Removing Silkscreen?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Anyone try to remove silkscreen from a metal enclosure? What did you use? I tried nail polish remover but it doesn't seem to work. Gonna try straight Acetone but, wondering if anyone has other ideas.

Thanks 

[marcelomd]

Sandpaper 

[antonis]

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Perhaps less "destructive" methods? 

The enclosure is an old Morley Bad Horsie 2. I want to remove all of the red lettering but, I would like to keep the powdercoating.

Thanks!

[GibsonGM]

Ouch!  That's a tough order...in my function as a professional painter, I'd go for what you've tried - acetone, lacquer thinner...paint stripper (MEK, lol, no just kidding - sort of).  If acetone won't do it, I don't feel hopeful.  Industrial Goo Gone maybe?   If you use those chemicals, Antonis' idea might just happen on its own

I do understand the desire to keep the powder coat!   But if a chemical method doesn't do it, I think sanding is next  

[rutabaga bob]

I don't believe you will remove it with chemicals.  I used to work in a metal fab shop.  One of our biggest customers was St. Louis Music.  We fabbed and screen printed their Ampeg and Crate amp chassis, and a few pedals for others, like Zinky.  Once the box is printed it goes through an oven, like powder coating does, and it's ON.  You'll have to take it down to bare metal and find someone who'll re-powder coat it.

[stallik]

I have a bad horsey v1. The logo came off with some acetone and left the crinkle base unmarked.
The screen print wasn't particularly good in the first place and had started to flake off on its own. Perhaps they improved the finish on later versions?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

I don't believe you will remove it with chemicals.  I used to work in a metal fab shop.  One of our biggest customers was St. Louis Music.  We fabbed and screen printed their Ampeg and Crate amp chassis, and a few pedals for others, like Zinky.  Once the box is printed it goes through an oven, like powder coating does, and it's ON.  You'll have to take it down to bare metal and find someone who'll re-powder coat it.

Ouch!  That's a tough order...in my function as a professional painter, I'd go for what you've tried - acetone, lacquer thinner...paint stripper (MEK, lol, no just kidding - sort of).  If acetone won't do it, I don't feel hopeful.  Industrial Goo Gone maybe?   If you use those chemicals, Antonis' idea might just happen on its own

I do understand the desire to keep the powder coat!   But if a chemical method doesn't do it, I think sanding is next

Hmmm. I hope this is not true 

I have a bad horsey v1. The logo came off with some acetone and left the crinkle base unmarked.
The screen print wasn't particularly good in the first place and had started to flake off on its own. Perhaps they improved the finish on later versions?

Gonna got at it with the pure Acetone and see what happens. Fingers crossed!

[rutabaga bob]

Hope it works for you!

[mark2]

Acetone will definitely mess up the powder coat. Don't do that.

Don't ask me how I know 

[Phend]

Oven at 500 F for awhile ?? Or just below powder coat temp.
Then a quick dip in ice water to do some mechanical stressing.
Just thinking outside of the box.

[MikeA]

IME, pure ammonia won't harm powder coat, but I've used it to strip lacquer, enamel, acrylic and water-based polyurethane from different powder coated enclosures (enamel may require some elbow grease.)  Never tried it on silkscreen, but chances are the silkscreen medium is either enamel or lacquer.

[davent]

IME, pure ammonia won't harm powder coat, but I've used it to strip lacquer, enamel, acrylic and water-based polyurethane from different powder coated enclosures (enamel may require some elbow grease.)  Never tried it on silkscreen, but chances are the silkscreen medium is either enamel or lacquer.

For those tough jobs there are epoxy based silkscreen inks.

[PRR]

IME, pure ammonia....

Pure Ammonia is for fertilizer or extracting drugs. I doubt you want that for cleaning.

Ammonia water solution is available in moderate strength at the grocery store. Also with lemon, pine, and soaps. I have blistered paint off a filing cabinet with that. (Oddly, I had a tobacco contaminated house and used a lot of ammonia water and it didn't eat much paint on walls or windows.)

[Phend]

Automotive Brake fluid. Careful. It might make a mess.

[digi2t]

I don't believe that you'll be able to remove one without altering or even damaging what's beneath it. There's a bond there, and to get past that bond means getting into the top of the substrate paint.

My suggestion is to strip it completely, and repaint. Knowing your attention to detail level, it's really your best recourse.

[stallik]

As I mentioned before, my Bad Horsie Mk 1 had a poor finish as far as the logo is concerned. The underlying crinkle paint however, is quite solid. The logo had started to become scratched and really wasn't stuck very well. A little acetone completely loosened the logo but not the crinkled base layer.
Unfortunately, the logo didn't simply wipe off as the (ink) was protected within the texture of base layer. I had to resort to a stiff brush to get it all off and you can see how this has smoothed out the crinkle so clearly the acetone had done at least some softening. Perhaps I was just lucky

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Thanks all! I tried the pure Acetone route and it didn't really work.

I ended up breaking out the orbital and some 60 grit 

Re-paint and it looks great!

[Ice-9]

I silk screen all my powder coated enclosures and if the print goes wrong a single wipe with acetone removes the screen print with out any damage to the powder coating, all I need to do is a quick polish with T-cut before re doing the screen printing.
Now the thing is, it will depend on what screen printing ink has been used on your enclosure as to weather this will work or not. I use a solvent based ink that is likely naptha based, which is why acetone wipes it clean off. Nothing else seems to remove the print.

It is very possible that yours may be uv cured ink and acetone won't touch it. Only one way to find out. Careful with the acetone though as too much will damage the powder coating. I would say use is lightly dampened cloth and test it on an area on the inside of the pedal to see if it damages the powder coating.