The chemical can be purchased from chemical supply houses.  I have a liter of the stuff (Fisher Scientific) used it for chemically stripping the buffer coat off fiber optic cable.

Bob

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 18, 2014, at 3:18 AM, Brian Ellis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Dip the end of the wire into a small amount of methylene chloride until the enamel softens or crazes. Then gently wipe with a clean cotton cloth.
> 
> Warning! Methylene chloride is toxic and very volatile; make sure you do not breathe it in and keep the bottle well stoppered.
> 
> In a former life, it was possible to obtain commercial wire strippers based on methylene chloride, often in the form of a gel. I have no idea whether these are still available but some of them were remarkably effective.
> 
> Brian
> 
>> On 17/07/2014 20:46, Steve Gregory wrote:
>> Hi All!
>> 
>> I'm trying to deal with all the smoke that's here in Boise today, it's
>> probably the worst smoke I've ever been in. The jet stream has made a dip
>> and is carrying all the smoke from the fires in Washington, Oregon, and the
>> fire north of us in Boise county right into the Treasure Valley and it's
>> all packing up against the mountains to the west of us (cough, cough..)
>> 
>> Anyways, I have a question about a little custom inductor from Vishay Hirel
>> that we have here. It appears that we have a certain datecode batch of
>> these where the insulation on the part of the wire that gets soldered into
>> the board wasn't stripped and tinned high enough, and now when we try to
>> install them into the board the insulation prevents wetting at the top of
>> the board and we have insulation in the solder joint which of course is a
>> defect:
>> 
>> http://stevezeva.homestead.com/Vishay_Inductor.jpg
>> 
>> The picture is of one that we pulled out of a board, and you can see that
>> the insulation goes down past the shoulders and into what is supposed to be
>> the solderable area.
>> 
>> I think I know the answer to my next question, but I'll ask it anyway. Is
>> there any clever way to remove that insulation without damaging the
>> inductor? The picture makes this inductor look huge, but it's not, it's
>> maybe .250" in diameter, and the wire is a pretty small gage too.
>> 
>> I tried dipping it first in a lead-free tinning pot set at 600 C., no luck,
>> then 700 C., no luck, then 800 C., and no luck. I was able to darken the
>> insulation and melt the yellow tape that wraps the inductor, but that's
>> about it. I'm think that the only way to remove this insulation is
>> mechanically...which will be a trick because the inductor and wire is
>> pretty small.
>> 
>> Hate to scrap these things because they are long lead custom inductors. But
>> we can't use them like they are....
>> 
>> Steve
> 
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