Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Woudn't have believed it if i hdn't seen it with my own eyes.

My wife is refinishing a dresser for our daughters room and was needing to strip paint off of the hardware. She's been on a couple kicks lately...1) using natural methods and materials for cleaning solutions rather than buying store made products and 2) all things crockpot. Like baking a cake in a crockpot, which is pretty darn tasty.

I was amazed when she mixed the two. She put a liner in one of her pots, then filled it with water and put the paintcovered hardware in there, turned it on and let it "cook" for a day.

Amazed the heck out of me when she pulled it out and the paint was falling off in strips. Now, it still required scrubbing with an old toothbrush for the detail and I think some of the pieces took an extra day to loosen all the really "thick" stuff up, but none of that was out of the ordinary from my experience of stripping models either.

Haven't tried it with any of the stuff I am needing to strip yet, but should be shortly. Anyone else have experience with this?

Polystyrene and white metal both have low melting points.

Cooking them in a bath of hot water just sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I dont know if i have the balls to try this lol. Is plausible though.

hmm, looks like, in the name of science, I need to do some experimentation then. Looks like labor day weekend will be interesting.

It's a common thing in chemistry. Certain compound don't dissolve in a solution unless it's almost on the boil. Alcohol and acetone are better at dissolving paint at normal temperatures but leaving a painted model in water for a long time would slowly break it down too.

The heat increases the breakdown of the paint. If you want to clean some metal up really quick you could put acetone and your model in a container with ice on top and put the bottom in hot water. That should do the same as the crock pot.

So I went to the "Bin of unspeakables" and found some stuff that needs a bath. Tried to get a mix of metal and plastic.

Just some parameters. I paint with mostly GW. I know they skinks are GW and I know they were hit with a sealer. THe DE is a crapshoot. No idea, they came in a garage sale find box and were deemed to ugly to play with and I was too lazy to try and salvage. The brown/biege thing is scratch built plasticard. Fairly thin. It is the thinnest painted plastic I could find.

Wife says she had this crock pot set on "low" when she did it, so that is what I would do as well. I am going to attempt to take a temperature reading and snap a couple photos before I hit the bed tonight and if I can remember to snap one before I run out for golf in the morning. The test will officially end after 24 hours, so 8 pm mountain time.

Pictures will be taken as long as the battery holds out, along with temp readings.

This could be boring, or spectacular. Call your bookie and place your bets.

While the plastics may get soft after an extended heat bath, white metal still has a rather high melting point. I'd be more worried about resin and thin plastics. But let's see some results, mau keep me from having to bit rubbing alcohol all the time.

Remember, liquid water, under normal circumstances will never get above the boiling point.

Most white metal compounds are safe well above that temperature (there are some which can melt at lower temperatures - but those tend to be special alloys). However, the glass transition temperature for HIPS is lower than the boiling point (85-100 degrees C depending on the specific formula). That could end badly for them - so be careful with plastics if your low setting gets hot enough to actually boil the water.

Im so testing this out

I do have a rather skanky FoW Diana down stairs. That will have to suffice as the resin test. It is going in the bath.

Temp after an hour based on my trusty digital meat thermometer...126 F/52 C.

ok Im very curious on this. I have just been using Pine Sol for years but this will smell better.

The metals will survive
The plastics will get iffy, probably starting to melt around boiling
The resins don't stand a chance, they melt on their own when left in a hot room
I'm not as sure how effective this will be towards removing the paint though.

Wife found the website she originally read about it on. Had to bump the pot up to "high".

I"m guessing the plastics will bite it.

Website also said that the items need to be scrubbed fresh out as the paint will contact again when it cools.

Guess I'll check it in the morning.

I can imagine the toxic fumes escaping with steam -.-

wouldn't consider it much safer than Simple Green

Toxic fumes from what exactly? The paint is non-toxic and the plastic won't start to properly degrade until about 120°C

Seems like a lot of hassle to strip paint. I just hose them with easy off oven cleaner, and let them sit for about half an hour.

Then fo at them with hot water from the tap, and a denture brush. It'll remove minwax polyshades, and paint down to the primer in one go on a model that was dipped.

Usually 2 doses has them pretty squeeky clean.

Any progress?

No toxic fumes.

Well, nothing exactly. Having problems with the card reader to post pics, but the rundown is this.

DIdn't touch the paint on any of the models. As expected, the pasticard warped incredibly, the bases are toast.

However, the plastic skinks are fine. The FoW Diana, while a bit tender when coming out, held up perfectly and cooled to original shape.

Not sure what to say to explain it as I have seen with my own eyes this technique strip paint off of furniture hardware. Only thing I can think might be the case is that the hardware has some kind of factory finish on it prior to being painted, or at a minimum, has no primer on it, unlike most minis.

So, it isn't the end all be all. Heat and a solvent should work better than solvent alone. Its just a balance of fumes, off gassing, and toxicity vs stripping power. As I don't have an industrial hood, I don't think I will becarrying this farther than water, though something like warm rubbing alcohol, might be marginally better, or possiblly warm simple green.

If the furniture is wood, then if you subject it to hot water will the fibres not swell to dislodge the paint? Plastic doesn't do that.