Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----
Remove stuck paper from plastic sheet
Q. 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, Alberta, Canada
2001
A. 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 [deceased]
(It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away
April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).
A. Pat,
I happened to pass an Acrylic supplier this morning so I popped in and 'asked' your question.
The 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 NOT use Zylene or Toluene, Toluol or any of those aromatic hydrocarbons. Don't even use polar solvents like acetone ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] Warning! highly Flammable! . 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 ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ) would help as it is a superlative wetting agent) Lots of luck!
Freeman Newton [deceased]
(It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away
April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).
A. Many of these sheets used an adhesive that is heat activated. You can try using an electric hair dryer ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] 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 vegetable oil, to soak in overnight will loosen the sheets.
Good luck.
Howard Bermanwire forming - Yonkers, New York
2002
A. 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 leaves no residue and is dry after 1/2 hour,
I have just cleaned up some 20 mm sheet that was 20 years old no problem at all. Whatever you do, never use any sort of alcohol.
- Canberra, Australia
2005
 |
Ed. note: The following inquiry was repetitive of the previous one, and people started treated it lightheartedly. Q. How to remove paper backing from Plexigass. Vincent D [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]Consumer - Columbia, Illinois 2006 2006 A. Hi Vincent, Freeman Newton [deceased] (It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend). ? Does Cad Plastics have a model 60iQ carbon based LF plexiglass backing paper remover? I might need one with the left and right 10 digit pincher-grip feature.  Sheldon Taylor supply chain electronics Wake Forest, North Carolina 2006 A. Ohhkay, ohhkay. I'm sure that Vincent's problem is that the darned paper won't peel off, due to some interaction with the plexiglass. Maybe a prankster stuck it back with crazy glue, or maybe the plastic is just years old. But, since the answer to his problem isn't duct tape, what else could it possibly be but to spray it with WD-40 ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ? As far as I know, there is no 3rd universal fixit.  Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey A. A tricky one, this.  Geoff Smith Hampshire, England A. Wotcher Sheldon, Freeman Newton [deceased] R.I.P. old friend (It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away 4/21/12)
"Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty"
by Robert D. Friedel 
on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon (affil links) Freeman, it looks like Geoff and Dale are the winners, they were able to help out ol' Vinny, he sure didn't get any benefit from the Ozarks or Canaduh, eh? :-) Sheldon Taylor supply chain electronics Wake Forest, North Carolina 2006 ! Readers: for your personal safety please don't poke or prod the Canadians :-) Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey 2006 2006 Dear Sheldon, Freeman Newton [deceased] (It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend). Wot? wot?, I didn't catch the meaning of that Freeman, maybe you can type a little slower for me. Sheldon Taylor supply chain electronics Wake Forest, North Carolina 2006 Vincent, Freeman Newton [deceased] (It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend). 2006 2007 I gave the stripping problem my best shot, but now I am puzzled by Freeman's Methyl Hydrate. I have not heard of it and it does not seem a likely chemical. If this is a local name for methanol
[affil links], you certainly can drink it and confirm that it sends you blind, mad and dead in that order! Geoff Smith Hampshire, England I'm puzzled by 90 percent of what Freeman writes, Geoff. The words "sequitur" and "Freeman" can't seem to peacefully co-exist :-) Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey 2007
2007
Dammit, Freeman Newton [deceased] (It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).
- White River Junction, Vermont December 4, 2009 |
Multiple threads merged: please forgive chronology errors :-)
A. I worked for a company that used plexiglass and cut 4'x 8' sheets to different sizes and then peeled the paper by using a tube to start the paper and then roll the tube across the paper lifting the paper from the plastic' after first paper was on tube then the tacky side would be exposed and attatch to the next paper and lift it off. worked really well.
Dale Healeymetal cleaning - Muscatine, Iowa
2006
A. HOT WATER removes the paper and glue immediately :)
Carrie Maurer- Kansas City, Kansas USA
February 12, 2011
A. Eucalyptus oil works great on any surface that is not porous and not safe with general solvents. It can remove glue from plastics as it softens the glue. Then wash off with soap and water.
