I bought a tongue drum like this recently. It has the Christmas pics on it. I thought they would be stickers that I could just peel off but they are painted on. Any ideas for removal without leaving marks?
10-inch Santaco Steel Tongue Drum 11 Notes Handpan Percussion Tank Drum with Bag- Blue
TIA
Return it and buy something else?
yeah nah…same without the pics was $15 more…and you know how that is for an OzBer :)
Yeah nah…creating a nice, even, respectable finish is going to cost you more than $15 in materials and labour and you know how that is for a realistic DIY handy person.
Another classic case of poor man pays twice.
Turps is a good paint remover.
It's also good at removing the powder coating.
Although it you take it all off and give it a bit of time, it could create a really nice rust coloured steel drum.
Once you remove the paint you will need to metal prime and paint it again, so why not just prime it and paint it to the color you want.
Hit it with 600grit sandpaper, give it a few coats of primer and paint it any colour you want.
Can you imagine the finished product if the DIY'er even has to ask this question?
I suspect there will be a paint runs everywhere and the drum sound holes will be fused with paint. End result - a pretty coloured paperweight in the shape of a steel drum 😉
It's hard to say without seeing the item in the flesh. To me, this looks like an enamel but I suppose it could be a powder-coat. A gel-based paint remover would help remove the paint if this is the case, but it's a messy and smelly job. The final product, once you've removed the paint, may not look too good and the process may take quite some time to complete.
Once you've removed the paint in this way, you need to think about the kind of surface you want. The easiest approach would be to use a colour etch primer, because it sticks to the metal very well and is quite stable - if you look around, you may be able to find a colour you like. Otherwise, if you can't find a colour you like, you're going to have to use a standard etch primer, which will probably be grey in colour, then you could consider an aerosol enamel in the colour you like - but in my experience, enamels can be quite picky (e.g. coating thickness, humidity) and if you don't apply it evenly you'll end up with a fairly blotchy product that flakes off easily.
If you don't want to strip and repaint the entire item, you could mask off just the tongues with the Christmas adornments and then prime those areas in white. This would probably be quite stable, and reasonable to look at.
If none of this is appealing, then another approach might be to take it to a powder coater, who can remove the surface cover with bead or sand-blasting. They can then give it a powder coat in the colour of your choice. But, this may affect the instrument's resonance qualities so it might not be viable.
You might find it easiest and cheapest to buy another steel drum without the Christmas adornments.
thanks for all that advice…much appreciated!
Repaint?