Well the MEK worked like a charm! Dome fell off within the first 45 minutes! Now at the 2 hour mark, and there is still a little left around the edges, so I’m going to let it sit a little longer.
Will post pictures tonight.
HD here I come!
Correct, all thinners are not alike not even close. You need to go to a Automotive/Industrial Supply or Painters Supply to get the GOOD stuff. Urethane thinner is unlike Lacquer thinner unlike Enamel (Imron) thinner ect. You can get it in Pints, Quarts, Gallon and 55 gallon drum. It cost more but its worth it, because it’s more refined and cleaner. Just ask anybody that paints cars if they buy their thinner at Home Depot? Heck they might let you have a cup just for the laugh??? Hmmm never thought of that?
Which one do I get?
Urethane thinner, Lacquer thinner, Enamel (Imron) thinner...
I just dedomed a XP-G2 S21D in the Imron Thinner, 15minutes dome floated off, 45 minutes clean with a slight blast of canned air, I’m now soldering it in a EEX6SE. It works for me, ADV and D36ME, also BLF members.
Imron Thinner. Ok, that narrows it down some. Only a few hundred different part numbers and mixtures...
Every maker has a different part number, different formula for how fast/slow it evaporates, temperatures,what catalyst it can be mixed with ect. basically the same thinner different additives, for different performance. I’ll get the number I use from the painters or our supplier tomorrow and post it.
Who would have ever thought thinner was just not.....thinner?
I have started to learn more about thinner by reading posts in BLF.
Whats BLF?
Update from my previous post:
MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) did the trick. Managed to dedome two XML2’s today and it makes a world of difference in throw. I highly recommend you try it out as it is a lot easier than I thought it would be. I took an old mason jar, rigged up a metal coat hanger with bare wire soldered onto the end, soldered the star with the emitter attached, and let it sit for 2 hours. Voila, dome fell right off with minimal cleaning up to do. Best trick is to get it under a magnifying glass and scrape away at the remnants being VERY careful around the tiny gold + - wires. I tried out an exact-o knife but that just ended up scraping up the edges. On the second one I just used a toothpick instead and it turned out much nicer looking. Little compressed air (keyboard cleaner) and some rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) and it worked perfectly! No smell at all! The tint did get quite warm, although I’m not sure what the tint was before, but it definitely wan’t this warm. No green tint as far as my eyes see (as described from people using the gas dedome method).
Before attempting this today, I always had to ship my lights off to guys on BLF for them to dedome my lights for me… but no more! I can now dedome myself! :party:
Special thanks to all you guys who pointed me in the right direction; especially cajampa for figuring out that this MEK stuff does the trick!
2 BLF EE X6’s (Tints started off different, but it goes to show how tighter the beam is) This was in my living room, in the afternoon, so it doesn’t accurately show the brightness. It’s just a quick, cell phone picture reference :bigsmile:
Thats a pretty huge difference!
Here is the DuPont paint thinner mentioned
Thanks ADV!
Nice!
I’ve been using gasoline to dedome my emitters all the time, and it requires quite some cleaning efforts. I need to figure out where can I buy this MEK within my country.
Aaaah, miracles of science Y32035...I'm wondering if dedoming them in these chemicals shortens the life or damages the emitter... At least their not caustic. I wonder if hydrochloric acid would work?
The only one we have confirmed damaging max Amp if left in for way to long is acetone, Mitko found out the hard way 
The rest of these new dedoming solutions we just don’t know yet.
Here is what I used, just in case you guys need the info. Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) Solvent
Zero gas smell!
I just noticed that stuff is not for sale or use in California. I guess the powers that be don’t want us to hurt ourselves or the earth with a little paint thinner. Ugh.
Great, so what do we use? I guess that other thinner mentioned above...