Any suggestions for removing old, dried putty/cement from lead came? I've been using a Dremel and a thin abrasive wheel and grinding it out while doing a repair. I was thinking about some cutter that would be the same thickness as the heart of the came?
lately I tried an old trick I used a long time ago, use alcohol or after shave,(cheap stuff) I should mentin this only works if the glass is still in the hole, cracked or not, and put a metal can under the particular hole.
Pour "some" alcohol on the glass to come out, light it, the heat from the alcohol will soften the putty, most of the time. If the glass is gone abnd the rock hard putty is still in the channel, I like those cheap little torches to heat it up, remember to keep it moving and you won't melt the lead, but the putty will soften and leave less evidence than if you try digging it out mechanically.
I just had this mental image of flambe'ing somebody's front door. shudder...........
I agree about the dust. Does Laquer thinner work to soften the old cement, or would denatured alcohol be better? It seems like I've had a run on recement jobs recently. Taking a dental pick to all those "miles" of lead to dig all that cement out is killing me.
Regular household ammonia will soften the putty. Then it can be scraped away easily. Be careful to only put it where you want it.
Maybe one of the linoleum (Armstrong) cushion floor type knives, the one with the "backwards hook" at the tip of the blade might work, they're nice and thin anyway. Same idea, a bit thicker, is a [ceramic tile] grout remover/scraper. Please keep us posted, it'd be handy to know what works best. Bart.
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