Undoing epoxy repairs

[flintandsteel]

I have in an old shotgun stock that ideally needs taking apart, cleaning, aligning properly and regluing.
It has been fixed with epoxy.
Other than steaming the hell out of it dose anyone know of anything that will soften the glue?
Soak for 5 years in meths perhaps?

 

[Racers]

Heat softens epoxy.

Pete

 

[custard]

There's lots of different epoxies with different characteristics, but by and large epoxy will first start to soften at about 80 degrees c, so not all that hot.

If it's spot glued in the vicinity of a metal fastening then getting a soldering iron onto the fastening can loosen the bond pretty quickly, but if it's a wood to wood bond that's well beneath the surface then there's always the chance it's just not practical to reverse the bond without damaging the item.

Good luck!

 

[adidat]

Any pictures of wounded shotgun?

Adidat

 

[MusicMan]

You can do a search on epoxy solvents on google. By and large, they are pretty vicious chemicals, some carcinogenic. So I am not endorsing any!

Keith

 

[Beau]

Heat softens epoxy.

Pete

This

 

[flintandsteel]

Posted this once and it disappeared!!

Heat it is then. Steam is good but very localised. I usually wrap the area in a cloth to keep heat and moisture right on the area.
So 80º C is good and the solution as it can't be made any worse.
Wrap up all but the damaged area in foil or cling film or both to try protect the old finish and seal it.
Jig the stock so it will stand upright in a pan of boiling water so that will take the entire joint to about 100º.
It's a 3 or 4 piece repair so smaller pieces may lift and reduce the whole eventually improving access to the main joint.
Well, that's the plan.
My thanks all
I'll report back.

 

[profchris]

Have you considered using the oven set to 100C? No water to damage the finish or swell the wood. The bottom oven of my Aga is about 100C, and I've had wood in there up to 30mins or so without obvious damage. But I'd still used foil as you suggest - in fact, you could wrap the whole thing in foil and let it heat soak.

I'd just take it out every 10 mins or so and poke at the epoxy to see how soft it was (and to check the wood wasn't complaining), but I guess you'd want 20 mins at least to get the heat well into a gunstock.

 

[ED65]

Another thing worth considering is microwaving the wood. Obviously this is if the size of the piece and your microwave allows!

This has the advantage of heating the wood not from without but from from within, getting the heat just where you want it. Just be sure not to overdo the microwaving as you'll boil out water from the wood and this can lift or blister finish.

 

[AES]

Acetone will soften some epoxies - maybe take a long-ish time though.

AND please NOTE, acetone can damage/mark some woods, especially if varnished, stained, etc.

HTH

AES