best solvent for sanding disc adhesive??????

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Just pulled a 12" sanding disc off of my sander, and it left behind most of its industrial-strength adhesive on the backing plate. I've tried paint prep solvent, Goo-Gone, and lighter fluid, and they are all painfully slow at dissolving this stuff.

 

I have a VOC respirator, safety glasses, and chem-resistant gloves. Care to recommend a solvent that will make quick work of this adhesive?

[Skywagon]

don't know if this will work for you or not but when I need something stronger than you've described, I use acetone.

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

Brakleen will cut many of those. Acetone, Naptha some flavors have some toluene too. Or, just try some Coleman Fuel (naptha).

[Whip]

Gumout Carb cleaner has never let me down

[Lone_RT_rider]

I have a VOC respirator, safety glasses, and chem-resistant gloves. Care to recommend a solvent that will make quick work of this adhesive?

 

12 molar hydrochloric acid?

[roadscholar]

Try commercial grade pine sap removal, usually automotive detailers have it. WD-40 works too, just takes a little more elbow grease.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

I have a VOC respirator, safety glasses, and chem-resistant gloves. Care to recommend a solvent that will make quick work of this adhesive?

 

12 molar hydrochloric acid?

 

At this point I'm giving it some thought. I've tried acetone now, and it's still painfully slow. The Ronsonol lighter fluid I tried is basically naptha, so I can cross that off the list too.

 

I need something that doesn't evaporate so easily so that I can glop it on and leave it to soak into the solvent for a while. Next up, WD-40: spray, wait 30 minutes, rub a bit, repeat until dead.

[JohnnyJ]

Sometimes simply adding HEAT to the situation helps.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Sometimes simply adding HEAT to the situation helps.

 

Heat plus flammable solvents sounds like a recipe for a fun time.

 

I'll see what kind of damage I can do with my heat gun...

[Jake]

You get best results when you video and post the show.

[greiffster]

You get best results when you video and post the show.

+1

 

You might try hull cleaner for boats. It's nasty stuff with 20-30% hydrochloric acid (not 12 molar, but readily available at Walmart). I have no idea if the stuff will dissolve glue, but it will burn off your extra nose hair. Wear gloves.

 

 

[realshelby]

Try a large pencil eraser.

[lkraus]

It's been awhile since I've had to replace a sanding disc, but I know I did it with the usual solvents in the shop. The only one I have not seen mentioned here is lacquer thinner. It evaporates quickly, so you might want to lay a paper towel on the disc, soak it in solvent, and cover with plastic.

[gordiet]

Airplane paint remover. Nasty stuff. You will need your safety gear.

[ltljohn]

MEK. Use safety gear.

 

Linky

 

 

[Glenn Reed]

You get best results when you video and post the show.

 

Right after you say "hold my beer and watch this..."

[taylor1]

As Ikraus mentioned , lacquer thinner is my go to. Just get a rag good and wet and it will cut that adhesive very quickly

[realshelby]

I honestly was not joking about the pencil eraser. Or one of those bars used to clean sanding belts. I prefer the large pencil erasers. There are some things that solvents just turn into a gum, the eraser can roll it up in a ball and right off the surface.....

[RT Russ]

Diesel fuel, seriously. I work in refining. Diesel fuel dissolves many compounds and does not evaporate quickly as most solvents do.

 

Russ

[JohnnyJ]

It's been a while... Are you still alive Mitch? I hope you're not spending time in a burn ward.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

It's been a while... Are you still alive Mitch? I hope you're not spending time in a burn ward.

 

Thanks for your concern. It's a very low priority on a rather long list, so I haven't gotten around to trying the heat gun yet. I probably won't need to use my sander for another month or two, so it may be that long before I feel compelled to tackle the job; I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[LBump]

 

If it's really bad ya might have to remove the platen and let it soak. PITA.

Here's another

pretty much the same as the first.

 

Have fun... and watch out for the fumes.

 

 

 

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Finally got it all sorted out today. Thanks to all you guys for the suggestions - including the people in this thread, who convinced me to buy a Powermatic sander. Turns out the backing plate was really easy to remove from the hub, much easier than I thought it would be. I'm sure if I still had my old Harbor Freight unit, it would require accessing some impossible-to access setscrew and then getting jiggy with a gear puller.

 

Before taking the backing plate off of the hub, I attacked the adhesive with a heat gun and a putty knife, which made really quick work of it. With most of it gone, I removed the plate from the hub and got it horizontal on my workbench, where I was able to cover it with a shop wipe and absolutely saturate it with Goo-Gone. Three hours later, most of the adhesive had abandoned the plate and chose to stick to the towel instead; the few little bits that remained were soft and easy to scrub off, and a final wipe-down with acetone made it ready to receive the new sanding disc.

 

Lesson learned; in the future, I will hit the sanding disc with heat before I try peeling it off.

 

Thanks again, guys.