How do I remove or dissolve hardened epoxy without damaging the contact areas?
Is there any epoxy thinner? I used 5min , 30 min epoxies in my plane and now I want to seperate some wooden parts safely. How do I do that?
thanks

747

I've never been able to do it except to physically cut them apart

There's really not much you can do except cut them apart. One of the reasons why epoxy is used on high stress critical areas is because of the tough a hold it does have. There is one thing you can try first, but I'm not making any promises as it usually doesn't work more often than it does. You can try heat to seperate the parts. Use a heat gun to heat the epoxy joining the parts. It will take time, so don't get in a hurry. If/when the epoxy starts to soften you can slowly work your parts apart.

If the heat doesn't work you're only other option is to cut them apart.

Ken

Epoxy is a polymer,
means it builds up long chains of molecules as it hardening, and then the bonds between the molecules are so strong that you cannot undo them.
i would bet that there is no debonder for epoxy [&o].
sorry.
Maybe to cut it out with a dremel and construct a new part.

I had a plane lost in a corn field for over a month and some of the epoxy separated from the water logged balsa

Aceton will disolve epoxy over time. MEK is faster. Both will screw up your wood though. When I was faceting gemstones, I used epoxy to hold the stone to the dop ( the rod that goes in the faceting machine head) When its time to take the stone off the dop, you could put the dop in a jar of MEK and let it set for a few hour. THE epoxy would break down and loosen the grip on the stone. The trouble was that as the epoxy broke down, it started swelling. The swelling would try to push the stone away from the aluminum dop. The breakdown started on the exterior and had to work its way to the center. The swelling would sometimes cause enough hydrilic pressure that the stone would break before the epoxy finally released. Heat is the best way to break it down, but you will need to get the epoxy up to around 250 degrees or more. This was safer on most stones. It's kind of hard to use heat though when the epoxy is sandwitched between two pieces of wood. Even when it breaks down, it still has some "stick" left to it. I have used a covering iron to heat epoxy smeared on a wing once. I would iron a spot for a few minutes and the quickly pick at the epoxy with an xacto knife. I could usually lift a square inch or so at time with minimual damage to the wood. This wasn't sandwitched between wood, but just on the surface of the wood. A well placed razor saw is really the best approach.

Don

i meant without screwing up the wood....

Use your heat gun carefully. If you get it very hot, it will release the wood. I have done it to remove parts years ago and it works well. Its the only thing that will, even though the guys will tell you it won't. Give it a try.

HEY....What if I use this? Hobbico Hot Knife w/Solder Tip 25 Watt :

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXSD16&P=ML

Will this cut thru the epoxy bonding between wood pieces to free the pieces?

Will this also be a good soldering iron, its only 25w....For EP-RC whats the ideal solder watts needed...60w?

Jaso has a "Paint and Epoxy Remover" that turns epoxy back into goo. Then you have to mechanically scrape the epoxy residue off, repeat many times and finally acetone the daylights out of the wood to get it re-epoxyable. It's usually easier to grind and saw that go this route. Nasty stuff to use, too.

http://www.homaxproducts.com/product.../10/index.html

For soldering thick wires to metal plates - what kind of soldering iron do I use....?Is Higher wattage better ?

The higher the wattage the better.

Idealy for RC - electric........... Is it better if its more than 40w?

properly applied heat from the heat gun will soften/remove epoxy with little trouble - done it many times.