[pianotech] 96 years of pledge

[Greg Newell]

Chuck,

            My results are very different from yours. I've used the soy gel
inside my home on some woodwork that needed stripping. While we had what I
thought was good ventilation it was simply not enough and seemed to attack
the nervous system of everyone in our home. We had tremors and dizziness and
sweats until the vapors dissipated enough. I'm not usually very sensitive to
stuff like this but after working with this stuff for a while I thought that
I would die from it.

 

Best wishes,

 

Greg

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of CHARLES BECKER
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 9:07 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] 96 years of pledge

 

try Soy-gel.  It works much better than citrus strip.

 

Safe , no fumes.   I've tried everything green and this stuff is good.

 

Chuck Becker

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Gene Nelson <mailto:nelsong at intune88.com>  

To: pianotech at ptg.org 

Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 11:46 AM

Subject: Re: [pianotech] 96 years of pledge

 

Thanks for the recipe

Even with a new cartridge I can smell the methylene chloride

I just never seen good stripper migrate away and not even wet a finish. 

Gene

Sent from my iPhone


On Jul 14, 2012, at 7:01 AM, Euphonious Thumpe <lclgcnp at yahoo.com> wrote:


WARNING: 
I'm sure you know, but wear a good carbon-cartridge mask, gloves, and
goggles without vents ( or with vents taped over) before doing the
following. Many of us die young in this trade, from chemical-relatable
maladies!
And still do it outside, in the shade, with a breeze blowing... from a fan,
if necessary. 

Before I strip anything, I THOROUGHLY scrub the surface with a green
Scotch-Brite sponge and one of those "Super-Clean" -like products. I don't
use actual "Super-Clean" anymore, though, because, from the smell, I can
tell Castrol recently added lye to the formula, and its smell stays in
things. I've used "Purple Power", but there are other regionally available
"Super-Clean" clones that are also cheaper. (Available at auto parts stores,
etc..) One I've heard good things about is "Spray66", available from
restaurant supply stores. It has the advantage of no purple dye, which can
darken bare wood a bit. (But I've not found it in my area.)
So I scrub everything with the pad and "Purple Power" and those little brass
detail brushes, and then rinse it and dry it very quickly with paper towels
and set it in the shade. I'm not much worried about warping ( except on very
thin parts ) because most piano parts have finish on both sides, and I'm
drying off so quickly . This pre-removes almost all, I'm sure, of the
surface contaminaton BEFORE the stripping process begins: thus preventing
excess silicone, and whatever else was smeared on the surface, from "getting
in the mix" and then the wood beneath. If it is a shellac finish, these
powerful soaps WILL remove some of it, giving you a stripping "head start".
But, as I said, unless you use a dye-free "super-soap", it's best not to get
down to bare wood. (And also to deter warping and veneer damage.) 
Then, for stripping, I prefer that orange "safer" stripping stuff. Yes, it's
more expensive. But you can slather it it on ( in the shade!) wrap the
pieces with cheap plastic dropcloths and just go away for a while. When you
return, ALL the finish should be dissolved and ready to remove. So I scrape
it off (I get massive pieces of cardboard-- mattress boxes and such from
behind furniture stores) and then scrub, with the grain, with a brass
bristle pot-brush from the grocery store. (The bristles are fine enough that
they dig the goop out of the pores, but also don't damage the wod.) A few
scrubbings like this, with simple denatured alcohol scrub-rinses and
paper-towel wipes and the wood should look "like new". ( Note: I have a
friend who pointed out that as most old pianos have simple shellac finishes,
you can skip the stripper altogether and just brush on denatured alcohol,
wrap in plastic and wait! I've not tried this yet, but 'twould be great, as
even the "safer" strippers are toxic and take days to dry on the cardboard
pieces before it is legal to discard thyem.)
I never sand veneer ( except to knock off "hairs" intentionally raised
during the finishing process) because it is so thin. If there is a problem
with uneven staining, I resolve it with a wipe of diluted Clorox. ( Or
commercially available aniline dye remover --- which is chlorine bleach plus
who-knows-what added.)

Get a good book on refinishing. If you have a trustworthy stripper in your
area, take it to them. But be aware that all their equipment will likely be
silicone-contaminated, so you'll still have to scrub ( with lacquer thinner)
prior to finishing to mitigate "fish-eye" problems.

Thumpe



 


  _____  


From: Gene Nelson <nelsong at intune88.com>; 
To: pianotech at ptg.org <pianotech at ptg.org>; 
Subject: [pianotech] 96 years of pledge 
Sent: Sat, Jul 14, 2012 4:13:12 AM 



Stripping mahogany with Greens and it just migrates like a fish eye sort of.
Two applications and scrub with soft brass brush and tsp wash - it only took
off about 30% of the finish and there is still color in the pores. 
Any ideas?
Gene
> 

 

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