Langdon Olger- South Westralia, Australia
July 27, 2011
A. RIP Mr Newton ..
Well, I have tried soaking the sheets in soapy water spraying a great Aussie product called lanolin oil (made by Lanotec)
Then I used a Gerni water blaster followed by eucalyptus oil ... It works.
- Sydney, Australia
May 18, 2012
Eucalyptus oil works very well.
- Queens, NYC, New York
April 26, 2015
A. A mist of silicone spray
⇦this on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links]
.
Wait a minute, and removal is smooth and easy. I roll the paper backing off using a broomstick or 1x1.
- Somerville, Massachusetts
October 27, 2009
A. I had the same problem with some acrylic laying in the basement for about 7 years. I used a forced air heat gun ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] to warm the paper/adhesive and it peeled off intact smooth as silk!
Lonnie Rose- Lynchburg, Virginia
November 11, 2009
! Make sure to be careful using a heat gun. If used too intensely in one area you have the chance of leaving a nasty residue on the acrylic from the adhesive. This will not come off, basically melted in.
Devin Cole- Portland, Oregon, United States
November 17, 2011
A. Just used Methylated spirits and it made it a lot easier to peel the paper off. I needed to keep the paper very damp though with Metho.
willy McGee- Adelaide Australia
April 10, 2011
Q. I had plastic coating done onto my degree certificate. Now I want it's attestation by a third party. I have tried myself and in the local market for removing this plastic coating (fixed with some adhesive), but I cannot get it removed. Any effort is damaging the original document. I request for guidance and help because it is essential for me that I get the coating removed.
Regards,
- Karachi, Pakistan
March 29, 2012
Hi Abdullah. Sorry for your hardship, and we'll hope that someone has an idea worth trying. But plastic lamination is more robust than paper, so this may not be possible even if you knew all the particulars about the adhesive (which you don't). Sorry.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Q. I have the acrylic sheets on which its protective paper has got stuck on it. It stuck very hardly as if it has become a integral part of the acrylic surface.
Please suggest any solvent so that it will help in removing the paper along with its glue very easily and at the same time will not harm to acrylic.
Regards,
Mahesh
- Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
June 4, 2012
Q. I have put acrylic stickers on a sheet metal sign and it had the paper backing, which I left on as I thought this would protect stickers from any damage until I had a chance to put the sign up. This has been a few months and I now cannot get the paper to come off the metal or the stickers.
If I use eucalyptus oil, wouldn't that remove the stickers as well? I only want to remove the paper- which is just tearing off in tiny bits and leaving a residue on top of the stickers and the metal. It's a big sign too, so a lot to be done. I did try white vinegar ⇦in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil links] on it, but that didn't work at all and the weather here is quite cold also, in case that makes a difference.. Please help me. Thank you.
Zoe swain- Narrabri australia
August 9, 2012
A. I had some older acrylic whose paper mask was very stubborn. I sprayed it down with some "Motsenbocker's Lift Off 5" Latex Based Paint remover.
It seemed to saturate the paper after a minute or so, and the paper came off nicely in one piece.
- Herriman, Utah, USA
September 4, 2012
A. I use "Quick 'n Easy" Specialty Adhesive Remover" [linked by editor to info/product at Amazon]. Spray it on and let it soak into the paper, then carefully peel it off. Wet a shop rag with the spray and wipe away the residual adhesive. Old deteriorated plexiglass paper was no problem with a non scratching plastic scraper or a piece of wood.
John Basile- Hopewell, Virginia, USA
December 8, 2013
A. I read this thread for help as we have some sheets stored in barn for long time and paper is baked on. Last night a thought came to me - vegetable oil. It takes off super glue, why not try. Guess what -it works! It worked the best where paper was still in place and after soaking awhile sheets came off like new. Some areas had to soak and it's not perfect, (would be if I had not tried scraping) I was so excited I had to share. Hope this helps someone.
B. Martin- Dixon, Missouri
January 2, 2014
A. I used mineral turpentine ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and it was easy to get off. Took a household sponge put a little turpentine ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] on it and wiped the entire sheet, waited a few minutes say 2-5 minutes. Then started peeling from a corner with my fingernail or scraper. All comes off. Then used more of the same method to clean the plastic sheet.
