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I have an old trombone that has a lot of lacquer worn off. I was wondering if anyone knew the best way to remove the remaining lacquer so its just raw brass. Any info would help out and thanks for the help

Jared

Floor stripper. That's what the repair shop used to strip mine. It removes the lacquer and tarnish, but doesn't hurt the nickel plating on the slide. Brush it on and the lacquer will bubble up. Scrape it off with a toothbrush, rinse the heck out of it and rinse it some more. Wear gloves and do it outdoors. Wear a respirator if you got one.

'Aircraft' brand stripper... purchased at auto parts and autobody stores for regular lacquer. Brush it on... let it set for a few minutes... and hose it off.

For that dreadful 'Eastlake orange' stuff... you'll need a caustic such as 'Easy-Off' oven cleaner.

I assume it's not safe to just hose this stuff into the streets...

TheHatTuba wrote:I assume it's not safe to just hose this stuff into the streets...

Depends of what you call 'safe'. It's not going to explode or anything like that. EPA-wise... I suppose huge quantities would not be good. For a small quantity... you might run the risk of killing a little lawn!

Hell.... all the paint stripper and oven cleaner that's sold in the stores has to be going somewhere!

I forgot to mention naval jelly. Brush it on, hose it off and neutralize it with whatever the bottle recommends.

ooh...Naval Jelly has phosphoric acid in it...careful with that stuff...I think Id let nature take it course at risk of damaging the brass...I remember yrs ago accidently taking the lacquer off of an old Miraphone with Noxon and elbow grease...