Advice Required: Dissolving Silastic Sealing

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Wonder if anyone here knows what solvent to use in order to remove silastic which was used to seal a memorial urn (my mum's ashes)?

The silastic was used around the rim of the urn which is made of stone-like material (marble-like) and I need to remove the cover.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Bill

[casstony]

I used mineral turpentine to clean silicone off shower glass in a recent renovation. Metho doesn't work.

[Tandum (Robin)]

Hi Bill,
Selleys make a remover but I've not tried it. Some say wax and grease remover works.
I tried getting a headlight apart which someone had sealed with silastic but couldn't get anything between the jointed surfaces to dissolve it.

[glend (Glen)]

Depends on the composition and what your using the word Silastic to mean. Generally, most of the silicon sealants have to be physically removed to break that seal, that means cutting through it with an artist exacto knife. A solvent is going to make a real mess and get inside the urn and will stink. If you are oening it to distribute the ashes consider drilling a hole in the top, or bottom ( where it will not show if you keep the urn). Of course it depends on what the urn is made from as well. Brass urns can be drilled, ceramic urns are harder to drill and you risk breakage. You could just break the urn at the distribution site.

[Wodnas (Robert)]

I've had success with brake cleaner in the past.
I also believe Soy gel paint stripper works. This is natural non toxic substance but haven't tried it yet.
Cheers Bob

[Kunama]

I would use a knife to separate the lid and then if your want clean the silicone you can use the aforementioned from Selleys
http://www.selleys.com.au/sealants/silicone/remover/

[csb (Craig)]

That Selleys Silicone Remover does work. It breaks down the silicone ibto crumbly stuff. However the silicone needs to be only a thin layer, perhaps 2mm thick, so excess needed to be sliced off.

I used it to remove a few metres of silicone left on floor & wall tiles after removing a shower screen. It made a loooong job easier n shorter.

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Thanks to all of you guys who replied to my earlier query.

I had to fly away to Adelaide urgently after I made the post and just got home to Perth this evening. Sorry for the delay in acknowledging the responses.

The issue is now resolved to my satisfaction tonite. I used an X-Acto knife and went around the "groove" several times taking off bits of silastic/silicone with every cut and then used a bit of force to lift the lid and when that moved slightly I was able to insert a flat-bladed article in the gap made and finally pried the lid off without any damage whatsoever.

Cheers
Bill