I stripped a plane this afternoon for recovering and decided this would be the perfect time to do some necessary repairs to the tail feathers. And I remembered somewhere on this wide world, someone had recently posted a method of removing, or at least softening epoxy.

But I can't find it.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? Or how I can do this?

Seems there are choices here.

Easy Off Oven Cleans will soften it.
Acetone will soften it.
Heat will soften it.
From there you have to scrape it off.
Or you could freeze it. If your plane will fit in the freezer.


(Since I spent all this time searching for the answer just thought I'd share what I read.)

A small soldering iron will melt off any exposed stuff; don't breath the fumes.

Great Scratch!

I did shoot it with oven cleaner (it's wood) and it appears to be softening. But it's taking time. Worse case scenario is I end up rebuilding the tail feathers. But while I've got it stripped that may not a bad idea.

I am surprised to find several places where the wood is loose too. But you would have never known if I hadn't decided on the recover.

If this don't work I'll use the soldering iron.

I use a heat gun.

After it got soft I put the heat gun to it and began wiggling everything loose. The more I removed the more I found myself saying "new wood here....new wood here......new wood here. Eventuall Igrabbed a square and started marking what I should cut out. Tomorrow I'll look at it again.

If I had known, I'd have taken pictures and started a "How To....."

One small splash of gas, one match. Epoxy, loose wood, and recovering problems solved. Let's see, who was that with the 35% Katana on sale? I have a clear building area now....

The oven cleaner and/or acetone could easily soften the adhesives also. That's probably what loosened the wood. A little CA appropriately placed would fix it. Than again, " a little gasoline, a match....."

Between flying and Mother's day, I can't afford the matches.