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EPA to ban some paint strippers


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Howdy all,

       I have been meaning to post this for a while now but I keep forgetting. A while back I was looking into which paint strippers worked the best. In the past I have always used Klean Strip or Aircraft Stripper so have most of the shops that Ive worked at but I figured I would check to see if there was anything new that I was unaware of that might be better. Anyway, when I did the search I found that on 3-15-2019 the EPA announced that they are going to ban strippers that contain methylene chloride due to deaths from "exposure" such as using it without protection and in enclosed spaces etc. It appears that the ban only pertains to retail consumers not businesses. Im not sure when the ban will take effect. Auto paint supply shops will still carry it though for those that have working relationships with them. Walmart only carries the reformulated type now but at least for now our local Ace still carries the stripper that contains methylene chloride as well as the "safe" stuff. The reformulated "safe" stripper works but not nearly as good. Im sure most of the folks here already know that the chemical stripper in question is some mighty strong stuff and that using common sense and taking the necessary safety precautions such as the proper type long gloves eye protection, clothing, etc and using it in a well ventilated area are of paramount importance when using it  . Lets face it the "good stuff" can and will burn the heck out of you if you happen to get a drip on your skin or catch a good whiff of it.  

      Anyway I wanted to pass this on to yall just in case anyone was planning to remove paint with chemical stripper in the future. If so you might want to grab some.

           

                                    John 

Edited by John Rogers
I am a terrible typist
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Chlorinated solvents are bad news. They usually pass right through normal gloves and are absorbed into the body. Metalized gloves are the only way to guarantee you won't have any go into your skin.On the other hand, this characteristic makes them great solvents for lots of different things.

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Just recently had a need to strip some mighty thick paint from some steel parts and found all of the 'new' 

formulas at Home Depot and Lowes. The new stuff did, finally, cut through but not as fast as the good-old-stuff.

No doubt it would have been faster had the paint not been a inch thick....:rolleyes:

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build a hot lye tank....like lye is easy to come by these days....lol  Used my lye tank not so long ago....great paint stripper...

 

It is getting harder to get some other supplies as well as the means to ship these chemical are getting more and more restrictive.  Just got a call today that my order of four gallons of acid has been delivered to a local supplier.  If not for ability to ship to the store, this stuff would be way expensive to get delivered to your door.

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yes, lye tanks are a plus with stripping many coatings from items...especially cast iron.....I also have a stainless container that contain a very cost effective de-rust agent that is super effective.  In this hobby you need a few added devices to your inventory to speed along or enhance a process.

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As an aside, I just picked up four gallons of 56+% of phosphoric acid I ordered in and had dropped shipped to a local merchant...this stuff brushed onto crusty rust is 95% gone over night...second coat make is clean and ready to finish your weld, body work or other pre-primer related repairs.  I had just cracked open my last gallon I had on hand...

Edited by Plymouthy Adams
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16 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

As an aside, I just picked up four gallons of 56+% of phosphoric acid I ordered in and had dropped shipped to a local merchant...this stuff brushed onto crusty rust is 95% gone over night...second coat make is clean and ready to finish your weld, body work or other pre-primer related repairs.  I had just cracked open my last gallon I had on hand...

Back when I was working at the plating shop, they gave me all of what was left of a 55 drum of phosphoric acid I'd say at least 20 gallons or so.  (We didn't use it in the plating works, because it is so slow.  Just used muriatic acid, but as I'm sure everyone here knows, steel rusts really fast after you take it out of that stuff.  In contrast, I have some things I stripped in the vat of phosphoric acid, and never got it painted.  Still not rusted after more than 35 years.)  

 

What kind of business gets it in for you?

 

I also had purchased (from the plating shop) some sort of alkaline paint stripper,  and had set up a heated tank.  I can't remember the name of the stuff, and I also had problems with getting it washed off enough to get good adhesion with the paint.  (I wiped it down with phosphoric acid, then with thinner.  But i still had some spots where the paint lifted.  I had run my doors through that, because my car had been repainted twice, once with a brush, then sprayed, and it was really thick in the creases around the windows, etc.)

