# Removing plastic/vinyl/polycarbonate coating on glass bottles



## thejunesky (Mar 18, 2014)

This doesn't apply strictly to antique bottles (although I do have a few that have had similar coatings,) but I'm interested in figuring out a better way to remove the plastic film that sometimes comes on decorative glasswear, and thought this might be a good place to ask. You can find these at any craft store- Pat Catans, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc. You can find some really cool glasswear, but I'm not wild about the heinous neon green or hot pink colors they come in (who's making that decision?) The problem is that I don't know exactly what it is- PVC? polycarbonate? Some other variety of plastic I've never heard of? I assume that it's some kind of thermoplastic that gets sprayed on, and then heat set. 

It comes off fairly easily with a razor blade, but it's incredibly time consuming and messy. For pieces that have intricate designs on them, I've used a steel brush bit on my dremel at low speed with some success, but those little steel wires always end up everywhere (including embedded in your clothes which you don't find until later when they're stabbing you.) Heating the item with near-boiling water helps a lot when scraping with a razor blade, but that also makes them difficult to handle, and they return to a lower temp. too quickly to really do this effectively. I have a heat tool, but I don't want to risk stressing or fracturing the glass.

Then I moved onto solvents- I soaked them for a full day in both acetone (I thought for sure this would do it,) and laquer thinner with zero results. This stuff seems like it's impervious to everything. I've read about muriatic acid, but for some reason that seems a little too intense for my purposes. Maybe the "acid" part of the name  But it might be worth a shot? Does anyone have experience using it? 

Does anyone have a go-to method for removing this kind of material, or something they've tried with success that I haven't mentioned? I know it's tough without knowing exactly what kind of plastic the material is/what method was used to apply it, so I'm not really looking for pinpoint accuracy so much as just a shot in the right direction, or something I haven't tried yet.

Thanks in advance!


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## sandchip (Mar 19, 2014)

PVC is polyvinyl chloride, which should react to some of the hot solvents you're trying, but seems like you'd just end up with a mess.  Is the stuff supposed to be removed?  You'd think if it's just packaging (for lack of a better term) that it would just peel right off.  Could you post a picture of one of these items?


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