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Upsilon
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Removing screen printed labels from beer bottles?
I'm collecting glass beer bottles to use for storage of acids. However they all seem to have these screen-printed labels that I can't figure out how
to remove with anything short of brute sanding (which I'd rather not do). I've tried paint thinner, acetone, even conc. hydrochloric acid, but nothing
even shows minute signs of dissolving it. Does anyone have any experience removing these kinds of labels? What should I try next?
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aga
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Razor blade ?
You might find that soaking in a strong sodium hydroxide solution gets them to soften and dissolve.
Tends to be that way when acids and organic solvents won't touch them.
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Detonationology
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I would recommend a brief wash in an etchant to attempt to dissolve the thin layer of glass on the outside that has the print on it. Hydrofluoric
acid is the most well known etchant, but the safer option is ammonium bifluoride.
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Upsilon
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Quote: Originally posted by aga  | Razor blade ?
You might find that soaking in a strong sodium hydroxide solution gets them to soften and dissolve.
Tends to be that way when acids and organic solvents won't touch them. |
From Google I found that people have had success in soaking it in an acidic solution for 24-48 hours. However I'm planning on using dozens of bottles,
so this would take a really long time and a lot of acid. I may try the razorblade method. If not, then it's not really a huge deal; I can always tape
over the label.
Also, I do not have either hydrofluoric acid or any bifluoride salts. Seems like bifluoride salts are fairly expensive. I could make hydrofluoric acid
which in turn can be used to produce safer bifluoride salts, but I just don't think I'm well enough equipped to deal with HF even for a brief period.
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Detonationology
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On the more abrasive side, you could sand blast the paint off.
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ave369
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It isn't good lab practice to store acids in bottles that look like drinks. I use drugstore bottles from things such as disinfectant and saline
solution, they do not scream "Drink Me!" when you see them.
Smells like ammonia....
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MeshPL
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98% H2SO4 may work.
You can also try (aqueous!) H2SO4 + chromate/manganate.
There is also piranha solution: H2O2 +H2SO4 (these should be pretty concentrated on the other hand).
Note that those solutions are somewhat dangerous. Piranha may even eat through pure carbon (e.g. soot).
Also >70% HClO4 and >90% HNO3 will likely work, but those are harder to obtain.
And really don't mess around with any of those solutions!
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Upsilon
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I'm not sure how well sandblasting would work. It's not really paint; it's some sort of plastic-like ink stuff. Even when I took sandpaper to it, it
was doing more damage to the glass than to the label.
Also this is just for my home hobby "lab" (it's not even a lab, I store my stuff in a large locked cabinet on the pool deck of my house, and I do all
of my experiments on the pool deck as well). Nobody in my family would ever end up drinking some of it by mistake somehow.
I tried 98% sulfuric acid and it just didn't work. I think I'm just going to tape over the labels and call it good.
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Detonationology
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Could one use amber bottles to store 30% H2O2? How do you plan to seal the bottles? Even the metal screw caps leak, and would probably
rust/disintegrate over time. You might be able to find some PTFE stoppers that would fit.
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Zephyr
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Try dissolving in an alkyl nitrite. Works well on all the labels I've tried it on. Also works great to clean whiteboards.
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zed
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Silk screened paper, glued to glass? Use heat. A heat gun will do it. Just heat it and scrape of off the glue. Paint on glass....same solution.
Some kind of vitreous enamel on glass? Quit now and find a better source for bottles.
[Edited on 15-9-2015 by zed]
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aga
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Duh.
I was being far too normal-minded earlier.
Obvious : chuck all the bottles into a pile of wood and set the whole thing on fire.
Wait until the fire dies down, and the whole thing cools to ambient.
The labels will be gone.
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MeshPL
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I know that wood combustion is an actual chemical reaction  , but... well puting
bottles into wood fire may result in soot and/or tar like residue, that is hard to remove. 
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Detonationology
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| Quote: Originally posted by MeshPL | | I know that wood combustion is an actual chemical reaction , but... well puting
bottles into wood fire may result in soot and/or tar like residue, that is hard to remove. |
The thermal shock might break/degrade the glass... which would not be good for a container intended for storing strong acids.
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ave369
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I think I know a recipe, but it may seem dangerous. I've seen a Youtube video where a ink-like print was removed from a coffee mug with dilute HF. Of
course, this was an opaque coffee mug, so cloudiness from etching wasn't an issue.
Smells like ammonia....
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violet sin
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when I was screen printing shirts for a few years, we used CCl4 or similar drycleaning solution to remove unwanted spots from shirts. like if it got
flipped over on itself while loading into the drying conveyor belt. put shirt over a vacuum machine hose, turn on, load the spray gun jar with fluid
and spray. it dissolved part of it in order to release from the fabric. vacuum stretched out the shirt knit and pulled bits through. the really well
cured colors like black,.. hard little guys to get out. more reflective colors didn't cure 100% from the IR(infrared) source, and was easier to
release.
sounds like a mess to get the labels off. that would be a lot of expensive solvent to release quite hardened pigment. in fact, I *think* bottles use
more of an enamel, like we did for bumper-stickers. ohhh the lightheaded days of printing 1000's of stickers... my uncle called it *HOT* solvents to
clean a screen that was getting gummed up. cause the stuff would eat all kinds of things up. this was years ago, not sure what he uses now, but I am
almost positive CA doesn't sell the stuff that I worked with back then. because it actually worked, super volatile, and had a LOT of fun stuff in it.
vent fan was your friend
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careysub
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| Quote: Originally posted by Detonationology | | Quote: Originally posted by MeshPL | | I know that wood combustion is an actual chemical reaction , but... well puting
bottles into wood fire may result in soot and/or tar like residue, that is hard to remove. |
The thermal shock might break/degrade the glass... which would not be good for a container intended for storing strong acids. |
If is any sort of combustible material (thus an organic label) would not warm drain cleaner sulfuric acid remove it? Doesn't that char nearly any
organic?
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ave369
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| Quote: Originally posted by careysub |
If is any sort of combustible material (thus an organic label) would not warm drain cleaner sulfuric acid remove it? Doesn't that char nearly any
organic? |
It only chars organic from which it can draw water, such as sugar.
Smells like ammonia....
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jsc
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Try methyl chloride. Do it outdoors.
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Hawkguy
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Would this work on Avalon milk bottles? They are awesome, but it'd also be great to remove the labels.
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macckone
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Piranha solution will remove most organics. The problem with screen printing on glass is that it may be inorganic and actually fused to the glass.
You can order bottles a lot cheaper than the piranha solution. Teflon lined caps is the real expense.
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WGTR
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Concentrated ammonia (~30%) strips the enamelled labels from my pipets within seconds.
[Edited on 11-15-2015 by WGTR]
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MolecularWorld
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I use steel wool for painted-on labels. Unlike sandpaper, it doesn't scratch the glass:
Glued-on paper labels are another matter. For one or two bottles, they can simply be scraped off, but I've got dozens of small bottles, each with a
glued-on label. My limited research suggests boiling sodium carbonate solution should dissolve the glue, but I'd love to know what others here have
tried.
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Morgan
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I've used acetone for the glued on labels.
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MolecularWorld
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Thanks. Several hours soaking in acetone had no effect on my stickers/labels. However, this gave me the idea to try a similar product, and, despite being mostly acetone, it worked where the plain acetone failed.
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