Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

fishrdan

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I'm stripping contact cement off the sides of an aluminum hull and wondering which of these solvents (acetone, xylene, lacquer thinner) is the most user friendly, will still allow me to have kids in the future and won't make me sprout a new appendage???

I yanked the carpet out of an 01 Crestliner and now have the left over contact cement to deal with. If I was installing carpet I'd just go over it, but Nautolex is pretty thin and is going to show the factory's uneven application of contact cement. I tried each of them on a test area and they all seemed to remove the contact cement equally well, so not sure which one I should be working with.

Do I need to wear a respirator if I'm going to be working outside with a fan blowing? I always wear one if confined around noxious chemicals, but would prefer not to in the 100 degree temps as long as I'm safe to do so. I bought a set of reusable nitrile gloves and a box of the disposable nitrile gloves to protect my hands.

Thanks!
 

oops!

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

i would think the laqur thinnewr would be the best for contact cement..... but the best way is to test it !

allways wear a resporator....

and a grinder with a 7 inch flapper disc and 80 grit will make short work of it
 

fishrdan

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

Nooo, this stuff is still tacky as all get out,,, even after 7 years :confused:

Any type of mechanical means for removing it sticks the tool to the boat, weird stuff, grinder and disc would be gummed up in no time short. It has to be some sort of hot-melt contact cement as the sun makes it stickier. The only way I found to get it off is to soak it in solvent, work it with a brush and mop up the residue with a solvent soaked paper towel.

I have a feeling I'm going to be hating life in a few hours...
 

iwombat

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

Might want to try 3m adhesive remover.
 

fishrdan

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

Well, just got back from Lowes...

gallon of acetone = $16
gallon of xylene = $16
gallon of lacquer thinner = $15
5 gallons on lacquer thinner = $48 Yup, I'm going with the lacquer thinner.

Now the fun begins,,, 40sq' of this stuff to remove :(
 

jonesg

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

I don't think you can actually dissolve rubber, if its in fact contact cement its rubber.
I tried everything to remove it from my van after scraping off old decals from the previous owner, talked to auto body shops and tried their tricks, oven cleaner etc. Goop off or whatever its called, nothing worked really good..

Then after it was raining and cold for a few days I rubbed it with my finger and it came off, so water and a scrubby pad (steel) will work if nothing else works. But it marrs the surface.
 

zach103

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

i rub the lacquer on my hands all the time after i resin.. takes it off well
 

wca_tim

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

wear gloves and some form of not breathing too much whichever you use...

of the ones you mentione, xylene would probably be the best for the sime reason that it takes a lot longer to evaporate and will stick around longer to dissolve in the rubber even if it won't dissolve the rubber.

contact cement is often thinned with toluene, so that shoudl work (it is very similar in properties to xylene as well), and I also think MEK would probably be just as good or better in terms of solvent strength.

Hope this is helpful
 

fishrdan

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Re: Acetone, Xylene or Lacquer Thinner,,, which is the bettter solvent???

1 side of the hull done, 2 hours, 2 gallons lacquer thinner and 2 rolls of paper towels. Scraping was useless (unless it was to bust loose a stubborn area), brushing was useless,, the only thing that worked was saturating the area and scrubbing it with a saturated paper towel, then go back over the area with another saturated paper towel.

The nitrile dipped gloves lasted for an hour before the LQ thinner and scrubbing ate/rubbed a hole in a thumb. Luckily I picked up a box of disposable nitrile gloves which I'm using inside the dipped gloves, they are lasting about 15-20 minutes,,, better than nothing.

The respirator is working out well, can't even tell I'm using LQ thinner until I pop it off.
 
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