Some plastics dissolve in acetone. Try it.
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
30 points (100.0% liked)
Ask Lemmy
26924 readers
781 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Thanks I’ll give it a shot
Lots of plastics are attacked by acetone. If there are other plastic parts inside the actuator then you might just nuke them too.
Can you reach into it with a sharp tool and physically cut the fibers?
Unfortunately no, the plastic part is very tight around the screw. It’s about three inches long and I’m sure the fibers are stuck across the entire length
Yes but that might not matter. It may only be sticking because the fibers are wrapped tight around the plastic part and the screw creating a lock through that tension. Cut through all the fibers wrapping round the screw and plastic part half way across. So there are fibers running in the gap and out both sides. Then start pulling at them with pliers. Some should come out. They must be able to move within that join or it would have jammed up as soon as the fibers started to enter. Rather than wrapping them round and round and then stopping.
Also unless you know exactly which plastic that ring is made from don't try chemicals on it. As you've no idea of the damage it might do to it.
Can you share a picture of the piece with the fibers in it?
Lithium grease could help if you can get it under the plastic screw.
If the fibers are long enough, you could try pulling them out with needle nose pliers.
If you are going to try to dissolve out the fibers, try a very small amount on the outside of the plastic screw to make sure it won't dissolve it as well.
A good picture or two would be amazing
An alcohol or strong acid will probably have a small effect on the fibers. Try rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol first. Hydrochloric acid might work, marginally. Sulfuric acid in a dry form is often used to make ester bonds, but aqueous solutions will have some effect on breaking them, but that will probably affect the plastic part more than you'd like.
Oh, and usually heat makes everything go faster, so if you can place the motor/actuator in a warm spot, or even inside of an oven below the water/alcohol boiling point, it will probably help.
This is probably your best advice. Any solvent that will completely dissolve the polyester is pretty likely to damage the plastic part as well, but running some isopropyl in there could weaken the fibers to the point that the motor can break them up. Higher concentrations of isopropyl will work better, but even the 70% stuff work if you can heat it up past 150F
30/70 water ipa mix can make the mix dissolve materials that are not normally dissolvable in ipa. It is a cosolvent system which reduces the polarity of the mix and hence, can make things miscible in it that normally are not.
Just fyi, if pure ipa is not working, using the diluted version might!
Polyester is pretty non-reactive, but I've read they use DMSO to dissolve it out of Poly/Cotton blends for recycling.
Gasoline. Not quite understanding your description, are there any plastic parts?