Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Removing Hard Caulk.......

Hello All,
What are the tricks of the trade for removing the hard type caulk on lenses? I bought a pair of Skelly's that one has more caulk than the other that seeped under the lens so it has a lip/ridge in areas which I would like to remove before remounting on a glass body. I'm just worried that those areas will make the lens uneven and could cause problems if I overtightened the screws or something disasterous.
I checked some older posts and seen paint thinner could be used, but I think that was for the softer kind. Does it work on the hard kind and how long is it safe to soak them for? I would probably just soak the edges of the lens. I tried just "picking" it off, but unfortunatly took off a very small bit of the color of the edge so I STOPPED immediately!
Maybe in some cases just leave good enough alone!?! I noticed other Skelly lenses that had lots of heavy caulk on them? Were they pretty notorious for this practice? Just my observation I guess.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Darin

Darin when I took out my GLF lens it had the real hard caulk around it holding it in. I soaked the edges with WD-40 & let it sit for about a week re soaking a couple times. I then took a razor blade knife & slowly & very carefully scraped away at it until the lens came loose. Dont hurry or force the blade in or you could break the lens. Time & patience. Or if you leave it just snug up the screws with no pressure on the lens. Any questions just ask good luck

You might try 91% Isopropyl alcohol. I've see that soften up hard caulk to some extent before. You could just soak the edge overnight and see what happens.

Wes