ATTACK!!! (epoxy remover)
February 3, 2010 by cynthia
Glass sticks to almost anything when it’s hot, and practically nothing when it’s cold, which is why I love it as a work surface. It’s also why it’s such a pain to attach something, say a hollow pate de verre relief sculpture, to a wall.
We won’t go into the time I used GE Silicone II to attach hangers to three pate de verre panels for a show, except to say I’m very, very glad that pate de verre bounces.
My favorite pate de verre hangers are small acrylic French cleats–they don’t make a shadow on the translucent glass, and they push the work out far enough from the wall that light can get in through the back.
Getting them to actually STICK to the glass surface, however, has been a problem. I’ll never use silicone to hang ANYthing again, VHB tape may have a great rep but has so far failed miserably for any kind of permanence, and most of the regular glass glues I use don’t seem to like acrylic.
A fabulous website, ThistoThat, recommended Loctite Impruv 349. Took five phone calls and a very long drive to find it, but it does indeed provide a permanent bond between acrylic and glass.
Impruv let me confidently attach acrylic French cleats to pate de verre. Unfortunately, they’re not kidding when they say permanent. It’s almost impossible to unglue Impruv 349 if you make a mistake. Which I did.
Backstory: Loctite had recommended a $1,500 UV light to cure the Impruv–eeek. My glassist friends scoffed and said a bulb from Home Depot would do the trick for about $6. No contest there; I headed for Home Depot.
After 18 hours under the Home Depot bulb, the cleat slipped off the glass as easily as if I’d glued it with vaseline. Frustrated, I set glass and cleat outside to photograph and went back in for camera and tripod. When I returned, the glue had cured, even in the drizzly grey Oregon day.
The cleat had slipped and was now permanently attached in the wrong direction. And, as promised, the Loctite 349 bond was pretty daggone permanent.
Someone suggested placing the sculpture in the oven, heating it to 500F and seeing if I could pry off the cleat. The glass, they said, probably wouldn’t break.
Uh, next?
While browsing the HIS Glassworks website, I found Attack, an epoxy solvent, that “dissolves epoxies and cured polyester resins.” I ordered an 8-ounce can of the stuff, and set to work.
The instructions (which by the way caution you up one side and down the other that this stuff is NOT human-friendly) say to fill a container with Attack and immerse the piece, naughty glue joint and all. Then you seal the container and let it sit overnight. In the morning, you peel the pieces apart, and you’re done.
Yeah, right.
First of all, I didn’t have enough Attack, or an attack-safe container big enough, to immerse the whole sculpture. Second, on the outside chance that this stuff could mess up pate de verre, I wanted it ONLY on the back, in a small area.
So instead I made a well of thick clay around the cleat and dumped in the Attack. It didn’t seem to do much, and the clay was holding it, so I covered the clay with a sheet of acrylic (in retrospect, that was pretty dumb), and let it sit overnight.
In the morning, the Attack had dissolved about a quarter-inch of the cleat all around and filled up with a gummy goo. It had also turned my acrylic lid piece into a jello-like substance.
Attack hadn’t done any kind of capillary action thing to get between the cleat and the glass, as I’d hoped (at least that spoke well for the original bond).
I scraped off the goo and dumped in more. Every 12 hours or so I’d check it, scrape off the old and pour in new, then seal it back up. If I didn’t, the dissolving action pretty much stopped as soon as the Attack “filled up” with dissolved acrylic.
After four days, I had dissolved all but about a half-inch square of the original 2x3x.5 inch cleat. That last little bit came off with some determined but gentle chipping, and left the surface nicely clean. The residue solidified into something like rubber cement once the solvent died, making it easy to roll off the glass.
I scrubbed the glass with soap and water, then denatured alcohol, then acetone (which hopefully got rid of any residual Attack). Then I reattached the cleat in the right place with fresh Impruv, cured it, and delivered it (barely on time) to the gallery.
(BTW, I used a Feit UV bulb to cure the new Loctite. It works like a charm in a plain old desklamp for $10. Thanks, Gary.)
So, does Attack work? Yup. Eventually. If you’re patient, have four or five days and are willing to do a LOT of scraping and repouring.
At a single bottle per joint it’s a pretty expensive glue remover, but it did get a fully cured UV-adhesived chunk off my glass. The alternative–casting a new glass sculpture–would have cost a lot more in dollars and time.
