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Is there a way to dissolve or break down polyester fibers? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I recently bought a shag rug for my living room. Not realizing that the motor/actuator for my electric recliner sat directly over the floor, the fibers got caught in the actuator which is now seized and no longer functions. The motor is still fine, however, so if I could find a way to dissolve the polyester fibers and clean up the actuator I could get it working without having to buy a $170 replacement.

For further clarification, the actuator is a large metal screw with a plastic piece that fits over it like a ring on a finger. The plastic piece gets bolted to the recliner's internal hardware. The only other way to "fix" it that I can think of is to break off the plastic piece but I am unable to find a replacement part.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

An alcohol or strong acid will probably have a small effect on the fibers. Try rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol first. Hydrochloric acid might work, marginally. Sulfuric acid in a dry form is often used to make ester bonds, but aqueous solutions will have some effect on breaking them, but that will probably affect the plastic part more than you'd like.

Oh, and usually heat makes everything go faster, so if you can place the motor/actuator in a warm spot, or even inside of an oven below the water/alcohol boiling point, it will probably help.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is probably your best advice. Any solvent that will completely dissolve the polyester is pretty likely to damage the plastic part as well, but running some isopropyl in there could weaken the fibers to the point that the motor can break them up. Higher concentrations of isopropyl will work better, but even the 70% stuff work if you can heat it up past 150F

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

30/70 water ipa mix can make the mix dissolve materials that are not normally dissolvable in ipa. It is a cosolvent system which reduces the polarity of the mix and hence, can make things miscible in it that normally are not.

Just fyi, if pure ipa is not working, using the diluted version might!