Letter 10068

Paper removal from acrylic sheet 

Hi,

I have several sheets of acrylic still with the paper covering on. The sheets are approximately 16 years old and never used. I cannot get the paper off as it appears to be stuck on solid. It has been stored in a barn, no direct sun, but possibly just the heat of the summer year after year caused this. I have tried soaking in water, scraping with plastic egg lifter and the glue is still there.

Is there a solvent or equivalent that can be used that will not cloud or harm the acrylic?

Pat Hoffman
- Spruce Grove, Ab, Canada

Pat,

Before even reading about the 'age' of your acrylic sheets, I said to myself, I bet that those are old sheets!

Maybe suppliers of acrylics could help you. Johnson Industrial Plastics, Cadillac Plastics, Crystal Glass and Plastics.

Why don't you try some alcohol. ... not the drinkable type, too expensive! but Methyl Hydrate or any other aliphatic solvent. This should, I think, soften up the dried-on mucilage/glue underface...but considering the square footage involved, maybe I'd try to prevent it from evaporating too fast ... it is water miscible, after all!

Cheers!

Freeman Newton - White Rock, B.C. Canada

I no longer have my chemical compatibility charts, but if no one else replies, try xylene from your paint store on the corner of one piece.

James Watts
- FL

Pat,

I happened to pass an Acrylic supplier this morning so I popped in and 'asked' your question.

Tbe reply was pretty negative. Scrap those sheets as if 'you' try to soften up the sheets and 'scour' off the paper, you could get stress cracks. Maybe, perhaps, soak the entire sheet for some time in water (not a bad idea!)But I did point out that your sheets had NOT been outdoors which is probably a blessing.

They also asked if those sheets were extruded or pressed. Dinna ken, I replied. Probably extruded due to their cost but then extruded sheet can stress crack more easily than the pressed sheet.

But do N O T use Zylene ... or Toluene, Toluol or any of those aromatic hydrocarbons. Don't even use polar solvents like Acetone [link is to product info at Rockler]. They will ALL attack acrylics fairly fiercely. Anyhow, Acetone is often used for edge joining but it is not a particularly good adhesive compared to proprietary acrylic cements.

(I'd go for the idea of soaking the entire sheet in water. Maybe TSP (Trisodium Phosphate [link is to product info at Amazon])would help as it is a superlative wetting agent) Lots of luck!

Freeman Newton
- White Rock, B.C. Canada

Many of these sheets used an adhesive that is heat activated. You can try using an electric hair dryer to warm the corner of the sheet and see if this loosens the paper. If it does, slowly work your way across the sheet--if you go too fast the paper will rip making removal more difficult.

If that does not work, sometimes allowing a light oil, such as vegatable oil, to soak in overnight will loosen the sheets.

Good luck.

Howard Berman
wire forming - Yonkers, NY , USA

The best way of getting off paper on old Perspex, I have found after 30 years of experience, is to brush a thin coat of eucalyptus oil on the paper and leave it for 15 minutes, than the paper scrapes off easily with a piece of wood, and the final clean up is also easily done with a cloth with some eucalyptus oil, it leves no residue and is dry after 1/2 hour,
I have just cleande up some 20 mm sheet that was 20 years old no problem at all. what ever you do never use any sort of alcohol.

Valther Baek-Hansen
- Canberra, Australia

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