geebee was wondering what to do with overpainted hinges. ……
latex paint will generally scrape off, You may be able to do in in-situ ( in place) if you scam some laminate samples from the borg and break em in half…..yielding razor sharp cuttin edges which are somewhat softish- no able to scratch metal, but will cut yer flesh to the bone in a wink.
Which led me to post this.
Latex also comes off with alcohol as well, and if there is a laquer finish, it should not harm it. OTOH, if it is shellac, it will. Of course you will try it on one hinge first.
Incidently, those broken laminate edges are also marvellous “long knives” and are quite thin, flexible, and have the rigidity for removing mirrors siliconed to the wall…. show me any commercial “knife” that is that long.
Laminate samples are also great mixers/spreaders for automotive body filler, filling damage/voids/edge damage on laminate substrates. Also good for application of glazing compounds on MDF substrate and constructs
I also use extra edging strips of HPL to keep tile backsplashes up off the countertop to make life easier for the next guy who changes the ctop. And when tiling, use the wedge left from breaking them to help keep the lines straight, run the joints to remove squeezed out adhesive, scrape off surface boo-boos of adhesive, and to tidy up corner joints after grouting. Sharp, but soft.
These broken samples are also of utility when it comes to stripping off old silicone on bathtubs. Metal tools will often leave metallic stains on older tubs, or if you go the carbide or diamond cutter route will often damage the edge of the tile. Not so with broken up laminate chips, you just gotta have a bunch of em.
One other useage in tiling is to use them as shims to fill in under the tile on backsplashes when scribing the ctop to fit will cause too much angular variance, and cause the overhang to be quite out of whack with the front of the cabinets.
Other uses of laminate pieces/scraps include—
using as a surface for air-sled usage for moving furniture around on carpet
Shims under hinges, particularly when exposed to weather.
lining yer TS fence with to resist wear
What’s yer clever usage??
Eric in Cowtown
Edited 7/13/2006 2:40 am ET by cowtown
Replies
Sounds like you're a big fan - I'll have to remember those.
Forrest
Went to a job which was on description re-caulking a bathtub.
turned out that in order to re-silicone it, I had first to remove the aluminim tracks for a shower door. Of course the tracks are siliconed to the tile.
Ya, you could slice it off with an olfa ultility knife blade, but you's break so many of em along the way that it would be dangerous.
I had my tube of tile spacers in the truck (1" plus or minus) and so I snapped a few of exposing the knife like edges. And used em like knives to slide under the aluminium and slice the slicone. Had to sacrifice a few pieces, but what the heck, I just replace em from scrap.
No worries about metal edges scratching either the tub or the tile,
worked like a charm. Grouted up the hole, and then stripped off the old silicone around the tub and made the homeowner happy.
Oh, and one other use....It seems when the track had been installed, there was one angled tile on the back end of the tub that got sliced up to allow the track to sit flat. I obviously had to replace the tile. Now, I coulda used tile adhesive and come back in a few days to grout it, and then come back another day to silicone it, but I used another 8" square laminate scrap to mix up some bondo with a laminate sample as a mixing and application spatula, set the tile in place, hardened in 10 minutes or so, grouted, and then siliconed an hour or so later. In a perfect world, I woulda waited til next day to silicone, and maybe if it was on the inside of the shower curtain, I woulda done that, but this was at the dry end of the tub, and outside the shower curtain. I woulda done the same in my home.
Just another use.
Eric
You can file the edge of plam and get a razor edge. We use them for mixing an applying bondo. My buddy at a body shop gets my scrap plam and cuts them in 4" squares.
exactly my point- you describe a clever use. Take a scrap and break it next time, show him the edge. perhaps it might be handy for cutting windshield sealant too. You know how sharp that stuff can be when it's broken.You should show him how to use a block plane on the edge, and save him a lot of filing.The stuff will plane quite nicely. (and so will the bondo!!)Eric