Remove paint from lens outside

[kinglang]

Hi everyone，Anyone have experience with erasing the original font from the exterior of the lens? It looks like the font is a type of paint applied to a plastic or black anodized aluminum surface and has a very strong adhesion.

I want to re-enact the font in my own way, in a laser way.Is there any safe way to remove white paint without harming a black surface?

[Drew Wiley]

Depends on what each is. You might want to contact the lens manufacturer. As a rule you start with the weakest solvent, like alcohol, then work your way up to acetone, which is a risky step because it might attack not only the black itself, but anything plastic too, depending. Overall, a very bad idea. Why not, instead, just imprint something black like a permanent label, that can be put atop the old lettering without all that risk?

[xkaes]

That's not paint as we normally think of it. Drew's points are good ones.
Start with isopropyl alcohol -- I doubt it will work.
Then try lighter fluid (naptha). That might work.
My guess is that acetone would be too strong.
You could try VERY FINE sand paper -- like 2000 grade -- lightly.

[domaz]

Disassemble the lens so only the barrell remains (no glass etc). Send it off to a dip and dunk paint stripper, repaint the whole barrel upon return. This would work best, but really is way too much work.

[Mark Sawyer]

Perhaps just repaint the offending area black, then re-enact your font on or through that?

[Greg]

Some white printing is not paint but an applied white substance that is harder than the black paint on the lens... trust me on this one. Just cover the white lettering up with a piece of black tape :-)

[Drew Wiley]

All these kinds of things are baked on anyway. Hard to remove without wrecking the whole thing. Only on the very cheapest made in China filter step rings have I ever encountered ordinary solvent-removable paints. And I'd be especially worried about susceptible adjacent plastics. I'd imagine that lens would be somewhat expensive to replace.