.
Please let me know your method.
Tried non chemichal way on LB led,pre heating and blade.
The dome come out but also phospors :person_facepalming:
I tried Methylene Chloride but was disappointed. In no way dissolved the Epoxy.
H2SO4 or NaOH canât use on precision watch parts - substrate of aluminium and/or brass.
MEK has no effect on my test pieces.
Dichloromethane is Methylene Chloride. This boils at 39.6ÂșC.
Now if you soften the cured epoxy with these products and then scrap them off, perhaps. But Iâm looking for a solvent.
So maybe the solvents arenât what is written on their containers or my chemistry is wrong. The Methylene Chloride is clearly labelled as such, IIRC. Used for acrylic fusion from a plastic modelling company. The MEK is a principal ingredient in lacquer thinner (from the can label as MSDS â commercial packaging).
I always thought Uric acid was the nasty morning pee smell.
Simply swap led in Trustfire T4, days ago. Put cslnm1.tg in it but the result is worse than I expected. Seems like the reflector is not suit for this led, the beam lost too much light to corona around hotspot.
I tried to upload pics on Imgure all day but still canât until now. I will post it later if Imgure let me upload them.
I might try to change led again later to a more floody higher lumen led .
O K. I uploaded them.
Seconded.
Youâre right it does boil at 39.6 Itâs been awhile since Iâve used it. However I did use it in a glass jar with a loose lid swirling it while in warm water. It kept the smell down. Fume hood only goes so far.
Google says excessive uric acid has an ammonia smell, myself I donât remember. Eat too much fat the night before and youâll get a little more MEK out in the morning. All the stuff I used Iâm surprised I donât have cancer. You harsh chemical users; Fume hood or outdoors not garage style but really outside. Gloves, splash guard, cotton clothes.
@texas shooter:
But I still donât understand why my methylene chloride doesnât dissolve the hardened epoxy. Itâs one of the active ingredients in paint stripper (along with sodium/potassium hydroxide â the gel types). And the smell is ethereal - almost sweet.
Iâll be trying gasoline. Itâs loaded with petroleum esters and although has a lingering smell, is about my last resort.
There would be some âLepageâs glue removerâ which I doubt is sold in the US. But typically these over-the-shelf concoctions are a random mix of many VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and leave many residues.
Wellp, most epoxy is kinda by design not supposed to melt or dissolve, but Iâve seen (but havenât really tried) using IPA and/or AcMe to loosen/dissolve it.
Try it? Both are easy enough to get even at a CVS or whatnot. âRubbing alcoholâ and ânail-polish removerâ.
If ya canât get it locally order online: Goof Off!
Works well on most domes. Soak overnight.
Less flammable/explosive vapor-wise. And it doesnât leave a lingering smell on anything including fingers. Gasoline tends to.
PS. After dedoming always spray it off with No Residue contact cleaner.
I attempted to open a broken Zebralight today.
I couldnât even get the lens retaining ring off. I wasnât able to wedge anything under it. I suspect if I want to mod one of these, Iâll have to shatter the lens, pick out the pieces, and only then be able to lever up the ring with a screwdriver.
Thanks all. As I originally posted, IPA and acetone have no effect.
And to LB for honestly saying he never tried those. Too many false positives about the web. There is a difference between loosening and dissolving. IPA is so mild, wouldnât make a smear in grandmaâs diapers. Acetone, very polar and volatile, doesnât attack closed chained polymers. or most esters but for a smidge of hazing the surface because of the reactionâs oils that mitigate to the surface.
GoofOff is citrus-based oil and would not be suitable for such a delicate mechanism. Iâve once used that stuff with poor results and a mess to clean, which Iâll always never use from now on. Itâs too tame and lame.
Would there not be someone with experience with esters (some chemist) on the forum?
edit;
And please donât chime in âbrake cleanerâ (perchloroethylene, aka PERC - dry cleaning fluid).
If you feel uncomfortable with these aromatics, donât suppose others are as such. Iâve worked with much more âreactiveâ chemicals including Perchloric Acid and Antimony Pentafluoride. So none of these âmommyâ scares about cancer or flamability.
I modified an Xbox One controllerâs cool white LED to amber. I was using an old Xbox 360 controller for a long while. It had green emitters. It wasnât until the joystick on my old controller started to stick that I really had to look into using the newer controller. I didnât like the use of cool white backlighting, especially at night. Itâs a good feeling experience to have a light I use so much shift to low glare amber.
Also wanted to mention, I had initially planned on using warm white 2700K, but the footprint of the planned Osram emitter wasnât working with the PCB footprints.
