Nathan Doty
Contributor
Stripper wise from HD, they carry an orange base stripper that is supposed to be relatively safe compared to aircraft stripper. I used it on an old aluminum tank recently, worked pretty well and you rinse it with water.
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I have removed vinyl from cylinders by drawing a knife down the length of the cylinder and scraping it off in strips. I am not aware of any stripper that will lift vinyl.
I don’t know what your plans are for the valve, but it looks like that might have an old uni-directional burst disc. If you are able to get that working, be sure that gets changed if that is the case.
Cap...
Commercially available ''strippers'' will remove vinyl easier than some of the ''old school'' nitro cellulose and epoxy finishes...
These new strippers love plastic/vinyl...
The vinyl softens up and you can peel it off like cellophane...
Cutting strips with a ''utility or other type of sharp knife permanently marks the tank walls...you may also gouge/cut through the thin zinc coating exposing the carbon steel tank to rapid corrosion problems especially if used in salt water...
Keep in mind you are not only removing ''color''...you're removing ''protection''...
Currently...especially with technical divers...any cylinder coating...other than zinc...is frowned upon...in years gone by...manufacturers ''coated'' tanks...because ''paint'' was a cheap form of protection...with few exceptions...''modern cylinder coatings'' are applied because some folks like purple and lime green...but the coating offers little in the way of protection to the cylinder...and can even be a detriment to the cylinder once the coating starts to chip and peel and allows salt water intrusion...
This is the primary reason why removing tank stickers annually during visual inspection...including NITROX/DIL/OXYGEN bands is so important...especially for tanks used in salt water...
As far as steel cylinders...galvanized...is always superior...to...non-galvanized/painted...
When I get tanks back from the re-hydro shop...I always remove any loose zinc from around the area of the new re-hydro stamp...mask off a little rectangle...and coat the ''re-stamp'' area with a colored epoxy...which replaces the ''protection'' previously provided by the zinc coating...which was chipped off when the tank was stamped...
Best...
Warren