@JohnActon posted:FYI; The active ingredient in oven cleaner is sodium hydroxide (lye, drain cleaner) I purchase a two pound canister of lye crystals and it is my go to stripper for plastic. I have used 91% isopropyl as well as denatured alcohol they both work most of the time my only misgiving about them is they burn and I would rather not breath the fumes. At the concentration that I mix my stripper, between one and two cups of the crystals in a 5 gallon bucket with about 4.5 gallons of water, you can get it on your hands and just as long as I rinse them off in a couple minutes I have never had any skin burns. Though if you leave it on long enough it will chafe your skin. I do wear protective glasses I would not want to splash it in my eyes. There again it is weak enough that if you rinse your eyes in running water for five minutes you should be fine. I lower a body shell or several into the bucket put the lid on and let it sit till a tooth brush wipes the paint off usually about two days. The process may actually take less time but I just give it about two days out of habit. If you want it faster you can add more lye crystals. Remember as you make it stronger it will eat your skin or eyes faster. I would guess that my brew is weaker than oven cleaner. By the way it will also remove chrome/nickel plating from plastic. Many things will remove paint from plastic Brake fluid works well but is more toxic than lye or alcohol. Model airplane fuel works well, on many plastics, but there again it burns. One last point some drain cleaners contain small bits of metal and some have little blue crystals mixed in the the white sodium hydroxide. I don't use these as once the metal or the colored crystals dissolve they drastically weaken the solution and I keep my solution, in a five gallon bucket with snap on lid, for years. j
I found your comments interesting, especially about the products that contain metal bits in them, or the blue crystals. Does the container list these metal bits? I use to use Red Devil Lye for great results, since I can't get it or find it, I have used some other stuff, and it seems like it is not as effective. I use this solution to strip RR lamps of their paint prepping for re-painting. I am in Wisconsin as far as knowing what products are available here. Thanks!
