Recent Stripper pics to share

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mike_s

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So... I had an old tank that the tank paint was peeling/chipping and it was time for a hydro, so I decided to use some stripper and strip the paint off before I dropped it off at the hydro facility.. Thought I'd share the process for anyone who's thinking about doing it themselves.


what? you thought there were going to be "Exotic Stripper" pics here? hmmm... we know where you mind is wandering... this is the Tanks, Valves and Bands forum. You should have known it was about Strippin' tanks.


Sorry I didn't take any pics of it during the process, but didn't want to get stripper on my camera or lens, which would have destroyed it.

Here's a pic of the "before" shot of the tank. the back side had much more paint chips and several years worth of stickers. I wanted to get them all off to check for corrosion under them.

tank-before.jpg



The process was pretty simple. I used "Aircraft Stripper" which comes in a spray can in the auto department at Wal-mart. You can also pick it up at most auto parts stores. It's a spray stripper that is made for stripping paint from Aluminum. We used it with cuccess in the past to strip a Cessna (which was aluminum) so the tank was going to be much easier...

This stuff is pretty easy to use. You just spray it on and the paint will bubble after several minutes and then you wipe it off. For thick paint you'll have to use several applications or use a scraper to "shave" the paint off. A must is wearing high "yellow dish gloves" and eye protection. Getting it on your skin will irritate it also as will inhaling the fumes, so a paper filter mask helps also. Just FYI for anyone doing this. Make sure nothing else is around. It will ruin the paint on anything it blows on. (Thank goodness (Thank mischeavious teenagers who spray paint cars haven't found this yet)

I also removed the valve before using as I didn't want to get any on it. I got a "rubber plug" from the LDS that comes in new tanks when they are shipped in w/o the valve. Dive shops will have tons of these typically. It's got a plastic o-ring on it so you can seal it pretty tight to get out chemicals.

After using it's very important to rinse very good with water several times. I use a hose pipe and then also wipe it down with a wet rag to make sure I wipe all the residue off the object I'm stripping. Give it one final rinse for the heck of it. The reason the rinsing is important is to get off all the stripper residue or it could cause corrosion.

After I was done, the tank was nice and clean and ready for a trip to the hydro facility. After I get it back I'll decide if I'm going to paint it or just leave it stripped clean and bare.

Here's the after pics.

tank-after.jpg



So it looks pretty good and I was happy with it. It doesn't have that "polished aluminum" look to it, but I didn't expect that after it had paint on it.
I was able to strip it in under an hour and that was taking the time to get the paint out of the numbers/letters stamped in the tank at the factory and do the bottom. Overall I was pretty happy with it.

Hope this is helpfull to anyone else who wants to do some "Strippin' "

-Mike
 
Nice post! In the naked picture, there look like there are some Charlie Brown swirl marks. Are these on the tank from the manufacturing or did these come from shaving the tank?

Also, did you do anything special with the bottom?
 
do it easy:
Nice post! In the naked picture, there look like there are some Charlie Brown swirl marks. Are these on the tank from the manufacturing or did these come from shaving the tank?

I tried to do most of the "shaving" as flat as I could going "around" the tank. I was surprised to see the "Charlie Brown" marks on it also, but they were there when I horizontially stripped the paint off. So looks like it was either there by the manufacturer or a previous owner of the tank might have painted it before? It only had one layer of paint though with no other colors underneath. The paint was REALLY thick though. Thicker than I thought it would be. It might have been some sort of epoxy paint perhaps?

Also, did you do anything special with the bottom?

It had a tank boot on it... I removed it... then I stripped it just like the rest of the tank. with it laying on it's side.

I also gave the tank a good "visual" inspection to see if I saw any damage anywhere, expecially on the bottom where most people don't pay much attention to their tanks, especially if there is a tank boot on it. I'm most likely going to leave the tank boot off as it's a flat bottom and doesn't need it and the boots could promote corossion.

-mike
 
All,

as the previous poster pointed out, after I stripped the tank, it was left with some weird markings on it. see below


tank-after.jpg



does anyone know what might have caused this?

also, the markings are "rather shiney" and the rest of the tank is "rather dull". What causes this?

Does it just "need a good polishing" on the aluminum?

Any thoughts appreciated. I'm thinking about painting it after I get it back from hydro though that will just be a "comsmetic enhancement"

-Mike
 
I guess you could always do what I did to clean my tanks in the other thread...:wink:
 
mike_s:
The process was pretty simple. I used "Aircraft Stripper" which
comes in a spray can in the auto department at Wal-mart.

You just spray it on and the paint will bubble after several minutes
and then you wipe it off.


excellent tip!

i've always wondered what an easy way to do this is.

question: would it work with steel tanks?

if not, got any tips for that?
 
SparticleBrane:
I guess you could always do what I did to clean my tanks in the other thread...:wink:


do you have a hint of which thread that might be ? :D



H2Andy:
excellent tip!

i've always wondered what an easy way to do this is.

question: would it work with steel tanks?

if not, got any tips for that?


I don't know why it wouldn't work on Steel tanks. But I've never used it before. I've used "Aircraft Stripper" before on the aluminum surface on aircraft and knew it would be ok even on those delicate surfaces, so figured it would be ok on the scuba tank, which is much thicker. I'd just be "cautious" of leaving it on a steel tank too long as the stripper is corrosive. just make sure that you clean it good and quickly.


Here's another thread where someone used Aircraft stripper in the past. So I thought it'd be ok with mine also.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=10672

as for other tips... here are a few other threads on stripping steel tanks.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=111965
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=87894

I'm sure there are more out there with a better search.
 
thanks!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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