I’m not sure how Attack would work in a glass-to-glass bond. In my case, it clearly attacked the cleat, not the joint, and worked from the outside in. I saw little or no capillary action pulling the remover into the glue joint. I suspect it would take quite awhile (although much less Attack) to do the job.
Ah well. At least I learned a lesson: “Think first, glue later.”
Related posts:
- Pop goes da weasel Ever had one of those moments of sheer, utter astonishment, where your...
- Superglue and the shattering of expectations The old folk at the Ace Hardware think I sniff glue. LOTS...
What a nightmare.
acetone and gasoline will dissolve acrylic too, probably not as fast as attack though.
You are so right, Attack is the best product I’ve found for removing even UV cured glues from my glass and metal findings. It will take awhile so one needs to be patient but in time you will have your freed piece.
Cynthia, I am so happy to have discovered your blog, it is great.
Thanks, guys. (And thanks, Sam, for the nice compliment!)
I’m glad I found the Attack…I hope never to have to use it again!
Thats Funny… sorry to Hear you horrable exerience to the solution. I’ve been using Attack for many years now and it’s the greates stuff invented, if used right.
I’m a Navajo Silversmith and it works great for my Inlay jewelry repair
We use the Attack for our UV glues and love it. As for silicone use we stopped using GE Silicone II and use only the GE Silicone I (with no additives), on Marc Leva and Ellen Abbott’s suggestions. I was finding that the GE Silicone II never really setup properly. But since we switched to GE Silicone I…..no additives… it works very, very well and sets up solid. Just a thought.
Well….perfectly willing to try it again, but except for the “immerse the whole piece bit” I was following the directions. What do you folks do differently?
Amanda, I’ll have to give GE Silicone I a try. Thanks.
Attack will work on all epoxy and UV glues but your correct it has no capillary action at all, it’s only designed to work at point of contact.
Suggestion. cut slots in or grind down the part to remove to make more direct contact with the glue. I know you say that defeats the need for the solvent… no not really. The idea is to remove one part with out damaging the main product.
Mainly used in jewelry repair and watch crystal replacement. When using on a watch all the glass must be cracked or chipped off then the glue is devolved with Attack leaving behind a perfect metal surface… gold, stainless, silver what ever… not 100% sure about aluminum.
It always helps to know what the product is intended to be used for to know how it can help you and best be applied to you needs.
Hope this sheds some prospective,
GBC
I don’t have a can of Attack around right now I ran out & haven’t need any lately.
Check the label I think it is “methylene chloride” a highly Cancer causing chemical. Use beware.
Look for other MC solvents / strippers that will work in a pinch or to save hazardous shipping cost.
Also containing MC are most Automotive and heavy duty paint strippers.
Home Depot sells KS-3 as their max power gel stripper they also have a sprayable thinner label by same brand.
Using Attack to de-laminate a thick Hxtal-laminated piece (thin joins) doesn’t work. After immersion in a couple quarts for a few days, the seams were not “attacked.” No capillarity here. Best way to de-laminate such thin joins is heat, like 700F for an hour for a 20 sq. in. piece. My friend and I went through that. Note that the methylene chloride-based solvent is volatile and evaporates quickly. So cover tightly.
It’s all a process..
Cheers!
I’ve, unfortunately, had to use Attack on many laminated pieces and glued pieces of glass. Nikki is right on the laminated part. I’d rather cut it apart for some things. Also I have had pieces of glass break sitting in baths of Attack. But for smaller simple joints it is great. Provided it doesn’t eat off the gloves!
Many years ago, I took a lapidary class and we cut and polished many nice stones — trouble was, we used cheap settings to which we epoxied the cabochons to …. we had cut tiger-eye, quartz, picture stones, turquoise, malachite and similar gemstones….
Would love to remove the epoxy so I could then reset them on nice quality settings.
The stones have flat backs and were glued to the flat metal backing of the settings…. would this “Attack” dissolve or soften the epoxy so I could eventually remove stone???
Tony, I’d be really REALLY careful about this, and test on pieces you don’t care about losing first. I don’t think Attack would hurt quartz or carborundum (though I most certainly could be mistaken).
HOWEVER…soft, absorptive materials like turquoise, tiger-eye, malachite, etc., might be harmed by it. I’ve ruined the finish on turqoise and opal by not testing first, and once they’re messed up it’s a lot of work to fix, assuming you can.