Paul Craigie- Melbourne, Australia
April 2, 2014
A. Mineral turps worked for me too. I had to scrape a little in places with a small piece of wood because I had bent the plastic with the coating still on.
Jim Ettles- Bendigo Australia
July 4, 2014
A. Use vinegar, soak for 10 mins, the acidity will break down the glue and will not harm the plastic, rub with soft cloth. This works on wallpaper also.
Steve Lovelace- Dayton ohio
August 16, 2016
A. We have a good sized green house with a home made curved roof covered in various types of acrylic and polycarbonate clear sheet material. About every 5 years one or two age out or crack and we are constantly replacing the broken ones. The glazing guys leave their scraps and left overs behind and have built up quite a collection of old plastic sheet material stored in the barn or under a crawl space. Finally decided to use some of the left overs as replacements and found it very tedious trying to remove 5- 20 year old paper covers (will remove them right away from now on) After reviewing the suggestions on this site I did an experiment on a 10 year old 3'x4' scrap of paper entombed clear polycarbonate. Used brake fluid, wd40, Mineral oil, Turpenoid, Fast Orange and Goo Gone.
Scraped away on parts of each right away then left them all covered with contractor bags overnight.
The Goo Gone
⇦this on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links]
was by far the easiest on both attempts followed by WD- 40, the mineral oil was OK but tedious working and clean-up, the turpenoid not only did little to simplify the work but it left craze marks the next day and the Fast Orange, while great for clean-up did nothing. The Goo Gone
⇦this on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links]
under plastic for a while would be my suggestion for this task
- Bar Harbor, Maine
August 28, 2016
A. Goo Gone ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] spread over the paper; wait five minutes. The paper peels of in one piece.
Victor Go- Nashua, New Hampshire, USA
December 21, 2016
A. De-solv-it
⇦this on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links] . Tried multiple items.
This should do it, stuff is amazing. Had 25 x 1 metre x 50 cm sheets double sided with paper glued on. Sharp razor blade to help the stubborn bits but all in all saved me days of hard yakka.
- Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
November 4, 2017
A hair dryer on a hot setting did it for me. Got a corner released to start with and then pulled gently - kept the dryer moving back and forth along the edge being removed and it came off clean.
Did have hot fingers for a while after though!
- Mintlaw, Scotland
December 15, 2017
A. I have found just using regular vegetable oil and covering the paper and letting it sit for awhile, it will come off using your fingernail (to not scratch it). Do not rinse it off until it is all off. Then just clean it with regular dish soap and a sponge, for glass - use the scrubby pad.
Leo Lessard- Maricopa, Arizona, USA
March 2, 2018
A. Haha, so I remember when I bought my house about 3 years ago I looked online everywhere for solutions on this issue. Most sounded like too much work so I tossed the sheets in the shed and never looked back. That is until today, and guess what, I found it -- the thing that makes this easier than writing this post. The best thing is you probably already have it in your garage. The one and only WD-40 ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . Spray generously, grab you a razor blade scraper [affil links], and watch it come off so easy you wonder why you didn't think of that. Hope this helps. I read this about 3 years ago and had to share and maybe save someone a lot of time and money
Brandon AhartRefresh Concepts - Phoenix, Arizona
May 18, 2018
June 12, 2018
A. Gentlemen!!
I believe in "giving back" to the Community.
I'll be short.
I initially came here to find a fix to removing protective Papers STUCK ON HORRIBLY! To make Matters worse? I have Dark Blue pieces (160- 4x9 pcs.) with clear facings for My Office plaques -- shows Any and All fingerprints, smudge, adhesives and marrings!
To the point:
1- Hairdryer quickly over edge.
2- attempt to gracefully peel back and roll to keep paper from separating. If this does not fully correct issue move to #3.
3- using ONLY soap & water (preferably Dawn) saturate.
Then quick dry residual water with paper towel and proceed to peel and Roll off protective Backer.
Finally!! and worked Great for me.
#4- CLEAN RESIDUAL ADHESIVES OFF WITH LIGHTER FLUID AND SOFT PAPER TOWEL. CLEAN AND SHINY NEW! Mind you the Paper towel will leave behind fuzzies.
