3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (2024)

lttlrck on July 10, 2019 | parent | context | favorite | on: Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I recently used it to remove PETG residue from my 3D printer bed and that stuff is gnarly.

3M 38983 General Purpose Adhesive Remover - 12 oz. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EBNTYK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cU...

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (1)

tomkinstinch on July 10, 2019 | next [–]

Helpful tip, thanks. Here's the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) in case anyone is curious what's in 3M 38983 General Purpose Adhesive Remover[1]: Mostly methyl acetate, with some naptha, xylene, and a small amount of ethylbenzene. Definitely worth heeding the precautionary statements...

For contrast, "Goo Gone" is mostly naptha-like light petroleum distillate with small fractions of limonene and orange extract[2].

1. https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuUn_...

2. https://googone.com/mr_sds/data/2018-06-14%2013:44:51/GG_Ori...

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (2)

DarkStar851 on July 10, 2019 | parent | next [–]

This stuff is basically Goo Gone without the plant goodies and some aircraft paint thinner. It will remove most paint and clear coats so be careful!

edit: I misread xylene as toluene, whoops! It still isn't the most paint-friendly if you don't have a durable surface though.

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (3)

post_break on July 11, 2019 | root | parent | next [–]

3M adhesive remover will not remove paint. I used gallons on cars to remove plastidip. It says right on the container, safe for car paint and clear coat. Advertised to remove bumper stickers.

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (4)

lttlrck on July 10, 2019 | parent | prev | next [–]

Yeah it worth trying Goo Gone first and reserve this for the really tough adhesives. There can’t be many laptop stickers that can’t be removed with Goo Gone plus patience (which BTW also works wonders for removing road tar from car paint).

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (5)

analog31 on July 11, 2019 | prev | next [–]

For dealing with milder adhesives, try peanut butter or vegetable oil. Let it sit overnight, then wipe off. The only reason for considering peanut butter is that it doesn't drip off while the oil does its work.

I'm not averse to "chemicals" per se, but I like to minimize the number of different specialty liquids I have to find a place for in my house.

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (6)

thinkingkong on July 10, 2019 | prev | next [–]

Yeah its awesome. Just make sure you have an organic solvent respirator on when you use it. Its pretty nasty stuff.

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (7)

Causality1 on July 10, 2019 | prev [–]

Does it have the same plastic-eating properties as Goo Gone?

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (8)

rootusrootus on July 10, 2019 | parent | next [–]

Goo Gone isn't all that strong, are you sure you're not thinking of Goof Off? Goo Gone is a fairly average citrus-based cleaner, where as Goof Off is based on acetone. It'll melt many paint and plastics on contact. Certainly has it's moments, though, and it's far stronger than Goo Gone.

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (9)

Causality1 on July 11, 2019 | root | parent | next [–]

Indeed I was, or rather I assumed they were both maker-specific names for the same thing. Thank you for the explanation.

3M adhesive remover is amazing stuff. It beats Goo Gone by a wide margin, I rece... (10)

lttlrck on July 10, 2019 | parent | prev [–]

Yeah that’s a good point. It’s pretty strong stuff. I’ve used it to remove decals from cars and it hasn’t damaged the clearcoat but modern clearcoat is an epoxy anyway so it’s not all that surprising. It will destroy polystyrene based plastics and I’d be careful around others.

Having said that it works fine applied via a rag so you can avoid overspray issues.