melting/removing contact adhesive glue

[thetyreman]

anyone know of a way to remove the bond of contact adhesive? I want to remove a rubber seal that is glued to MDF, cheers.

 

[John Brown]

I await the reply... Stuck two pieces of 18mm birch ply together with double sided carpet tape, and just spent ages trying to clean the residue off. Tried heat and tried IPA. Would acetone have been a better bet?

 

[Bingy man]

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Try this but not sure if it will react with the rubber
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[Phil Pascoe]

I suspect that'll work on new adhesive, but I doubt it will work on dried stuff.

 

[whereistheceilidh]

I have - in desperation - used petrol to loosen contact adhesive. It seems to work & should not harm rubber.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I suspect many things will weaken it allowing something to be removed, but I don't think anything will remove the stuff, especially on MDF.
It's not clear whether the OP wants to reuse either part.

 

[joshvegas]

Lighter fluid (naptha) is my go to remover of sticky stuff. Acetone also works but with MDF the moisture is more of a problem.

And a pack of playing cards are phenomenal non destructive scrapers. Obviously they don't last long but while they are good you can work backwards and forward with a little pressure on the soaked adhesive. Once you get a a good grip you can apply just enough pulling force to lift and the card starts cutting away the strands of soft adhesive.

 

[joshvegas]

I would also take a small wager that that evostik stuff is just naptha aswell.

Naptha
Lighter fuel
Whitegas
Liquid camping fuel eg. Colemans

All the same stuff

 

[AES]

For contact adhesive, my go to is petrol. For just about anything else, it's acetone.

While playing cards do work as scrapers, a more long-lived version is (expired) credit cards. Male good glue spreaders too.

Have found acetone OK and lighter fuel on MDF - use little (it evaporates quickly) and a lot of mechanical assistance (the old credit card again).

HTH

 

[Bingy man]

I would also take a small wager that that evostik stuff is just naptha aswell.

Naptha
Lighter fuel
Whitegas
Liquid camping fuel eg. Colemans

All the same stuff

And WD contact cleaner

 

[Limey Lurker]

I have - in desperation - used petrol to loosen contact adhesive. It seems to work & should not harm rubber.

I've experienced petrol destroying items that were made of, or contained, rubber.

 

[Oldman]

Inflatable boaters use MEK (Butanone) to soften/remove the old glue. I would guess that acetone or toluene would work too.

 

[worn thumbs]

Toluene is about the most effective substance for removing contact glue.It is also about the most dangerous and consequently rather hard to obtain.It may well harm the rubber and should only be used with very good ventilation and suitable gloves.It used to be used for removing the residue of glue that bonded sanding discs to professional grade disc sanders,it was a part of the reason why I switched to velcro discs a long time ago and why I wouldn't know where to get hold of toluene these days.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Lacquer thinner breaks the bond of oil based contact cement and over the years I've used it a number of times for that purpose, e.g., problems with laid HPL that after flopping down had to be removed and then replaced. Cheaper than lacquer thinner is gun wash, which is much the same thing. I've looked at the SDS for the Evo-Stik adhesive remover and the chemicals in it seem to largely resemble those in lacquer thinner/gun wash. Lacquer thinner/gun wash is unpleasant to use and has serious health consequences, especially over the long term, if used without appropriate PPE plus ventilation, and I'd expect the Evo-Stik product, linked to by Bingy man, to really require similar PPE protection in use.

Lacquer thinner/gun wash damages or melts some rubber or plastic products, and it seems likely the Evo-Stik product may do similar, so use with caution from that point of view. Slainte.

 

[TopCat66]

anyone know of a way to remove the bond of contact adhesive? I want to remove a rubber seal that is glued to MDF, cheers.

Try using a hair dryer to soften the glue.

 

[Cabinetman]

Try using a hair dryer to soften the glue.

But if the contact adhesive is the stuff I’ve used please do be careful as it’s highly flammable, even when old.

 

[AES]

As above, GREAT care must be taken, and it also depends on the material/s the contact adhesive had bonded too, but a little neat petrol or acetone, coupled with a "peeling back motion" often works.

As said careful though, both with the flammable nature of both petrol and acetone (both of which also evaporate into an inflammable vapour very quickly), AND with any finish (paint, varnish, etc) that you may need to preserve on the material/s that the contact adhesive has been stuck onto.

Evostik (I THINK it is) make a contact adhesive remover, but AFAIK it's also inflammable and also attacks some finishes.

 

[Bingy man]

Definitely flammable
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