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Techniques for Collectorsremoving paperweight resin

5th Feb 2009 17:36 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

I don't know if it is possible. But i have a paperweight I want to try and get the mineral out of. Is there a chemical that can reverse the process? I am not sure how the process of these paperweight resins are made but if there is a chemical that is relatively safe when used properly I'd like to know. Advance please and thank you's

5th Feb 2009 18:43 UTCRay Hill Expert

Wow Matt, are you a mindreader?? I was going to post this same question today, and here you have gone and done it..I have some silver wires trapped in cast plastic spheres and would love to get them out..so HELP anyone???

5th Feb 2009 18:58 UTCWayne Corwin

have you tryed acetone?

5th Feb 2009 19:41 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

acetone is the main component of nail polish remover i think?? works great on super glue but not on this resin stuff...

5th Feb 2009 20:47 UTCSteve Kittleson

Hello,


I know of a few chemicals that will dissolve plastics and resins, but they are all extremely dangerous to work with, even for qualified people. For liabilty reasons, I won't name them.



TTFN:)-D(:P)::o(:P):)-D

5th Feb 2009 20:58 UTCJohn Truax

There is a product to do that job, usually sold at the same source as the resin I think it is called Attack.

Heat softens the resin as well, I have rescued some copper matrix slabs with a torch so I could cab them.

5th Feb 2009 22:20 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

Thanks John I'll check that out, also you mention a torch. So it sounds like boiling water isnt going to do the trick...

6th Feb 2009 00:22 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

The older resins used for paperweights were (chemically) similar to glass-fibre resin, and are attacked by such solvents as acetone (long soak), as well as the microbiological mountant solvents. For some of these older resins, there are other more effective (and much more hazardous) chemicals to digest them with.


Heating acrylic resins is not a good idea - the acrylate monomers released by this are quite toxic.


Newer resins are epoxy-based, and are attacked only by the specific resin-digesting product for the particular formulation. All epoxies, however, are heat-sensitive, and may be successfully peeled from encapsulated material if brought up to their softening temperature (they never melt, they just become rubbery and easily ripped). Just hope that you haven't got a piece that has been encapsulated in a high-temperature resin (still solid at 220 celsius).

6th Feb 2009 15:13 UTCHoward Heitner

Not knowing what kind of plastic you are dealing with makes it a lot more difficult to recommend a solvent. I would suggest cutting or drilling off sample material to experiment with. I would not recommend heating the paperweight to a very high temperature because you might crack the specimen. The first thing, that I would suggest trying, is whatever is sold in your area as paint remover or for cleaning paint brushes. Read and follow the safety instructions on the package. Another thing that you might try is degrading the plastic with ultraviolet light. I have not actually tried this, but it is well known in the plastics industry that sunlight degrades plastic and a lot of money is spent on additives to prevent this. I suggest using a short wave UV light, with the filter removed to increase the UV output. Put the UV light directly on the plastic and wrap the whole thing with aluminum foil to keep the UV light from escaping. I would expose it for a week or so, and see if there is any change..

6th Feb 2009 20:05 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

generally i use turpentine to clean paint brushes. i'm pretty sure its a rather new epoxy resin. I dont have a UV light but thats a good idea i suppose! (:D

6th Feb 2009 23:22 UTCAdam Kelly

You could always use the sun as a UV light. Unless you live in New England(:P)

5th Mar 2009 08:40 UTCRock Currier Expert

Mat,

Usually the minerals that are embedded in plastic are not worth the trouble of trying to remove them. What treasure is it in the plastic that you want to remove?

28th Jul 2011 18:52 UTCJim Walker & Mary Fong/Walker

Matt et al:

Virtually all of the common embedding/potting resins will yield to a soak in Methylene Chloride. That said, I HIGHLY SUGGEST THAT YOU PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE MSDS/ HAZARDOUS CHEM WARNINGS THAT GO ALONG WITH THE USE OF THIS MATERIAL. It is CARCINOGENIC, HARD ON LIVERS AND BURNS LIKE HELL IF YOU GET IT ON YOU. But it does eat most common plastics for breakfast. It is sold commercially as "Paint & Epoxy remover". For Epoxy removal it is occasionally it is combined with THF (Tetrahydrofuran) another evil compound to watch out for.

It goes without saying (but I'm saying it!) that strong medicines can produce strong results - for good or ill. Make sure you know what you're doing before you start out.

Buen Suerte

28th Jul 2011 20:52 UTCDonald Slater

In an old collection I bought one time there were about 100 of these really ugly things that looked like someones nightmare come to life. They had taken a lot of nice small silver crystals from Mexico and embedded them in resin using all sorts of ugly molds. the base was one color and the top clear. I tried a couple of solvents with no luck. I found that acetone did the job. It took a lot of acetone and a couple of weeks on each batch. I put 15- 20 at a time in a sealed container with about 3 times the volume of acetone. The acetone gets saturated so I had to change it out a couple of times. It helps to give it a gentle swirl now and then. It dissolved most of the plastic but left what looked like small plastic pebbles in the bottom mixed with the silver which I picked out with tweezers. Most of the silver came out clean but some needed additional cleaning in fresh acetone. It was a lot of work but I got some nice small silver crystals. I don't know if this will work on your resin but it is worth a try.

15th Jan 2015 00:15 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

I just got some 100% acetone for my wife because that cheap nail polish remover is crap. It reminded me that I had my predicament and I hadnt done a thing yet. So I poured some in a jar and closed the lid. IT WORKED!


Pictures to follow

15th Jan 2015 03:12 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

08064060016027370415993.jpg

08110190015659767109963.jpg



This is one crystal of few I liberated from the resin. It is what I think is a twinned zircon. It might just be 2 grown together but it reminds me much of a knee-shaped twin. Sorry for the bad pictures I cannot get much better on my sony camera so i took these on my galaxy.

26th Jan 2015 17:52 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

Matt be careful about using pure acetone as a nail polish remover, my EX did that and her nails fell off ( her real ones)!

26th Jan 2015 18:07 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

Reiner, I wonder who made that suggestion?;-)


That's good info. I would have made the same suggestion before I heard this!

26th Jan 2015 23:55 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

EEK thanks for that warning! I don't want what little bit of nail I have to fall off. My wife calls them nano-nail ( well she says "nano-uña", spanish) lol.


Now, can i where normal latex cheapy gloves or should i wear the PVC or whatever heavy duty kind I have for use when I use HCL??


I am really happy with the results, once again thanks for the warning.

27th Jan 2015 02:02 UTCDoug Daniels

You need to check the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) to find out what kind of gloves to use with pure acetone. That is, if you have a need to use it.

27th Jan 2015 02:10 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

Latex is rated as best for acetone. Vinyl and nitrile are not recommended.

31st Jan 2015 04:25 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

ok, Thank you. If I have to use that stuff again I will use latex gloves. Either that or I'll find some old tongs to grab the pieces. I'll have to let my wife know not to use that pure stuff for nail polish remover.


I wonder now if you could mix the pure stuff with the "value" nail polish remover. That cheap crap doesn't work for the intended purpose.


Thanks for the responses Doug & Reiner much appreciated. I'm glad i got around to doing this and we learned not to dip our fingers in it :)
 
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