Old mold wax stripper..

[Roly]

Anybody know of a wax stripper substitute out of regular solvents. I have run out of TR502 and its a long weekend.

I have styrene, xylene, toluene,acetone, white petrol, turps,mek,lacquer thinners, meths......

[marshmat]

I asked the same question last week and got only suggestions of commercial solvents, http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15602 ... xylene apparently works but it's kind of lethal?

[Roly]

Funny, I searched mold wax remover, and got nothing. Guess remover was too different to "removal".
I looked on the can of TR502 and its msds states- toluene and MEK.No proportions. Guess I will just have to try some variations. MEK ain't too good for you either.

[marshmat]

Toluene and methylethylketone, eh?
Toluene and xylene are closely related; toluene is the common name for methylbenzene while xylene is dimethylbenzene... the only difference is an extra CH4 group, and the chemical properties (and probably the toxicity) are pretty similar. Apparently the main concern with both is brain damage caused by very large doses.

[Shawn Elliott]

We strip our molds with some stuff from Chem-Trend, funny enough named ChemLease Mold Cleaner. It is solvent based and works extremely well, its what I used when I took over the shop and switched from paste wax to a semi-permanent release system.

[Roly]

Gidday Shawn,Matt.Jack...and "those who know".
Ended up buying more TR502. The toluene/MEK we mixed up was just too smelly to use without commercial extraction.

We are preping an old deck mold (22yrs last used) Just a one off use.
It is coming reasonably shiny. I figure that we can cut raised scratches out of
the product when it is popped out.
Is this valid thinking, or will the gelcoat stay in the scratches?
Kinda a " how long is a piece of string" type question.
Would you do the 5 coats of wax over, or PVA the likely trouble spots? (anti-skid areas etc)

Also, as we dont have a gelcoat gun we have bought painting gelcoat. Recommended build is 15-->25 thou. What happens if you make it a little thicker? And, would this have any repercussions in cutting and polishing the
dodgy areas in the new deck?
Sorry 'bout the "20 questions" but I am trying to cover as many bases as poss.
Cheers~