• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Halp me with some melted polyester

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
Was camping and grabbed a pot off the stove with a bandana which turned out to be polyester (vs cotton... whyyyy would anyone manufacture a polyester bandana anyway?) and it melted and a bit of it stuck to the pot. I tried to scrub it off with sand, did not work, so I don't think pure abrasion will do it.

Do I have to melt it down to scrape it off?

If it were on the outside of the pot I wouldn't worry about it but I suspect it's going to melt into food if I try to use it again without getting rid of the melted polyester.

Please give advice if you have any practical knowledge of this sort of thing. Would prefer not random hypothetical brainstorming.
 

á´…eparted

passages
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,265
You're going to have to melt it off. Polyester does degrade in the presence of some organic solvents, but the ones that might would A. Take a long time (hours) B. Likely unavailable in a store, and C. Rather hazardous in untrained hands. The best thing I could suggest is soak a rag in paint thinner, tie the soaked rag around the area containing the polyester, let it sit for several hours, then attempt to chip it off. If all goes well it should have softened and expanded slightly.
 

Frosty

Poking the poodle
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
12,667
Instinctual Variant
sp
I was going to say just to buy a new pot, but that probably isn't right. I like hards better anyway.
 

Ivy

Strongly Ambivalent
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
23,989
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6
No help, but I can commiserate. I accidentally closed the oven with the strap of my son's lunchbox in it while I baked something the other day. Fortunately it didn't stick to anything in the oven but now I have to buy him a new lunchbox.
 

Chrysanthea

New member
Joined
May 22, 2015
Messages
361
One time while performing an extract on a certain root, an extremely hard, crystallized substance had formed at the bottom of the container I was using. It wouldn't come out... I even tried throwing the damn thing against a wall with the velocity of a rocket and it didn't budge at all! I was scared to ever drink out of it again cause I didn't even know what it was... what malicious creation I had just put into the universe... It just shouldn't have been there! D:
 

prplchknz

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
34,397
MBTI Type
yupp
is it just on the outside of the pot? if it's not too close to flame i say continue to use the pot. i think it's less likely to cause cancer.
 

sprinkles

Mojibake
Joined
Jul 5, 2012
Messages
2,959
MBTI Type
INFJ
One time while performing an extract on a certain root, an extremely hard, crystallized substance had formed at the bottom of the container I was using. It wouldn't come out... I even tried throwing the damn thing against a wall with the velocity of a rocket and it didn't budge at all! I was scared to ever drink out of it again cause I didn't even know what it was... what malicious creation I had just put into the universe... It just shouldn't have been there! D:

Sounds like lutefisk residue.
 

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
You're going to have to melt it off. Polyester does degrade in the presence of some organic solvents, but the ones that might would A. Take a long time (hours) B. Likely unavailable in a store, and C. Rather hazardous in untrained hands. The best thing I could suggest is soak a rag in paint thinner, tie the soaked rag around the area containing the polyester, let it sit for several hours, then attempt to chip it off. If all goes well it should have softened and expanded slightly.

Ah ok. I do not have that, but I might try re-melting and trying to wipe it off. If that doesn't work I'll see about getting a small can of paint thinner.

Thank you for the info!
 

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
Hey [MENTION=20829]Hard[/MENTION], I knocked it against something by mistake and a piece of the polyester chipped off. So I tried to chip off more, and then I somehow had the idea that if I got it really cold it could maybe get more brittle, so I put it in the freezer and was able to chip it off in small flakes with a butter knife. I kept having to put it back in to get it cold again, but I think with 3 tries I got it all.

I scratched the surface a little, but that is ok, it's just aluminum, not no-stick, so I'm fine with that.

So there's a fun FYI, I suppose. In case else anyone gets melted polyester on metal and wants to remove it and comes searching on here.
 
Top