Best method to remove sealent

[MozNE]

I'm in the process of rebuilding my aquarium, but I'm having alot of problems removing the silicone from the top support brace.

What is the safest and easiest method, a Stanley blade has done most of it but it's a little thick at parts to get between the 2 sheets of glass.

Is there a decent chemical which will make things easier?

[plankton]

I think acetone softens it, if I remember correctly......??

[fr499y]

razor blade and then acetone and a quick rub

[Vale!]

Yes - it's difficult and frustrating if the layer of sealant is so thin and if it's not possible deliberately to break one of the sheets of glass to facilitate access to the sealant.

There are a couple of things to try, and you'd probably end up using both in combination.

You know those craft knives which have blades made in sections - you snap off the 'leading' section when blunted to expose the next, sharp, one? I'm looking at a pack of them made by Stanley right now but it doesn't say on the packaging what they are! Anyway, their blades are thinner. You might get a bit further in using one of those (with lots of snapping!) ; bits of blade which snap off in the process and remain lodged in the joint can be used to form a gentle lever to open the joint a (very) tiny fraction. It's a bit difficult for me to describe at the moment (insufficient coffee). I have used a guitar string in the past to work stuff [see below] into a joint such as you describe!

There is such a thing as a 'silicone sealant remover'. The one I have in my hand is by Unibond. It requires a 'gun' to apply it, though there are brands in squeezy-type tubes which don't need a 'gun'. You splosh a load on and leave it for a few hours, after which cured sealant more-or-less 'wipes off' a plane surface! Getting it into a joint, such as you have, is much more problematic and will involve lots of poking with a blade and lots of time and patience. If the configuration of glass panes is such that you can attack from two or three sides, then so much the better.

If it's just a brace-bar, though, and if this might get you better access to the sealant that you want to clean off, then perhaps a valid strategy might be just to break it and get your local glazier to cut you a new one (make sure you ask for 'safe edges')! Once broken in the middle, each end of the brace bar would be wiggleable everso slightly, thus opening the joint for better poking. [caution : if glass-on-glass noise is heard during wiggling, stop!].

Acetone will nicely clean up newly-applied silicone sealant, or the remnants of an application of silicone sealant remover, but doesn't appear to trouble very much silicone sealant that's already cured.

Do you have a pic of the offending piece(s) of glass?

[Vale!]

Following the above exchange, on December 12th I plunged a random glob of cured silicone sealant into a vial, sealed it and left it until today. It hasn't changed at all from what I can see, and still feels like a glob of cured silicone sealant!

[Baddams]

It won't do. You'll need to add some Acetone.

[Vale!]

So much for proof-reading!

For the intervening month the vial had been stored vertically so that the glob had been fully submerged in the ACETONE (!). I put it on its side today for photographic purposes.