Williams wood control panels - I hate them

Spyridon

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I hate working with Williams wood control panels. I have not found an easy way to remove the adhesive under the old overlays. What the hell is that stuff they used?

Any one have a good solution to this?

I tried out YellowDog's suggestion (listed below) from this thread, but it didn't work. All I ended up with was a bunch of paper towels stuck to the wood.

I use GoofOff. You'll need 3 heavy garbage bags. A lot of paper towels and a Can of GoofOff.

Most of my control panels are from Williams machines, so burning the overlays off is not an option (although considered several times :rolleyes:).

Lay the paper towels over the top of the control panel and wet them down well with GoofOff. Slide the whole thing into the plastic garbage bag and tie it. Take the second garbage bag and slide it over the first one (the first one goes in tied side first) and then tie it. Take the third one and slide it over the second one the same way (tied side first).

Let it sit in the garage overnight. In the morning open the bags outside and scrape the remains of the CPO(s) off with a putty knife.

I used to do it with just one garbage bag, but the garage smelled like GoofOff for hours. Three seems to hold most of it in. This is also why you don't use this method in the house.

The last control panel I did this to took about an hour to get it in shape to sand. I would still be scraping if I hadn't tried this. It had a generic CPO on top of a Mr. Do CPO on top of part of a Haunted Castle CPO on top of a Stargate CPO. One of them looked like they had put it on using that black linoleum adhesive. It was a mess.

ken
 
Is cutting a new one out of the question?

I hate working with Williams wood control panels. I have not found an easy way to remove the adhesive under the old overlays. What the hell is that stuff they used?

Any one have a good solution to this?

I tried out YellowDog's suggestion (listed below) from this thread, but it didn't work. All I ended up with was a bunch of paper towels stuck to the wood.
 
This works wonders

00002945.jpg
 
You just need to break down the adhesive and scrape it off, then wipe it with lacquer thinner. A 'safe', orange, etc.. stripper won't likely do it. You need a real paint stripper, the kind that burns your skin. It goes quickly that way.
 
Sorry, there is no magic bullet for the Williams control panels. Every method I have tried involves a certain amount of elbow grease, even the letting goof off soak method. It seems that different manufacturers used different adhesives (the black stuff is the worst) and by the time you get a couple of layers of CPOs stuck on it is enough to make one contemplate just building a new one. In fact, a couple of people with mad woodworking skills have done this.

Just hang in there. You can get it all off eventually.

ken
 
Seriously, I'm guessing quite a few people who are struggling to get the gunk off of the wood are using some orange or safe remover. It's not gonna work on this. You need something tough, like Strip Eez, that is nasty and requires gloves. I don't wear gloves with it, but it stings when it gets on your skin. It will turn the adhesive to soft goo, and you scrape it right off of the wood. 2nd application to clean up, then wipe with lacquer thinner. Sand, and it's good to go.
 
Okay, I finally found something that works on these panels.

IMG_8633.jpg


Stills requires some elbow grease, but this really did a good job. I now have a nice clean panel.
 
Wasn't there a recent thread here where a guy found a really easy way to remove the overlays on these control panels?
 
I did one recently (Moon Patrol). The actual overlay came off fairly easily, but there were some bumps and stuff from the leftover glue. I just used a razor blade to smooth out the bumps so you couldn't feel anything when running your hand over it, then installed the new overlay on top of the old glue, and it worked just fine. Perfect looking panel now with no bumps...
 
I just used the zinsser adhesive remover on a qbert CP which was really old
and dried up adhesive.

45 mins later I have a nice clean CP. The glue scraped off in a few mins. Super
easy.. I highly recommend it.

Malice95
 
Good lord guys...You are making something that is really easy into a nightmare. I've stripped and installed replacement CPOs on dozens of control panels including Williams machines. It is simple: remove the old CPO with a heat gun and a 1" to 2" flat putty knife. Spray the control panel down with Citra-Strip and let it sit for 20 - 30 minutes. Remove the old mastic and left-over Citra-Strip with your putty knife. Repeat if necessary and clean the control panel with 409 and paper towels. Let the control panel dry out for a couple of days, sand lightly and install your new CPO. Citra-Strip uses citrus oil as an active ingredient and works GREAT in spite of the other, incorrect opinions in this thread. It doesn't smell or try to kill you like MEK and traditional paint stripper will. It is available at most Lowe's and Home Depots in an aerosol can. --Rich
 
Good lord guys...You are making something that is really easy into a nightmare. I've stripped and installed replacement CPOs on dozens of control panels including Williams machines.

I'm not sure you are remembering your Williams panels correctly. The process you described is exactly how I do most panels, but it doesn't work on the Williams panels. I've used Citristrip and it just doesn't cut through the adhesive they used. The MEK worked great but the safe strippers are garbage on these.
 
Hmmm. That's weird that Citri-Strip isn't working for you. I can go out in my gameroom and lay my hands on 5 upright Williams in my collection that I have used it on, so I know it has worked for me in the past. I guess there is no one answer to this question. Results may vary by machine. --Rich
 
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