In
AF6AY wrote:

General Cement's "Strip-X" hasn't been sold by them for at least
a dozen years.

Here's a link to the "Material Safety Data Sheet" for Strip-X which
shows its components with % by weight of each.

http://www2.itap.purdue.edu/msds/docs/1451.pdf

[67% methylene chloride, 17% phenol, 4% ammonia, 20% inert thickeners]

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

Scott Wrote:

There's a paint-and-finish stripper of a similar name (Klean-Strip
Strip-X) available these days. Like the wire-"Strip-X" it contains
methylene chloride, but it has no cresol or ammonia. Its other
ingredients include toluene, xylene, and methanol, plus a thickener
(it's relatively goopy and would probably have to be wiped off of the
wire using a paper towel or Q-tip or something like that).

These chemicals all come with fire- and health-hazard warnings... if
you use 'em, do so with proper care and precautions!


I just put a glob of solder on the soldering iron tip and dunk the
enameled wire into it until the enamel melts and the solder tins the
end of the wire. Been doing that for over 20 years now...seems to
work A-OK.

Scott
N0EDV
Thanks Scott - I forgot that technique - Yes it does work -
sometimes when you get some age on your brain, it tends to lose some
of the lesser used items. - Best 73's de Howard W3CQH

Glad to help out! I have "halfzheimers"....I've only forgotten HALF of
what I used to know!

It's probably due to the paint stripper we've been inhaling for all
those years. Out of all the possible ingredients, I'm blaming it on the
thickener.


--

73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

Dave Platt wrote:
There's a paint-and-finish stripper of a similar name (Klean-Strip
Strip-X) available these days. Like the wire-"Strip-X" it contains
methylene chloride, but it has no cresol or ammonia. Its other
ingredients include toluene, xylene, and methanol, plus a thickener
(it's relatively goopy and would probably have to be wiped off of the
wire using a paper towel or Q-tip or something like that).

These chemicals all come with fire- and health-hazard warnings... if
you use 'em, do so with proper care and precautions!
=======================================
The ( potential health)problem chemicals are the C6H6-ring hydrocarbons
: toluene and xylene .

In addition to breathing the vapours , skin contact with the liquid is
outright dangerous
Most products containing these benzene/benzol derivatives are no longer
available to the public at large ,since they can cause cancer.
But.......they are very effective solvents.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

AF6AY wrote:
...
The do-gooders done did too much with all those warnings and
attempts to protect us all from everything.

Naaa, it's the people who think they should be rewarded for stupidity
and basic capitalism that took all that stuff off the market. Some
idiot did something stupid with the product and decided to sue. The
company looked at a long legal fight or settlement and settled. They
looked at a couple settlements and decided it would be more profitable
to eliminate the product and concentrate on other things as they're not
in the business to keep consumers satisfied, just get their money and
keep as much of it as possible.

- W8LNA

On May 28, 8:03*am, gwatts wrote:
AF6AY wrote:
...
The do-gooders done did too much with all those warnings and
attempts to protect us all from everything.

If a product is dangerous, why shouldn't it have warnings?
Particularly when
there are known carcinogens and other health hazards involved?

It's not being a "do-gooder" or "doing too much" to discover hazards
and
eliminate or contain them.

Sure, not everyone who uses Strip-X will get cancer. But some of the
components of it are known carcinogens, and a proven hazard. More
important,
we can't know ahead of time who the susceptible folks are.

Naaa, it's the people who think they should be rewarded for stupidity
and basic capitalism that took all that stuff off the market. *Some
idiot did something stupid with the product and decided to sue. *The
company looked at a long legal fight or settlement and settled.

Maybe. But I doubt it.

More likely, they looked at the *possibility* of such a lawsuit, the
scientific
evidence of the hazards of the ingredients, the limited profit and
declining
sales, and just stopped making the product.

Once a chemical is shown to be dangerous, the manufacturers can't
claim
ignorance anymore.

They...decided it would be more profitable
to eliminate the product and concentrate on other things as they're not
in the business to keep consumers satisfied, just get their money and
keep as much of it as possible.

Profitability is what "capitalism" and "business" are all about.
Without
profitability, a capitalist company just disappears.

Since the formula for Strip-X appears to be in the public domain,
anybody
can make it and sell it. Would *you* be willing to set up shop to make
it
and sell it, with all the risks that entails, and the very limited
market for it?

73 de Jim, N2EY

On May 26, 12:43*pm, "W3CQH" wrote:
Does anybody have the name of the substance that was sold years ago for
removing the enamel coating from wires, or maybe the name of something new?
You would soak the wire in it and it would soften the coating and then you
just wiped the goop off the wire.

73's

I've always burned off the insulation with a lighter, removed the
remaining ash with a couple swipes of very fine sandpaper, and
tinned. Never had a problem yet.

Mike

If a product is dangerous, why shouldn't it have warnings?
Sure, not everyone who uses Strip-X will get cancer. But some of the
components of it are known carcinogens, and a proven hazard. More
important,
we can't know ahead of time who the susceptible folks are.
Naaa, it's the people who think they should be rewarded for stupidity
and basic capitalism that took all that stuff off the market. Some
idiot did something stupid with the product and decided to sue. The
company looked at a long legal fight or settlement and settled.

Maybe. But I doubt it.

More likely, they looked at the *possibility* of such a lawsuit, the
scientific
evidence of the hazards of the ingredients, the limited profit and
declining
sales, and just stopped making the product.

Once a chemical is shown to be dangerous, the manufacturers can't
claim ignorance anymore.
===================================
And (quite rightly)the FDA , EPA and other relevant agencies at Federal
and State level will be taking action .

