Holy cow stripping heads is difficult!!!

[jhnktr]

So, after collecting for years... and with a stash of many "TLC" AT Fuzzy head Joes tucked away... I decided to venture into the world of re-flocking. I built the cabinet according to the instructions here... purchased the flocking and glue... and gave it a go on several "test" heads. I must say that after a tiny bit of trial and error, I was absolutely amazed by the results of the re-flocking process! Much thanks to Ray and all the users here for the incredible tips and instructions.

But I digress....

Although 95% of the process has far exceeded my hopes... the one thing that I am struggling with is the thing I thought would be the easiest - removing the old flocking.

I first tried the denatured alcohol soak. This "loosened" the flocking somewhat, but not to the point of it just peeling off as others describe here. I soaked it for an hour... and found myself trying to chisel it off with my thumb nail with poor results. So I soaked it overnight... with not much improvement. I even let it soak for 24 hours with little change.

I then tried the bleach alternative. This worked better, with the flock coming off a bit easier but only with hard thumbnail scraping. However, as a result... my hands were raw and cracking from the exposure of the bleach (no matter how careful I was to rinse the head.) Also the smell of the bleach has permiated the head, which I expect will go away with time. Finally, the heads were still left with the "yellowing" areas left by the previous glue.

Because of the easier results of the bleach, I proceeded using this method for 5 out of the 6 heads I was testing. All went as described above until I got to my final head... it seems to be one of the earlier flocked versions (unpainted.) The flock on this head will not come off for anything!!! I nearly scraped my thumbnail to a nub trying to get it off... no luck. So it is still sitting in the bleach currently with the hopes of "softening."

So am I missing the obvious? I must be doing something wrong when I hear others say they soak their heads for a mere 30 minutes in the alcohol and the flock just rolls off. I soaked mine for hours and hours - even overnight and they still required a ton of work to get them even half-way clean.

So can someone help? What am I doing wrong?

John

[Ray (Flock Man)]

Thanks and glad to have you with us and hear about your efforts!


The glue stain on many, but not all can go deep into the vinyl and as with most green/blue marks the glue stains may be lightened, but they never come out even with sanding.

On the hair removal- I have had very stubborn heads as well and I'm afraid that only steady elbow grease and using the back of a pair of safety scissors (the metal kind we had in school) was the only thing that took the flock off. For most others the flock will come off in 20 or 30 minutes with denatured alcohol. 91% Rubbing alcohol will take a tad longer. Some choose not to use Denatured alcohol because of the price (around $8 for a small bottle) verses $1 at the dollar store for the rubbing kind.
Like I say to many, the task is not making the flock machine or learning to flock. The hard part is finding flock fibers in the right size and colors and working out your cleaning and glue up system. These things can also be the most expensive part of it- along with being very time consuming.
As with anything it's practice. at first you'll be dead slow, then down the line it'll become second nature.

I still get those tough heads, but they don't take forever like they used to. At the beginning to cut costs in time and effort- I would have people strip the heads first, but now I strip them quickly and it's second nature, also by stripping them I get to see what variant shade the client/collector is used to seeing and I can try and tweak the color to get close to that. Let's face it, if you're used to a deep red Sea Adventurer and you get a orange shade it'll never look right to you.

Those that have been in the shop have seen my little wood framed 8' X8' plastic covered flocking booth with many different cleaning and prep. materials at the ready. It's vented, heated, air conditioned, and I can control the humidity in there (though now using only commercial flock fibers I really don't need to worry about moisture in the air as much).

I made this little booth to keep the flock fibers contained and all the tools needed to get the job done are in arms reach. Plus flock gets into everything and because it's conductive it'll get inside say, a radio and short it out.
In my weekly maintenance I air compress everything in the entire shop and booth then vacuum it all out.

As for being tough on the hands and nails... yes it can make your hands a mess. This is why I use nitrile gloves. I also use glasses and a mask to keep things out of my eyes and lungs as best as I can. Once the machine is on the charged flock doesn't float around much because it wants to head toward ground, but before and after the tiny fibers can float around like the insulation dust in your attic.
Since I've already done plenty of damage to my lungs in the construction and greenhouse farming businesses I don't want to add to it with my hobby/side project.

I only drone on and on about this stuff to show that it does take some effort and while some of it may not pertain to you and others like you on this forum... there are some that visit here and think it's all a carefree venture. Granted it's not NASA science by any means, but it does take some doing to stick tiny fibers to a small toy head.

The questions are good because there are many things we here tend to take for granted and we may at times make it seem so easy. It wasn't always so. Forgive us for that.