removing red coating from tubes

[Petro Vodopyan]

Hello,

Does anyone know is it possible to remove the red coating from a nixie tubes (e.g. Z574) via ultrasonic bath without making any damage to the tubes? I have a bunch of this tubes but major part of them have scratches on red paint. So i decided to remove the paint and now i'm looking for the easiest way to do it (instead of scratching each tube with knife). Before i buy an ultrasonic bath i would like to know will this approach work or not.

Any help is appreciated.

Petro

[Nicholas Stock]

Petro, no need to use ultrasound. I've had success with just soaking the tubes in warm water with a little soap for 30 minutes and then using a knife to scrape it off....came off quite easily. The only stubborn part was the glass tip of the tube where I gently used a scalpel to peel it off.

HTH,

Nick

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[Petro Vodopyan]

Thank you for your idea, Nick. I will try it this weekend. Previously i used a tank with acetone and also soaked tubes in it for a couple of hours. 70-80% of the coating became soft and was easily removed. But the remaining pieces still required manual cleaning. And another issue that different manufacturers/factories used different paint and it did not worked on some of tubes - the pain was not even softened. Also acetone is very toxic so i'd like to find a more "healthy" way to remove the coating.

Anyway i will try your idea. Thanks

С уважением,

Петр Водопьян

+38 066 55 78 780

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[Nicholas Stock]

Pedro, I use Acetone every day as a chemist...of all the solvents you can use, it's pretty innocuous (your body actually synthesizes small amounts normally)...just use it in a well ventilated area. Likewise, isopropyl alcohol may help you with the stubborn coatings also and is safe to use in a well ventilated area. If you still have some tubes with paint that won't come off, we can then talk about the solvents that are less friendly....:-)

Best of luck!

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[Tidak Ada]

Hi Nicholas,

 

Am I right the material of the red coating is on base of collodion (cellulose nitrate) ? So the best solvent should be diethyl ether.?  Highly flammable and known as anesthetic!

 

Eric

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[Nicholas Stock]

Hi Eric, not familiar with working with cellulose nitrate (not common in drug discovery...:-). We tend to use MTBE in place of diethyl ether if possible..that might be a good solvent to try, but I'm not sure it's as readily available to Joe Public as Acetone or IPA. Petroleum Ether (Mineral Spirits or White Spirit as my Dad would call it...) is still used in lacquers, paints etc, so could also be worth a try....again, bit more hazardous to health over the long term...

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[Instrument Resources of America]

I have personally used lacquer thinner, and a common cleaning material sold in most U.S. hardware stores called Goof Off  which is especially good at removing dried tape and label residue, magic marker, some paints, etc. I use both outdoors, with nitrile gloves. Testing of the surface to be cleaned in an inconspicuous spot is highly recommended, especially with the lacquer thinner, and the acetone.  Ira.

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[Petro Vodopyan]

Hi Nicholas,

Your approach with a warm water worked like a charm. Just in a few seconds the coating becomes soft as a wet paper. Thanks you!

P.S. one photo with a clean Z573M tubes attached :)

С уважением,

Петр Водопьян

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[Nicholas Stock]

Hi Petro, very happy to hear that worked for you! Nice clock!

Cheers,

Nick

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<red coating removed.png>

[marta_kson]

An easy and dry method is to lift it off with adhesive tape. Just rub on standard office tape and when removed the paint will come off with the tape. This works on almost all tubes. It's very easy to do.

Some types like f.ex. ZM1210 has been colored with some kind of thin dye and for them acetone is the easiest way to remove the red coating.