Removing skateboard tape?

The best is a mixture of benzene and carbon tet. Unfortunately it's easier to buy a full auto gun then getting those nowadays. Most goo-off products are xylene based, the higher boiling cousin of benzene and toluene. You used to get it by the quart at Home Depot, no idea if they still carry it.
 
WD 40 and a piece of towel. I bought a old 1972 VW bug somebody put huge decals of flames on it. WD-40 a scrapper and towel to finish it.
 
OK, Dahermit, why? It is no more flammable than the other solvents being proposed, and less likely to do harm than acetone. Like most of the other solvents, it has to be used in a ventilated area. So why is gasoline never safe, while the other stuff is?
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Because gasoline turns the room it is used in into a bomb. Even if used outdoors the gasoline vaporizes and spreads out from the source. I have seen a video of a person throwing gasoline on a brush pile...when he lit it, the fumes had migrated outward, way beyond the brush pile and ignited, catching him in the flames. There was recently a post on an antique tractor sight where a guy was cleaning tractor parts in gasoline and knocked his trouble light over which broke. In short, he was severely burned. In contrast, Alcohol and many other solvents are not nearly as volatile as gasoline and are much safer to use...with caution if they are marked, as "flammable". The nature of gasoline makes it unsafe to use as a solvent, no matter how careful you are. Those of you who have used gasoline as a solvent have been living on borrowed time. If you would never point a gun at your head and claim it is safe because it is "unloaded", would do well to consider misusing gasoline as a solvent as a very much similar thing to do. Unconfined gasoline is a bomb, even in a "ventilated area", it will burn explosively even outside.
 
Warning noted, but I guess I will probably continue to use gasoline. At least I don't have a gas lawnmower, so no mobile bomb there, but maybe everyone should go to an electric or diesel car. If that gas tank lets go, everyone in the car is in deep trouble.

Jim
 
Warning noted, but I guess I will probably continue to use gasoline. At least I don't have a gas lawnmower, so no mobile bomb there, but maybe everyone should go to an electric or diesel car. If that gas tank lets go, everyone in the car is in deep trouble.
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Gasoline inside of internal combustion engines designed for it is not the problem...people using gasoline as a solvent is the problem.
 
Many solvents give off fumes that are lighter than air and rise away from the user.
Gasoline fumes are heavier than air and stay low to the ground, around the user.
They are very explosive, which is why it makes such a good fuel.
And why having homes with attached garages is a lousy idea.
Alcohol gives off a flame that is hard to see.
Unless one is close enough to feel the heat, it's not always apparent there's a fire.
It's just not a safe world.
 
I've used gasoline, too, but used it outside, by pouring it a metal pan. It will give off fumes, that will hug the ground, especially around grass, so no smoking, etc.
 
My dad had been a mechanic since the 40's and he always used gas for cleaning parts. He even used it in a parts washer with an electric pump. I started helping out in the shop when I was 10 or so and have been using gas to wash parts since 67 or so. I quit being a mechanic in the early 80's but when I work on car parts I still use gas to clean them altho the gas now isn't as good as the red gas we used back then.
 
I still use gas to clean them altho the gas now isn't as good as the red gas we used back then.
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Hawg,

I've been told that gas today is very close to a low grade diesel fuel, some even use the gas we have today in camp stoves.

I know if you spill some on concrete it will stay a very long time before it evaporates.

I imagine it would work for removing skate board tape just fine, however I would still want to use it outside away from flame.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
 
removing tape adhesive

I often make a loop of duct or other sticky tape, around my four fingers...sticky side out. Then I just repeatedly pat and press the sticky loop on the adhesive to be removed. Usually the old gunk will be pulled off by the new sticky tape loop. Turn loop as necessary to keep using fresh sticky surface on loop. I find that easier than messing with solvent if it works.

Next would be WD40, or a heat gun, and last acetone. Works for me.

I have washed many parts in gas, and have used it on bare hands to get grease off. My Dad did that daily to clean his hands before washing with soap. I don't recommend it. I always use a brush to wash parts now, and seldom gas. I'm not as indestructable now as I was when I was 20....and my Dad got skin cancer.
 
Diesel is supposed to be several collection pans lower down the still from where gasoline is. I think, as you go up the column about mid way, you reach diesel fuel, then kerosene, gasoline, naphtha, and finally petroleum gas at the top. The higher you go, the lower the boiling point. Below diesel, you have lubricating oil, fuel oil, and the thicker stuff, down to tar. Though they say #2 fuel oil is diesel, and the only difference is the tax.
 
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