Removing color from SCORE ARF covering

[Matt Piatkowski]

Hello,
Please see the attached.
Thank you,
Matt

[Randy Cuberly]

Hi Matt,
Acetone and paper towels will do the trick.  Put the acetone on the paper towels and wipe carefully.  Keep it off of the film that you want to stay in place.  The acetone dries very rapidly so if you use a judicial amount on the paper towel it won't run and cause problems.  Just work slowly and carefully.  Also do this outdoors and use a respirator.  The acetone isn't very harmful but the icky stuff on the surface of the film can be when dissolved in a solvent!

I've done this several times.  It will dry very quickly on the balsa and doesn't do any damage.  There might be a little residual white stain on the wood but it doesn't do any harm and glue etc sticks just fine.

Randy Cuberly

[Matt Piatkowski]

Thanks, Randy.
I will try it today.
Regards,
Matt

[Dane Martin]

I agree totally. That's what i do also. Then after its done and dry, you can clean it up a little more with some 400 grit sandpaper. It will come off. From your pics, it looks like there's not much. I've tried worse! Lol.

[Bob Reeves]

Next time use a heat gun and the color will come off with the plastic covering.

[Matt Piatkowski]

Hi Bob,
Is there any way to limit the heat gun effects to the selected area only?
Can you do it with, say, + - 0.125" tolerance?
Regards,
M

[Dane Martin]

Heat gun is cool, and as an option if you need to be precise try a 21st century covering iron. You can turn up the heat to the specified heat range of adhesive activation for your brand of covering, and not use a sock. Then it's easy to control the heat specific to the panel you're removing.

[Bob Reeves]

Hi Bob,
Is there any way to limit the heat gun effects to the selected area only?
Can you do it with, say, + - 0.125" tolerance?
Regards,
M

You can do it, only the area that you cut will come off. I use a soldering iron with a dulled #11 xacto blade to cut the covering without cutting the wood then just peel off the unwanted area while heating it with the heat gun.