Product Review-Electric Heated Decal, Sticker and Adhesive Remover - 110-Volt

Phetishboy

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Product Review-Electric Heated Decal, Sticker and Adhesive Remover - 110-Volt

I recently purchased a heated decal remover. I saw a suggestion about using one of them from Ken Layton in a decal removal thread. I just wanna say, WOW. In under an hour, I had completely removed both full side art pieces AND the inner cabinet artwork on my Tron project. Up until now, I had stuck about 3+ hours of time into it with a standard razor scraper and had only gotten about 2 inches from the top removed with several gouges into the wood along the way. This thing is like magic. The side art came off in continuous ribbons razor blade width. Like butter. The tool in question looks like a modified soldering iron and does get dangerously hot:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00172XU4S/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Great tool that I do not know how I lived without in this hobby.

My rating for this product:

5 schweins, straight up and deftly throbbing to the music.
 
Yes, it is I. After a self imposed 3 month exile of shame I have come slinking back.

I ask nothing but your humble forgiveness, because I know how forgiving everyone here is.
 
Yes, it is I. After a self imposed 3 month exile of shame I have come slinking back.

I ask nothing but your humble forgiveness, because I know how forgiving everyone here is.

Dude, there have been like 3 dudes since you and at least 1 before you who did the same thing. Not only are the members of KLOV very forgiving, they also are adept at the simplest of tasks and proficient at adhering to self-imposed time lines.
 
My scorched fingertips are adding this to the next Harbor Freight shopping list....

DITTO !!!
I called our local HF and the iron is $10 there, vs $20 online :)
(might as well pick up a box of razor blades while I'm there too)

cheers & thanks to Phet and Ken...

/Tim
 
I picked up this item at Harbor Freight yesterday ($9.99 regular price) and it is indeed AWESOME. What a time saver! I started removing a Make Trax control panel overlay years ago and gave up because it was such a PITA. This thing removed the overlay in minutes.

BTW, what exactly is that smell that inhabits every HF store? Really makes it hard to stay there for very long

Chris
 
Side art - heat gun works best. Now CPO's, I could see this tool working better.

hahahahahahahahahaha, says the guy who hasn't yet even tried it. I tried a heat gun first, but that just kept melting the artwork, making it come off in small chunks. This tool actually puts the heat where it is best utilized, and takes the artwork off in a continuous ribbon, from one end to the other.
 
BTW, what exactly is that smell that inhabits every HF store? Really makes it hard to stay there for very long

Chris

I think it's the rubber tires on all the two wheelers and on the shelf, at least I noticed was MUCH stronger coming from them. The two wheeler I bought there smelled up my whole garage, I accidentally left it over at another collector's for a year and when I got it back, it still smelled!

I ended up trading it for a Centipede project :)

Another explaination for the "Harbor Freight Funk" could be some type of insecticide they're treating the containers with that in turn permeates the articles inside.
 
I think it's the rubber tires on all the two wheelers and on the shelf, at least I noticed was MUCH stronger coming from them. The two wheeler I bought there smelled up my whole garage, I accidentally left it over at another collector's for a year and when I got it back, it still smelled!

I ended up trading it for a Centipede project :)

Another explaination for the "Harbor Freight Funk" could be some type of insecticide they're treating the containers with that in turn permeates the articles inside.

I have a set of rubber casters that have this smell. My wife tied them up in an airtight bag. The smell still permeates.
 
I think it's the rubber tires on all the two wheelers and on the shelf, at least I noticed was MUCH stronger coming from them. The two wheeler I bought there smelled up my whole garage, I accidentally left it over at another collector's for a year and when I got it back, it still smelled!

I ended up trading it for a Centipede project :)

Another explaination for the "Harbor Freight Funk" could be some type of insecticide they're treating the containers with that in turn permeates the articles inside.

Maybe it is a patented odor. "Hey, where did you get those cool casters <sniff, sniff>, oh...Harbor Freight." Free, and long lasting, advertising :)

Chris
 
hahahahahahahahahaha, says the guy who hasn't yet even tried it. I tried a heat gun first, but that just kept melting the artwork, making it come off in small chunks. This tool actually puts the heat where it is best utilized, and takes the artwork off in a continuous ribbon, from one end to the other.

That's just because, like in the bedroom, you put the hammer down and don't stop 'till you're spent - regardless of the police tape scene you're causing below.

The heat gun is used very sparingly. I've also removed slingshot mylars on a pinball playfield with a heatgun with excellent results.
 
I finally ran into a project that screamed for this tool. Picked it up today for $14.99 at Harbor freight (I had a 15% coupon though).

The dynamo cab I am working on had a beat Neo Geo CPO applied directly over the original CPO (which turned out to be an Ikari III CPO). I installed a razor, which was a huge PITA. I broke off a corner chunk of the actual blade trying to ramrod that thing in there, but it still worked fine.

As for removing the CPO - like butter is about the best review I can give. I spent about 15-20 minutes removing the entire cut corner CPO. What's better is I only removed the upper CPO leaving the decent one below intact. That was important because I wanted to leave the underneath one intact for the parties this weekend. When it comes time, the final CPO will also come off super easy.

Thanks for the recommendation Phet!
 
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