how good is conformal coating remover?

[coppercone2]

https://www.techspray.com/video-guide-to-removing-conformal-coating

So this stuff is pricey at 80$ a can. I have been using xylene on q-tips, and it works great, but it removes the silk screen.. so I need to typically engrave over it and paint it on.

Has anyone tried the techspray confromal coating remover and can attest to its value?
https://www.techspray.com/conformal-coating-remover-4

Kind of expensive for just THF. I thought maybe to just buy a bottle of pure THF instead? Does it have secret ingredients that make it really good? I thought it might be a useful solvent to keep around in pure form anyway.

[T3sl4co1l]

I've used the THF stuff before (different product but likely same formulation) and it doesn't harm the PCB or ICs, and effectively softens acrylic based coating.

(If it's silicone based coating, you're more or less SOL, IIRC?)

Is xylene actually strong enough to remove epoxy paint? Or was that a cheapo or old/unusual board that it removed it from.

Tim

[coppercone2]

its some goo off a miller welder PCB from the year 2000. It says varnish in the manual but it feels gummy.. I don't see any similarities to transformer varnish or wood varnish, if it is varnish. I would call it a clear rubber coating. Feels more like hot-glue (its somewhat more ductile) or silicone then anything else I can think of. Like the strips of glue you can peel off clear plastic blister packages..

The way I do it is I use a dripper bottle to pool xylene around the solder joint I want to rework then I scratch it up with a wooden stick and then after it sits in the pool for a little bit , absorbing xylene and swelling. Afterwards I use the dripper bottle to coat a q-tip and then I buff the area with the q-tip until the q-tip has too much goo drapes on it, then I use another one. When I am done it looks clean but the silk screen under the components (i.e. diode orientation), gets damaged because parts of the letters flake off. Afterwards I clean with a q-tip with iso. 

I bought a bottle of THF to try since it was way cheaper then that stuff. If it does not work I will look into that stuff since THF is still a useful superglue remover.