Problem with these chemicals (here at least) is to cut through the branding and dumbed-down marketing. Way I see it there are four main āproductsā of interest over here:
The common āpaint thinnerā is something called Varsol, which is an Exon-Mobile trademarked petroleum distillate. It is a mixture of C7-C12 hydrocarbons. $10 for 4 liter. Should work better than automotive gasoline? Like you, most people here have some around the house. https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.paint-thinnerāā378-l.1000130966.html
Another generic product is ālacquer thinnerā, able to dissolve plastics and resins. Sounds closest to what you are using. It used to contain toluene (and a soup of other stuff, depending on the brand name), but may not anymore due to environmental concerns. $17 for 4 liter. https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.lacquer-thinnerāā378-l.1000130937.html
Heās just trying to make a big deal about him āunsubbing from this threadā because apparently he is upset I didnāt read the last 800 posts and said the same thing about ventilation as he did before.
I am very happy you revealed your method, I have tried many different solvents available here in Denmark but they didnāt work very well. The method I use have worked for me so far so I will keep using it.
Thatās the kind of stuff that pisses me off about some of the folks in this forumā¦āsecret methodsā. Thank you for sharing your method, it was very nice of you. To me this forum is about helping others that are in the same hobby as you are. Itās not aboutā¦haha,Iāve got a better way and Iām not telling youā¦crap like that belongs on the āother forumāā¦not on BLF.
Iād like to say thanks to everyone who shares their tips in this thread. Iām a hot high octane person. I use very hot high octane gasoline. I started doing this myself after I found out that trying to de-dome in gas during the winter wasnāt working that well. Old Lumens was having great success in his sweltering workshop and I always had good success when I first started because it was summer time. When winter hit it wasnāt working as good so I started heating up my gasoline. I put my emitters in a small porceline crock that I fill about a quarter full (little less than that) and float on top of a large bucket of super hot water.
The Hot high octane does work with the SST-40ās but itās not as clean as the one with the mystery solvent. I say āmysteryā because itās hard to know exactly what itās made of. Here in the US our solvents have become more āgreenā (for lack of a better word). Everything we use is now more environmentally and medically safe.
I used to restore Victorian houses for a while and painted a ton of them using oil paint. Of course we used a paint thinner and Yes I also washed my hands and equipment with it. But at the same time my wife who ādoes nailsā was also using similar products to remove nail polish. As the green movement hit our solvents became weaker and weaker and less effective as well. (Same thing goes for the freon and other products used in refrigeration).
On the āmysteryā product; My first thought was that the ānitroā part of the name had to come from ānitrocelluloseā. Nitrocellusose is a type of finish, itās a ālacquerā. Iāve used it to finish guitar bodies and I have seen it used on cars. In the US we also have Lacquer Thinner. But not all lacquer is the same, far from it. So come companies make a lacquer thinner that matches their own brand of lacquer. Cars use a different lacquer than guitars. So which solvent to try? Again this is very hard to say it might not be any of them āexactlyā. Thatās why it would be nice to know exactly what the ingredients are in the āmysteryā solvent. Itās also likely that itās a combination of chemicals just like our other various solvents on the market are. But in the US one of the missing ingredients from going āgreenā is often Toluene. Yes they actually used Toluene as an ingredient in nail polish remover and paint thinners. Also most cars are no longer finished with any type of nitrocellulose product.
Iām guessing that even the solvents used at body shops are not going to be the same as they once were. However, as some people are still painting and finishing cars the old fashioned way, someone in that industry probably has access to the old style Nitrocellulose thinner. Same can be said for guitar luthiers. (I do french polishes on my guitars but not with nitrocellulose). StewMac is one of the luthier shops that I use and they have two different types of Nitrocellulose thinner. One is their own brand and one is brand specific. These might be worth a try. I have also seen a type of nitrocellulose thinner that is used by some of the guys who paint and finish cars. That might be even closer to the mystery solvent. Itās also possible that none of these are the exact solvent because it might simply be that the mystery solvent is one of our Pre-āGreenā paint thinners. These new solvents might be missing a number of chemicals actually.
Iāll try out a few of these solvents and see if I can find one that works as well as the mystery solvent. Hopefully Iāll find something that I can share in this thread to help add something of value. Mostly though I will be trying to find something to work better on the harder domes that are more difficult. The Hot High Octane method works great on the XMLās and XPG domes already.
Thanks again to everyone who is helping out on this thread.
I thought about toluene as well, but I couldnāt really tell from your comment on it if you were saying that the āmysteryā stuff was mostly Toluene or if you were referring to the stuff Jdozz used that didnāt work so well.
Pretty much all of the solvents have a different āspecialā add mixture of various chemicals. If it is Toluene that works correctly then that would be very cool. Maybe you could try it and report back to us? That would be cool too. Right now Iām trying a stripper that has toluene in it that I had laying around from a project. It also has acetone (which will remove domes but not that great), methylene chloride and methanol.
Iāll report back in a while and say how it goes.
Same here. I was surprised they had any in stock at all, but they did have a gallon of Toluene at the hardware store in town, something like $26 though. (Which Iād pay if it actually worked really well). Iām sure it would be cheaper at a large hardware store, but for me thatās an hours drive away.
Iām almost sure that Toulene is the ingredient that does the trick. I have a thinner with over 80% toulene, 15% acetone and a few percentage of methyl and isobutylene. It dedomed an xm-l2 in under two minutes. Completely clean.
The tint was however not so great. Thatās why Iām still looking to get Nitro thinner.
Wow thatās fast. Too bad it changed the tint, hope you find the Nitro thinner.
Iām not worried about it for the XM-L2ās or XP-G2ās but Iād really like to find something that works wonders on the new SST-40ās. I love their output and the fact that they can be really over-driven in a big way. They seem to clean up good when I first cut the dome off and then use the Hot Gasoline trick but Iād like to see them be absolutely perfect if possible.
What was it you didnāt like about the tint change with toulene? I have only done a few , but my first few I tried with gasoline, turned green. Hot gas made a difference, in that they turned more yellow. Iām kind of color blind, so I donāt know if that makes a difference to most, but it seems more natural to me. I just use a shotglass (that Iāll only serve shots to someone else :rage: ), with gas, and set it in a pot, pouring in boiling water. The gas usually starts boiling within a minute. Xm-L2ās come completely clean within a few minutes. Xp-Gās, I might have to add more hot water, to get them clean. I am hoping for the minimum Tint change, but understand itās going to happen. Thanks
Are you guys sure that the solvent made your leds turn green and not the tint of the led you started with? To me it is a bit of a BLF-myth that the used chemical for dedoming has any effect on the resulting tint.
Yes, it went extremely fast. My best bet in acquiring Nitro in Italian eBay. Sure, it might be a bit expensive, but if it works it will be worth it in the end.
Iām thinking of buying some of the SST-40s also. If I do, Iāll definitely try dedoming them with thinner and report back if itās a success or not.
As Iām still very green at dedoming, I really donāt know what the actual cause is. The ones Iāve tried it on are XM-L2 U2 1a. But Iām not really sure if they had a hint of green in them in the first place.
Thank you djozz for saying that. You are right. I donāt know the exact bin of my first few. Knowing, what I have done since, I am much happier with the outcome. Still, even though Iām color challenged, I see a pretty big difference between a domed, and de-domed led. Everyone says they get warmer. I donāt know what that means. All I see is blue, green, yellow, orange , and red .