Screen Printing Removal

Tok · Jul 14, 2004

Hello everyone, first of all. Does anyone know what is the best way to remove the screen printings on hard plastic? Got a Olympic Stylus Epic today and was thinking about some way to modify the look of its body. Basically I just wanna remove all the screen paints on the body (logo, button icons, etc. to give it a total smooth, black look. Thanks in advance!

Sharkbait · Jul 14, 2004

Belt sander?

Tok · Jul 14, 2004

Has anyone tried to remove those paint from plastic? I was thinking about nail-polish remover.. not sure if it will harm the plastic's finish, though.

mrsid99 · Jul 14, 2004

Sharks comment about a belt sander is not far off the mark because if the markings on the plastic are done by a process known as "hot stamping" they become part of the plastic.
Any solvent that would remove the ink would have to dissolve the plastic as well.

Tok · Jul 14, 2004

Thanks. Yup that's one of my concerns too if the markings were done by hot-stamping...

It's not an expensive camera by all means but still I don't feel good if I ruin something anyways.... but imagine if I succeed on the project it will just look so nice... decision decision..

MDowdey · Jul 14, 2004

even if you were to get the dye off of the body of the camera without hurting the finish, the letters would still be depressed into the body of it. regardless of the color.

md

mentos_007 · Jul 15, 2004

maybe not too useful but - who knows: use a black marker

Tok · Jul 15, 2004

Hahaha, ok I chicken out and I don't wanna risk ruining the body...I am just gonna take it the way it is and start shooting... most important thing after all.

fadingaway1986 · Jul 16, 2004

Before you do this - think about it (and then don't do it) I had a camera that was a reasonably good one - but we didnt pay for it - my mum got it from her work's lost property...

It had a rubber grip which started melting in Australia's summer... So I tried to remove the grip. Big mistake. My dad is a carpet cleaner - so he has some pretty powerful chemicals... We found one that worked - it took off the grip and not the plastic - but took all markings, etc... However, the rubber melted and ran into the workings of the camera - particularly the shutter release - making it almost impossible to use the camera without shaking it violently.

If we had of paid for this camera - we would have been a few very angry people... Lucky for us we didn't - and we don't really use it anyway...