And to LB for honestly saying he never tried those. Too many false positives about the web.
Yeh, that was straight from the Loctite site, among others.
Donât the 2-part epoxies use âlockânâkeyâ molecules to polymerise? That makes âem especially tough to chemically split apart again.
My reaction (haha) to the Loctite page was âIPA? Nfw!â.
So yeah, I only tossed it out there as untested.
Sydney StrattonâŠ.
Lemme get this properly straight. Yer trying to dissolve a CURED surface-hardened epoxy without conceivably fooking up wattâs underneath. Good luck. I think you may be going to a powerful acid cuz thatâs about the only type of chemical AFAIK with that kind of penetrative âbiteâ.
As for Goof Off! it may be relatively tame butt as for most dedoming itâs certainly not lame.
Donât know watt ya messed up by using it. Curious as to watt it was though.
I attempted to open a broken Zebralight today.
I couldnât even get the lens retaining ring off. I wasnât able to wedge anything under it. I suspect if I want to mod one of these, Iâll have to shatter the lens, pick out the pieces, and only then be able to lever up the ring with a screwdriver.
It appears you just need a small wood-carving knife to remove the retaining ring: Zebralight SC600 MkIII Emitter Swap
Sydney Stratton⊠Lemme get this properly straight. Yer trying to dissolve a CURED surface-hardened epoxy without conceivably fooking up wattâs underneath. Good luck. I think you may be going to a powerful acid cuz thatâs about the only type of chemical AFAIK with that kind of penetrative âbiteâ. As for Goof Off! it may be relatively tame butt as for most dedoming itâs certainly not lame. Donât know watt ya messed up by using it. Curious as to watt it was though.
@Sidney Stratton
I once worked as a chemical engineer for decades but that was a long time ago and I forgot a lot of stuff, but i do know this: What notta is saying above is correct. I don't remember you saying exactly what type or brand the epoxy was (not that it matters much) but Fully Cured epoxy is a bitch by itself to get it to soften/dissolve.... without resorting to very aggressive acids. I am not aware of any "solvent", polar or otherwise, that will dissolve cured epoxy except acids and some extremely strong oxidizers. And acids won't exactly "dissolve" it ..... they will chemically attack it and break it down with vigor through chemical reaction.
You can get epoxy to soften at temps between 400 and 600 degrees F. It won't melt but it can soften. In the refineries and chemical plants we typically used physical methods (grinders) to remove it.... and we had tank farms full of every variety of acid and solvent you can think of.
The conclusion I'm afraid is that you are up the proverbial creek w/o a paddle unless you are willing to sacrifice/damage the item underneath it. Good luck finding your miracle solvent and let us know where you found it. I'm curious myself.
OK, Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, epoxy esters are not easily disassociated. If any of you had read my original post (#10230 ), a watch coil spring and escarpment is the touchy item that has some (very little â mg amount) of epoxy that is to be removed from the counterweight. Not possible to scrap or do any mechanical removal.
As LB points out, even the Loctite site gives dubious info. Doesnât make them very credible. And some years ago had a hefty exchange with their front-end tech that resulted in my allegiance to Devcon â got proper answers with some real hands-on engineer. But not working with an automotive engineering company anymore, I canât call on their support.
@max: The thought of using a soldering iron to âcookâ the small blob did occur to me. But Iâd have some testing to do as epoxy is heat resistive. As for epoxy type, 5 minute â thiol-based hardener.
On my subsequent post (#10235 ), I stated the substrate is aluminium with some brass sub-components. So itâs not like I can use concentrated nitric acid to etch the polymerized resin or hydrolyze with KOH.
And donât promote GoofOff - crap. My repertoire of chemical knowledge leaves that shit trailing slime miles behind.
But to be fair, a picture is worth a thousand words:
A dab of epoxy on the counterpoise to be removed.
I attempted to open a broken Zebralight today.
I couldnât even get the lens retaining ring off. I wasnât able to wedge anything under it. I suspect if I want to mod one of these, Iâll have to shatter the lens, pick out the pieces, and only then be able to lever up the ring with a screwdriver.
.
Have you tried a heat gun ? It will soften any glue.
The ring isnât glued. Itâs press-fit. But so tight I couldnât even get an xacto knife underneath.
âAnd donât promote GoofOff â crap. My repertoire of chemical knowledge leaves that shit trailing slime miles behind.â
Yeah ok whatever Mr. Dupont or is it Mr. Dow?
Not possible to scrap or do any mechanical removal.
Not even with a dremel and dentistâs drill bit or the like? A brief feather-touch would take off at least some of it.
Brief blast from a multi-watt etching/cutting laser?