Edited by Eneto-55
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Back when lye was more readily available, I would dissolve it in hot water and add corn starch to create a wall paper paste consistency.   Brush on and cover with a plastic drop cloth to keep it wet.  Works pretty good, and was cheap.  Lye is still available locally, but in small containers, more expensive and kept under lock and key at most stores.

 

Apparently it is a precursor ingredient in some meth recipes.

 

But, it can be ordered on eBay!

Edited by kencombs
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Metal Prep from POR15 is phosphoric acid product if I remember right and available in up to 5 gallon containers.

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Yes metal prep is phosphoric acid based product and available from many different body shop houses and on line retailers....but the price they charge for such a low percent of acid content is insane.  The stuff from POR15 is only 3-7% phosphoric....and at 18.00 a quart, that is some expensive water....it does what it is intended to do, treat a nicely prepared panel prior to paint.  I also dilute mine for this as a final wipe.  But the product I get in a gallon container for 13.00 and at 56% acid, at full strength, it will eat rust right before your eyes.

Edited by Plymouthy Adams
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Yes, we had some metal prep back when my brother & I were working together on our cars (He has a 49 DeSoto), and after the bottle of that stuff was used up, I started mixing my own from the straight stuff I had in the acid vat.  I'd put just enough acid in water so that it would still foam on gravel.  That made it weak enough that it wouldn't burn my hands if I got some on me. 

(Speaking of acid burns, there was one guy I worked with at the plating shop that had some sort of natural resistance to acid burns.  He could reach into the muriatic acid with his bare hands, and as long as he rinsed right away he wouldn't get burned.  Another guy there got some serious burns on his wrist, and didn't want to tell the boss, so he just put a bandage on it.  When you get an acid burn, the oil in your skin comes to the top or something, because you have to scrub it pretty hard to get to the acid.  He didn't want to scrub the burn because it was raw skin, so the acid just kept eating away right from under the bandage.  By the time the boss saw it, he was so badly burned that he couldn't do normal work for a long time.  The first guy also put his bare hands into the cyanide tank - cadmium plating - all the time, and would just rinse off in the mild acid rinse that we took the parts through after the post-muriatic water rinse.  It was two acids mixed, one was nitric, I think, but I don't recall at all the other anymore.  Too long ago.)

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the above testament by Eneto-55 is the very reason that products available to the general public is often in a very diluted form as most do not have the common sense to work with the product, take the precaution needed and have a contingency plan in case of an accident.  Companies cannot take on the liability of the stupid.  Just like many of the systems on our old vehicles, knowing how something works need to be known in order to make it work.  With chemical, same thing holds true, understand how they work and the quick effective and safe means to neutralize them should something go awry.  No matter how safe you are...things can go wrong...they are not called accidents for nothing.  The very strongest mix of phosphoric I have ever seen is 85% and just less than consistency of syrup.  Heavy product also.  It is available at 99.9% but the cost is out of the world and thus I see no need for this in the hobby...

Edited by Plymouthy Adams
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16 hours ago, Eneto-55 said:

Back when I was working at the plating shop, they gave me all of what was left of a 55 drum of phosphoric acid I'd say at least 20 gallons or so.  (We didn't use it in the plating works, because it is so slow.  Just used muriatic acid, but as I'm sure everyone here knows, steel rusts really fast after you take it out of that stuff.  In contrast, I have some things I stripped in the vat of phosphoric acid, and never got it painted.  Still not rusted after more than 35 years.)  

 

What kind of business gets it in for you?

 

I also had purchased (from the plating shop) some sort of alkaline paint stripper,  and had set up a heated tank.  I can't remember the name of the stuff, and I also had problems with getting it washed off enough to get good adhesion with the paint.  (I wiped it down with phosphoric acid, then with thinner.  But i still had some spots where the paint lifted.  I had run my doors through that, because my car had been repainted twice, once with a brush, then sprayed, and it was really thick in the creases around the windows, etc.)

 

I also have panels treated left exposed for years some in extreme outdoor conditions that did not have any continued rust action.  Amazing product....

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