Wasatch Z Club
Sears stripper Harold, you do realize that this stripper you used is now the stuff of legend and one of the holy grails of Z scale!? Have you gone back and scoured Sears to figure out what it was??? ;-) Randy By the way, I'm not sure I ever heard what your's was repainted into?
You need to definitely test the abrasiveness of the blaster and media used. We used a small desktop unit that you could cut hairlines in eggshells (demos at shows). 0000 size glass beads are so fine that they feel like silk but just opening the bag and feeling the beads will live a gritty feeling in your mouth, they get around. And a full respirator is mandatory but I can tell you. it still gets in your body. Even with the 0000 grit polished beads and various tips, you can still take metal off or at least dull details. I am sure that there a paint stripper that can attack the harder and more durable epoxy like paint in use, without attacking the brass (or stainless steel).