#5- remove fuzzies with "microfiber Ant-Static Cloth.
These steps Kept my AMcomm Stickers on and unharmed and still allowed me to place Vinyl Chrome Lettering!!
Thanks Guys! WE Can Do This!!
AMcomm Telecommunications Inc. - Highland, Michigan, USA
A. WD-40 ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] took off the 16 yr old paper masking from my plexiglass like a charm! I sprayed it on liberally and let it soak in for 2 1/2 hours. It peeled off completely with very few sheets tearing and no sticky glue was left behind! No damage was done to the plexiglass at all! Today is 7/18/2018; I just finished cleaning up and it looks like a brand new sheet!
Krayon Deigh- Jackson, New Hampshire USA
July 18, 2018
I am making a water wheel for my pond. I have some plexiglass that is 25 years old. I read all the suggestions and tried them. The one that worked was soaking the plates in alcohol. It came off easier than when it was new. Thanks
- niagara falls on canada
August 19, 2018
I just wanted to express my thanks to all the commenters here who offered helpful tips for removing stuck paper backing from plexiglas sheets. I had this same problem on an old piece of plexiglas which I had already worked considerably, but then had difficulty removing the paper because of its age. I used the turpentine method suggested above, mainly because I had some on hand and didn't have to hunt around town for more exotic products. This method worked quite well, softening the adhesive sufficiently to make removal of the paper much easier. I used a short piece of 2x4 with one end cut at an angle as the scraper. This helped to remove the paper without leaving serious scrapes and scratches.
One further tip I will add is that whatever minor blemishes in the plastic were produced by the scraper I was able to remove easily by using an automotive product for polishing headlight plastic. Buffing the plexiglas using this product removed scuff marks and returned the surface to a like-new appearance. For those interested, the product I used was "Blue Magic" Headlight Lens Restorer, which is widely available at automotive supply stores.
Randy Glickman- San Antonio, Texas USA
November 17, 2018
December 3, 2018
A. The best thing is to use is WD-40 ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ; you let it soak overnight or 2 nights and then you take a piece of plastic on the plastic and scrape it off because plastic will not scratch plastic. It will slowly start to come off and then take paper towels and keep wiping the glue till you get it all off and then use more WD-40. The best and the fastest thing to soak all the paper with WD-40 you're probably going to need a little bit of it so I would go to the store and buy a a bottle of it not a spray bottle better to just buy it by the gallon you're not going to use that much but it has a lot of uses. Hope this helps; it helped me on a lot of acrylic that was old and there's no way you could have got it off without this s***, trust me. Hope that helps ... have a great night
Joe carracio- Wheeling Illinois
A. I have just had a similar problem. I simply soaked the sheet 300 mm x 200 mm covered with a shallow layer of methylated spirits. Used an aluminium baking tray and covered with cling wrap to stop evaporation for about 2 hours. The offending paper simply peeled off in one continuous sheet.
Paul Soares- Sydney, NSW, Australia
January 19, 2019
A. Hi, With the info and suggestions I found here I was able to remove paper from 2 sides of 6, 1/4" acrylic sheets that are 24"x16". I sprayed with WD-40
⇦this on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links]
until very wet and then stacked them up and left them overnight. The paper peeled off nearly perfectly using a piece of 3/4" rigid conduit as a take up roller. I removed the remaining goo with denatured alcohol and paper towels.
Thanks to all that took the time to post the solutions. BTW the Acrylic sheets were probably 15-20 years old.
private - Livermore California USA
February 8, 2019
A. My 20 to 30 year-old plexiglass, stored in the upper floor of a barn, did not respond to anything well until I tried gasket remover. It still took a bit of effort scraping with a metal broad-bladed putty knife, but all the glue came off and left neither residue nor scratches.
William Childs- Princeton, New Jersey
August 29, 2020
A. I tried Goo Gone, Goof Off, WD 40, and other chemicals, cleaners. NONE worked ... like simply using a pressure washer [affil links] from Harbor Freight tools. Or just go to a car wash and use the hot wax setting.
Bob Mongiello- Wildomar California
June 8, 2021
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