Hobby mat cleaning

[Janissary]

How does one clean the paint spills on the self-healing, green, rubbery hobby mats? If a lacquer-based paint spills and pools on the mat, it is ok to later use lacquer thinner to wipe/scrub it off? Or does that completely destroy the printed white patterns and the material?

Thanks for your input.

Edited September 14, 2011 by Janissary

[Bob Beary]

Easy enough to try out in a small corner of the mat

Bob

[warthoglvr]

I found lacquer thinner wipes everything off the mat . . . including the printed patterns. Use with caution.....

[Adam Baker]

Yea, I've had the same thing as above happen on mine. I spilled some lacquer thinner on it awhile back, and where it happened its now just bare green mat.

[Janissary]

Easy enough to try out in a small corner of the mat

Bob

I don't have the mat yet. My decision to purchase one will be decided in part by the answer to my question.

I found lacquer thinner wipes everything off the mat . . . including the printed patterns. Use with caution.....

Yea, I've had the same thing as above happen on mine. I spilled some lacquer thinner on it awhile back, and where it happened its now just bare green mat.

Thank you guys for the useful answers, this was what I am looking for.

Edited September 14, 2011 by Janissary

[ThatJeffGuy]

This discussion reminds me....

I need a new mat ...mine's pretty disgusting with dried clumps of CA and paint

[balls47]

Lacquer thinner wipes out the white marking. If I spill something "hot" on mine, I carefully wipe the worst of it off. If you get to it right away, it will almost all come off. I have a few small blank spots, but nothing I can't live with.

[Pep]

I just cleaned mine yesterday.

Lacquer thinner will take everything of except CA glue drops =/ it will also remove the grids on the mat but

for me its no problem because i use the opposed side since i find the grids distracting somehow.

an other good thing about the thinner is that i will melt the top green layer slightly and cover up

old cut marks on the skin.

for me its excellent.

[strikeeagle801]

Tamiya Extra Thin will take the markings off too. Ask me how I know.

Aaron

[RedHeadKevin]

How about something like Simple Green?

[SmashedGlass]

Something like that should work nicely. I haven't used it simply because I don't have any

around the house. I generally just hose it down with a spray of Windex Multi-Surface disinfectant cleaner and rub vigorously with an old wash cloth. Doesn't get every stain off,

but does leave it clean and debris free.

[dgassie]

I just cleaned mine yesterday.

Lacquer thinner will take everything of except CA glue drops =/ it will also remove the grids on the mat but

for me its no problem because i use the opposed side since i find the grids distracting somehow.

an other good thing about the thinner is that i will melt the top green layer slightly and cover up

old cut marks on the skin.

for me its excellent.

Agree. Lacquer thinner cleaning works well for me too.

Since I always wanted my mats in pristine shape, I went through a lot of them and though they make a great cutting surface, I didn't like to build on them. Cleaning paint off always erased the printed grid and super glue always ruined them.

Now, I've sanded off most of the glue residue on the couple of pads I use and cleaning with thinner has mostly kept them smooth. I only use small ones now that I keep on my desk and only use them for cutting. I use a big sheet of thick glass to build on and it's very easy to scrape any paint or glue residue right off. I slip the box art from any model I'm building under the glass so that's a cool inspiration as well.

Edited September 18, 2011 by dgassie