Materials Experiments

From the beginning the main idea of this project has been that we will be putting up signs around Neilson, and replacing or removing them if they don’t end up being as helpful or as liked as we expected.  But before we could even start, we had to find out if the vinyl we have can be cleanly removed from walls or if any signs we put up were going to become permanent additions to the Library.  So it sounded like it was time for an experiment.  Some quick tests showed that the vinyl can be easily and cleanly removed from metal and glass with just your fingernails, but if you didn’t go very slowly you would certainly peel paint off the wall, and even if you went very slowly there was no guarantee that the decal would come off totally cleanly.

So then came the real testing.  The internet said that acetone (nail polish remover) would dissolve the adhesive of the vinyl making it pull away cleanly, after a quick test proved that the internet was telling the truth (this time), I decided to find out what the best way to remove decals with acetone was.   So I used the vinyl cutter to print out a row of reindeer just in time for the holidays, and for each of them I used a different technique to remove them.

I made the first one the control reindeer, I pulled it off very slowly without using any acetone.  It didn’t leave behind any residue and it didn’t pull off any paint, but I’m still convinced that this technique is too finicky to be relied upon.

For the second reindeer I started pulling it up normally, and then used paper towels soaked in acetone to continue to push up the vinyl as I went.  This was easier and faster than just pulling on it, though the are of the wall needs to be sponged off afterwards to prevent the acetone from slightly matte-ifying the paint.

Reindeer three and four were where things started to go awry.  I decided to soak paper towels in acetone and apply them to the reindeer, one of which had been scored with an x-acto to see if that made it even easier.  Don’t do this at home, or anywhere.  While the acetone did almost entirely dissolve the adhesive, it also dissolved the paper towels INTO the paint, and no amount of scrubbing has gotten it off.  They are still on the wall a week later.

The fifth and final reindeer I scored with the x-acto knife before following the same procedure as reindeer two.  For such a small design, there wasnt’ a real difference, but for bigger pieces, this would probably be the way to go.

So finally here are all our little reindeer displaying best practices for removing vinyl decals with acetone:Reindeer