thook

i wouldn't apologize. people around here like to trip out...haha

woodcraft

Like you said

"made a fire in the fire pit and threw it in"

Jicafold

That was dramatic license.

icemilkcoffee 

I’ve never heard of anyone using flame to strip paint but lots of people use heat guns to do it. Ive used it on small parts.
Also- what paint stripper were you using? I found the spray-on stripper works way better than the brush on type. No idea why. It just did.

Jicafold

I had originally used the Aircraft paint stripper on other frames, but it turned dark in color for some reason and stopped working so threw it way. The 2 strippers I used on this, prior to fire, were The Kwik-Strip in the Blue can and the Jasco in the red can. I mentioned this in post #1 but here is a photo.

canklecat

A heat gun is affordable, works quickly with little or no damage to the matrix under the paint, including most woods when used carefully.

Years ago when I lived in a rural home on 3 acres I went through a phase of experimenting with all kinds of primitive techniques for woodworking, etc., including metallurgy I experimented with old school heat treating to make knives from worn out files, and to make simple flat sprints from metal stock. It's possible to do pretty decent work with just a hot wood coal fire in a garden, both softening and hardening, including case hardening with bone.

But I'd hesitate to use an open flame or coal pit like that for removing paint. A heat gun would be easier and safer.

I'd also want to get an idea of the frame joinery and minimize heat time on joints.

polymorphself 

I think that color is great personally.

Jicafold

Well, I wish I could find a matching color for "electric rose" somewhere...at least something close.

Drillium Dude 

I have a frame I am seriously considering stripping, but it has a lot of chrome. Would a heat gun affect the chrome? The transitions from paint to chrome are over 12" in length so the chrome's gonna get heated up on this frame. But I recall the last time I stripped a frame with gel stripper; it was a mess and it didn't do a great job, either. Looking for a different approach this go around.

DD

thook

try browsing montana brand "hard core" paints. i dunno. maybe. they have a lot of specialty colors i'd never seen before

AngryFrankie

Next time pay the powdercoat guy 125 bucks to strip it clean as a whistle and cover it with almost any color you like.

tricky 

Man, I wish it was $125 here. It’s something like $250 here in Seattle. That said, they at least usually have bike experience.

Jeff Wills

Prismatic Powders will send you a free color swatch to see if their offerings match what you're trying to do. A little guessing found this:
https://www.prismaticpowders.com/sho...osebud-sparkle

Rage

I’ve used citristrip on a couple frames with great success. Doesn’t require much effort either.

cyccommute 

That’s low. Average is a bit over 900°F. Higher temperatures can be achieved depending on the location in the fire. You can cremate a body in a wood fire and that takes from 1400° to 1800°F. Wood fires can go even hotter than that to around 2000°F.

The main point is that there is little to no control over how hot the fire gets.

cudak888 

Which brings up the tantalizing question - what kind of damage can the 350-450 degree Fahrenheit of powdercoating do?

Or rather, is 350-450 degrees worthy of concern when powdercoating is so regularly accepted as a frame finish?

(Yes, fully aware the OP didn't bake the frame - I read that post. Just thinking out loud).

-Kurt

oneclick 

The lowest temperature for annealing use is somewhere around 250 degrees C (your 450 F is under that), and that's process annealing, not full anneal which is much higher - and the soak is usually longer; half an hour at powdercoating temperature probably would not do anything.

qcpmsame 

No problems here at all, just not something I would attempt, and I have two steel frames needing repainting. In my shop. Considering media blasting as no chromed lugs or socks are involved with the Bottecchia, and the other is a Schwinn electro-forged Super Sport.

I do sincerely hope the build goes great for you.

Also, I will agree with cb400bill, that original colourway is very nice looking. (Coming from a Marine guy that proudly owns and rides a pearlescent pink Tomassini Prestige&#128521

Bill

squirtdad

campfires we did as boy scouts would melt glass bottles. no way would I throw a frame i wanted into a fire. my experience with stripping isut a ton on, cover it all up big plastic garbage bags, and let it sit, after the the paint came off really easily

squirtdad

also a heat gun might be a little more controllable than treating the frame like a marshmallow

AngryFrankie

Ugghh. Maybe try to find someone a little out of the city. 125 is actually frame and fork in suburban Atlanta. I had an 853 Peloton done for 100.00, no fork, pretty recently, and it came out very nicely.

gugie 

All this talk about heat damaging steel frames is interesting. Bronze brazed frames are heated up to glowing orange at the joints with no structural issues (proviso that you're using the right tubing that will take the heat, yada yada...) They get reheated in small areas when brazing on tiddly bits (my new favorite term). Tubing properties are designed around construction methods, to some degree, and brazed, steel frames wouldn't be possible to construct if you couldn't heat them up brazing temperatures without damage.

The problem is heat control - any framebuilder will tell you that. If you're throwing a frame into a fire pit, it's hard to tell if small areas get heated up to the point where damage to the frame would occur. Others much more knowledgable in the blue flame arts might chime in here.

However, I wouldn't strip frame paint using heat for a different reason. If you're burning off the paint there could be nasty chemicals coming off that I certainly wouldn't want to breath in.
@Drillium Dude, if your heat gun softens the paint enough, I'd say go for it. I highly doubt that the hot air coming off of them will damage your frame.

nlerner

Wasn’t that the name of the karaoke bar outside of Tucson where we shared a fine meal back in March?

gugie 

Close.

That was the name of the song we all stood up and sang before they kicked us out.

nlerner

Nah, I was only lip syncing.