In Europe action against dangerous substances is nowadays increasingly
taken through legislation by the European Parliament. I welcome that

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

On Wed, 28 May 2008 14:18:47 -0700 (PDT) Mike Silva
wrote:

On May 26, 12:43*pm, "W3CQH" wrote:
Does anybody have the name of the substance that was sold years ago for
removing the enamel coating from wires, or maybe the name of something new?
You would soak the wire in it and it would soften the coating and then you
just wiped the goop off the wire.

I've always burned off the insulation with a lighter, removed the
remaining ash with a couple swipes of very fine sandpaper, and
tinned. Never had a problem yet.

That's what I've always done, too, but the last time I suggested it,
all I heard were lots of complaints about how much easier it was to
spend a lot of time breathing odd fumes.

Yes, there certainly was a commercial product once sold for this
purpose, but I suspect the only reason it was out there was because
they knew they couldn't make much money selling "Wire Stripper Kits"
that consisted of a book of matches.

;-)

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Scott wrote:


I just put a glob of solder on the soldering iron tip and dunk the
enameled wire into it until the enamel melts and the solder tins the end
of the wire. Been doing that for over 20 years now....


Really Scott, if it hasn't tinned after 20 years, it probably isn't
going to... hehe, sorry, couldn't help myself! ;^)

- 73 de Mike N3LI -

AF6AY wrote:
From: (Dave Platt) wrote on Mon, May 26 2008:

In article ,
W3CQH wrote:

Does anybody have the name of the substance that was sold years ago for
removing the enamel coating from wires, or maybe the name of something new?
You would soak the wire in it and it would soften the coating and then you
just wiped the goop off the wire.
I think you're referring to GC Electronics Strip-X. Doesn't seem to
be on the market these days, as best as I can tell.

I found a MSDS which states that it's 70% methylene chloride, 25%
cresol (isomers of cresylic acid), around 5% ammonia, plus some wax
and thickening agents.

General Cement's "Strip-X" hasn't been sold by them for at least
a dozen years. I sent them a letter some time ago, got a nice
reply to that effect from a female-named staffer "who had not
worked for them before that." :-) Their home office is also my
home town. :-)

"Strip-X" worked like a charm. For decades as an over-the-
counter product. Nothing over-the-counter now works as well as
it did from 1948 onwards to whenever they stopped repackaging it.
Note: GC did a lot of repackaging of bulk material and tools as
well as some manufacturing. GC went through a series of
corporate restructures, buys, and buy-outs, just aren't the same
company as when I left Rockford, IL, in 1956.

As a fellow professional, I've tried to find out what other
manufacturers use. Most use a mechanical "stripper" that
abrades coatings...but quite expensive, too much for the average
hobbyist. At least one "makes their own" but is very close-
mouthed on what their "own formula" is...:-)

One poster in an earlier thread stated that it was designed to work
with Formvar insulation, and might not work as well on the newer
Polythermaleze insulation.

The only problems I've ever had with "Strip-X" was with some
surplus Teflon-coated (!) magnet wire obtained decades ago. But,
my last bottle of "Strip-X" dried solid about 8 years ago.

There's a paint-and-finish stripper of a similar name (Klean-Strip
Strip-X) available these days. Like the wire-"Strip-X" it contains
methylene chloride, but it has no cresol or ammonia. Its other
ingredients include toluene, xylene, and methanol, plus a thickener
(it's relatively goopy and would probably have to be wiped off of the
wire using a paper towel or Q-tip or something like that).

I've tried to find one out of three different brands tested,
from Lowes, Home Depot, OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware), and
Do-It Centers. They remove oil-based paints with difficulty
and aren't even close to "Strip-X" for magnet wire, any
coating. Roughly a $60 experiment in trying for a substitute
all of which were unsuccessful. Bummer.

These chemicals all come with fire- and health-hazard warnings... if
you use 'em, do so with proper care and precautions!

The do-gooders done did too much with all those warnings and
attempts to protect us all from everything. :-( I'd only
been using Strip-X since 1947 and known lots and lots of folks
who stripped magnet wire using Strip-X. No "fires" caused by
the stuff and most of those I knew did not suffer from any
"health-hazards" inhaling (very briefly) the stinky odor from
Strip-X. It's sort of like anything with an odor should have
"Caution: Breathing will eventually result in death!" warnings.

I wonder if items such as Strip-X became obsolete due to changes in
insulation composition, i.e. not working on new types of insulation. But
I do agree about the folk who would protect us from ourselves. Strip-X
was pretty innocuous stuff.

Did you by any chance try some old style enameled wire in your
experiment above?


At one time (just about 8 years ago), pure acetone was VERY
hard to get in pint/quart containers. It is an excellent
solvent for lacquers, brush-cleaning, etc. (not good for wire
stripping though). As of about 3 years ago it and a few other
aromatic hydrocarbons started appearing in do-it-yourself
stores. Maybe there's some relaxation in all those dire
predictions, warnings, etc., etc., etc.

The acetone issue is a strange one. Acetone is one of the safer
solvents out there, heck our body even produces some acetone. Aside from
the obvious precautions for flammable materials, the biggest problem
with it is for people who wear contact lenses of the plastic variety.
Splash some in your eye, and if it gets to the edge of the contact,
capillary action will suck it under the lens, and weld the contact to
your eye. Removal effectively blinds the person. Otherwise it's pretty
safe stuff. I just don't wear contacts - even under safety goggles -
when I use it.

My late father-in-law was a polymer chemist. He died in 1977
so can't help me. I just hope that some chemist could come to
the aid of us hobbyists using coated magnet wire and provide
us with a GOOD product like Strip-X was. Meanwhile, it's back
to being VERY careful with a sharp X-Acto knofe and scraping
coatings. With #34 AWG that requires Zen-like calmness...

That is an understatement1 8^) I have to make sure I am in a good mood,
and no coffee for me that day before I attempt that sort of thing.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -