i was using a heat gun to remove some ancient (at least 50-60 yrs) glue from a maple drafting table top that had a dilapidated paperboard cover on it at one time.
at first, i was melting the glue- with a remaining layer of paper- and going along with a wide dullish chisel to scrape the gooey crud off while hot. after doing a small section, i then went back over the remaining cooled residue with a cabinet scraper, hoping it wouldn’t still be too gummy. to my pleasant surprise, it crumbled off in a fine dust. so it occurred to me to stop trying to remove it when hot and gooey, just bake it with the heatgun, let it cool and scrape it all off with the chisel at once. it worked like a charm! apparently, the heat baked/cooked/ruined the adhesive in such a way as to render it unable to reassume a sticky state when cool, and it just disintegrated cleanly off the wood when scraped.
this might work refinishing some hardwood floors that have been covered over, too.
m
Replies
Some adhesives come up better if you CHILL them. If you have access to dry ice, put it in a plastic bag and freeze the stuff. Then you can flake it off with a putty knife. Plain ice might work too, but be careful of the condesation on the bag.