We’ve been getting so many #carbonqueries for our “Fiber Side Chats” Podcast that we decided to start a Q/A only series. Look for more of these short episodes a few times a week.
The first episode of the #carbonqueries asks the question, “can you recommend a good chemical stripping agent for my carbon frame”? Tune in to find out! You’ll have the answer in a cool 3:40.
Have a pressing question you need answered? Submit it using #carbonqueries on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Soundcloud, or email. Keep em coming everybody!
Full Transcript
Dan: 00:00 Welcome to the carbon queries podcast, the interactive show where we answer your carbon fiber related questions hosted by Ruckus Composites. You can submit a question using the #carbonqueries on instagram, facebook, twitter, linkedin, or email. So for the first question comes from our Buddy Jeff, and this one was submitted it through facebook. The question, is there a good way to strip a frame for painting using a chemical stripper? We get this question a lot. I think the short answer is no.
Shawn: 00:29 Yeah, I wish there was an easier answer. Is stripping carbon is. It’s complicated. You know, we honestly just wet sand a lot. There are a lot of advanced stripping processes, you know, people are like, why don’t you walnut blast or bead blast or whatever, right. Soda Blast Soda blast. Those are all possible. Um, when we found out with testing, we’ve blasted a lot of stuff to experiment, you know, a softer sand or smaller sand, softer sands, air pressures, beads, walnuts, soda, dry ice. And the reason why we don’t recommend it is because it’s incredibly inconsistent. We have walnut blasted a few bikes and they were totally fine. They were much higher quality bikes where the frames are a little thicker and the resin, that’s another one that kind of the resin strength shows through. It’s a little more resilient to impact and then we had the same process, blow holes through a ton of frames and we had like, these wearing customer frames luckily. I mean there’s, there’s, we experiment all the time, right? So what we do best, but yeah, but basically blasted a ton of holes through the frame. A baking soda works. It’s a cool process, is incredibly messy as literally where you’re spraying and praying with baking soda. Dry Ice is all the rage because it evaporates and there’s no cleanup, so literally a dry process because it’s sublimates or nearly sublimates; cleans up a chemical stripping is questionable yet again, we’ve tested on quite a few frames. It’s fine on some other ones. I just honestly, it just makes me nervous.
Dan: 01:55 Yeah. When we were doing that one Colnago around the bottom bracket.
Shawn: 01:59 Yeah, got all the paint off, but it also weakened the epoxy. I mean we were already working on it anyways and that was the point. So it’s essentially helped us, but for any end customer is laborious and a pain to strip a joint by hand. You’ll learn why we’re so expensive when we people asked this strip bikes because there is no quick way. It’s literally you’re sanding sponge your hand and how many of these podcasts you want to listen to.
Dan: 02:25 There you go. So the long and short answer is, is there a good way to strip a frame using a chemical stripper? Not that we’ve found, unfortunately, the best one you’ve got is squirt bottle and some fine grit sandpaper.
Shawn: 02:38 Yeah. There’s a lot of places that say they’re fiberglass safe and people are like, ah, carbons so close. But fiberglass uses polyester or polyvinyl resins instead of epoxy resins. They behave a little differently and they’re not incredibly different. Um, they’re all thermosets but it’s just isn’t as risky. You know, we’re not going to recommend it for anybody. We don’t do it. So maybe that’s the best recommendation. We don’t do it. You shouldn’t either, but I’m not going to tell people who have lived their lives, right Dan?
Dan: 03:06 It’s not what we’re here to do. We’re here to point them in the right direction. If the water starts turning gray, then you should stop sanding.
Shawn: 03:13 Yeah, we can give out a lot of sanding tips. That’s true, but we’ll save that for another carbon queries. Have you have questions about sanding? Make us answer it.
Dan: 03:22 Thanks for tuning in to the carbon queries. If you have a pressing carbon fiber related question, you can submit it to us using the #carbonqueries on instagram, facebook, twitter, linkedin, or email, and we’ll talk to you later on this week.