Advice Needed: Cleaning Melted Nylon from Lopi Brass Door

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Ken C.

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Aug 20, 2010
10
N. CA.
I'm sure this is not the first time this has happened to someone: the very first time I let someone use my cabin this past winter apparently someone used a ski glove to open/close or otherwise handle the brass door on my wood stove! (Yes, my understanding is that alchohol was involved...)

Anyway now I have all this melted plastic (nylon from the glove) stuck and burned onto the polished brass. Can anyone give me some advice on how to get it off? I have automotive rubbing compounds, jewelers rouge, buffing wheels etc. but I don't think that's going to touch this stuff. Should I try a wire brush wheel? Acid? Super-fine sandpaper?

Please help! We are going up next week and I would like to get started on it if possible.
 
im far from expert but i wonder if placing a crappy towel on it and ironing would remelt and transfer this crap on to the old towel ? . heat got it theyre and maybe heat can remove it ?. good luck and hopefully someone who has the real answer will chime in soon.
 
I wouldn't get any abrasives or mechanical stuff (wire wheels, whatever) anywhere near it. My inclination would be to gather up some relatively soft scraping tools, like tongue depressors or something sanded down sharp on the ends, and go at the nylon carefully with a heat gun...not a hair dryer, a heat gun. Go slowly and carefully. What you want to do is soften the nylon without completely re-melting it, so that it will begin to yield to your scrapers. Remove as much as you can. Be patient. Go back over it as necessary to get it down to just some residual. Remove that gently with a metal polish that's brass-friendly. That's what I'd try, anyway. Good luck with it! Rick
 
hmmm... I'm honestly not sure... if it were the black painted cast door, you could sand it down & re-paint it, but that doesn't exactly work with brass...

I bet someone on here has an idea of how to handle the brass surfaces...

btw- pictures of the problem are always helpful!(if you have any)
 
Heat got it on there - try ice to get it off. Ice it, rub with a popsicle stick.
 
Unfortunately this stuff has been literally baked on since those folks were up there for a week and we've been up a few times after the fact and have used the stove. The cabin is at 6000 ft. and typically under several feet of snow in the winter and the wood stove is the heat source so there was no chance to do anything about it then. I do not have any pics of the damage yet but will take some when we are up there. I do have access to a heat gun so I may try that with a wood scraper.

Any other ideas?
 
I agree with a few of the responses on this one. if heat produced the issue, heat can help it go away. As someone had suggested, a heat gun will heat up the affected area or by starting up the stove itself. When the brass is heated I would think the nylon would wipe off nicely with a dry cloth rag. Maybe some brass treatment afterwards to return the brass to its original condition. Since the nylon and the brass are incompatible, the stove heat would eventually heat it til it removed itself by contact thru use.
 
Thanks everyone for the input! I will try the heat gun & popsicle stick treatment and see where it goes from there. If I don't have any success maybe I'll just bring the door back with me and work on it at home.
 
ive used WD-40 to clean melted stuff off brass before , doesnt work every time but does a lot, afterwards , dish soap on a wet rag to pull the wd back off. shouldnt harm the brass as far as ive ever used it it hasnt
 
What about something like Goo-Gone or a similar type product? I used to be in the cleaning business and a good product I used is called Gum-Off. It is used to remove gum stuck to carpets. It is a spray can and it works by freezing the area so the mess can be removed. Worked well on carpets, not sure about melted nylon on brass. It might freeze it to make it brittle enough that it will just break right off. If you have a local janitorial supply company in your area, give them a call. They may be able to point you in the right direction.

Good luck.
 
H-m-m-m... I do have some freeze-spray as well as WD-40 so I'll try that as well. I guess my main concern is this stuff has been baking on since maybe Jan. or Feb. Not that it has been used constantly since then but when we were there the stove was burnin'! This is definately some "Baked On" plastic...
 
If it was on the glass I would say just let it alone and it will eventually burn off, but I don't know if the brass will get that hot. I had the bottom sole print from a tennis shoe on my glass and it eventually went away (after I gave up trying to scrape it off)
 
Success, WITH PICS!!

On my last trip up, I armed myself with all the suggestions from the gallery, plus some of my own ideas to clean my brass door frame.

Here are some before shots:

IMG_0552.jpg


IMG_0551.jpg


As you can see, it was quite a mess. I tried heat guns & wood sticks, straight hard wood scrapers, fingernails, knife blades, etc. but none worked.

The Finished Product:

IMG_0563.jpg


IMG_0562.jpg


What actually worked was to use some DuPont Automotive Rubbing Compound, followed by Polishing Compound, follwed by Buffing Compound, followed by Jewelers Rouge then a hand-polish with "simichrome" polish. It took an honest 3 hrs. of work but I am pleased with the result. Of course the pictures show alot of swirl marks but in real life you really can't see them.

Thanks for the ideaas!!
 
Nice job. I bet you appreciate that the door is not just brass plated.
 
BeGreen said:
I bet you appreciate that the door is not just brass plated.

If the door was only plated I'm sure I would've cut right through it. I found that the trick was to keep a wet coat of rubbing compound with a slow wheel speed. once it dried out it would stop cutting.

This nylon was totally bonded to the brass. Nothing would loosen it up, it would not heat up enough to loosen, and I could not get it to lift up even with a knife blade!
 
Whenever I'm using any variation of a rubbing/polishing compound, I have a spray bottle of water there to (sparingly) re-moisten as needed. I'm happy that you got that mess cleaned up. It was not as I'd pictured it...globs of stuff stuck to the door frame. More like a melted-on image of the synthetic fabric. I'm not surprised, having now seen your "before" pics, that none of the heat gun and scraping ideas were effective. In any case, it sure looks good now. Nice job, happy ending! Rick
 
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