Extremely Difficult Gasket Removal

mancoIII

I am interested in ideas for removing a very stubborn old, burnt-on gasket.  I also would like some idea about how much of the old, blackened gasket residue can be safely ignored in the replacement process.

My Story:
I finally had to deal with damaged gasket (appears to be burnt in places) that no longer sealed.  After two days of scraping, I finally got the top gasket off and started on the bottom.

I have used the gasket removal scraper provided with my replacement gasket, alcohol, Goo Gone, wood chisel, carpenters' knife and, a brass scraper.  The gasket on the bottom is severely stuck and relinquishes only small bits of old gasket at a time.  At this rate it may take more than two days to get it clean enough to either replace the old gasket or try using it without gasketing.

I have wondered if torching the old gasket would 1) work, or 2) damage the egg or finish.

ColtsFan

MMM striping wheel on a pneumatic grinder or drill is your friend

1voyager

I used acetone to remove the gasket. I applied a generous coat using a paper towel then let the acetone do it's magic for 15 minutes. Using a putty knife, the gasket came off in one piece. 

GregW

As @1voyager said acetone works great if your not afraid of chemicals, and I'm not concerned with it. Acetone is extremely volatile and will evaporate out of the ceramic quickly. 

GregW

ColtsFan said:

MMM striping wheel on a pneumatic grinder or drill is your friend

This is the generally recommended method on the forums for removing gaskets, I use the Acetone because I'm lazy.

1voyager

GregW said:

As @1voyager said acetone works great if your not afraid of chemicals, and I'm not concerned with it. Acetone is extremely volatile and will evaporate out of the ceramic quickly. 

Yep. It's nasty stuff. I should have mentioned that I wore rubber gloves when applying the acetone.

Some folks might think that the awful aroma of acetone might be absorbed into the ceramic, but in my experience that didn't happen.

Botch

Odd, my burned OEM gasket came off with a putty knife in a few minutes, and I used sandpaper to clean the remnants.  

mancoIII

Thank you, all.  I will be headed to the hardware store this morning.  Hopefully, I will be done today.

Dondgc

The 3M paint stripping wheel will have it off in no time. 

stlcharcoal

Burn it off.....don't screw around with chemicals and power tools.  Fire up the egg, get it hot, and scrape it off.  Then use a torch, to get any remaining glue.  You're risking doing more damage with anything BUT fire.

dmourati

I used a 5mm hard plastic scraper originally purchased for scraping wax off my skis. Roughly this:

https://www.amazon.com/Swix-Scraper-Snowboard-Wide-Thick/dp/B001M9OBHG

mancoIII

Great.  Thanks for the great advice.  I was able to use it and my egg is back in business.