How to remove stickers from a plastic surface?

[SweetShark]

An odd question to ask here in Escapist, but I will give it a shot:

Do you have somekind of solution for me so I can remove stickers from a plastic surface without destroying them? The sticker need to be in good condition and be able to put them again in other plastic surface.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Rubbing alcohol and q-tips and LOTS of patience and then add new glue for the re-adhesion.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

You could slice it off the surface with a really sharp razor. Well, it's not really cutting what you do is you basically use the razor as a wedge and gently pry the sticker off while cutting away the glue. It's kind of risky though because you will cut right through the sticker if you screw up.

Another thing you can do is just soak the plastic surface in warm water overnight and the sticker should come off, but that really depends on the type of sticker it is, and could make the colors run if it's not a high quality sticker.

 

[SweetShark]

Rubbing alcohol and q-tips and LOTS of patience and then add new glue for the re-adhesion.

Sadly, in reality I need to unstick stickers as quick as possible, so I don't think this solution is for me.
Also I need the glue of the sticker intact.

 

[SweetShark]

You could slice it off the surface with a really sharp razor. Well, it's not really cutting what you do is you basically use the razor as a wedge and gently pry the sticker off while cutting away the glue. It's kind of risky though because you will cut right through the sticker if you screw up.

Another thing you can do is just soak the plastic surface in warm water overnight and the sticker should come off, but that really depends on the type of sticker it is, and could make the colors run if it's not a high quality sticker.

Because this specific stickers are VERY important to me, I don't want to risk detroying them....

 

[Spambot 3000]

Does the sticker really matter? Just buy a new one for ten cents.

 

[Basement Cat]

I used to work in a book store and we had to remove stickers from book covers all the time.

The trick is simple.

1) Get a clothes iron with water in it for steaming.

2) Lay a dry hand towel over the sticker/surface.

3) With the iron on low/medium heat place it on the towel and press lightly. Rub it on the towel slightly to make sure of uniform heat application. Steam JUST A LITTLE. You may not need steam at all. It's a judgement call on what kind of surface you're removing the sticker from.

4) After 20-30 seconds remove the iron and towel and finger the sticker. If the glue has warmed you should be able to peel it up easily. If not then repeat process.

Note: Sometimes--especially when dealing with long attached stickers--the process can take several minutes. We just had to remove price stickers the size of a mail stamp usually so it was a quick and easy technique for the job.

Hope this helps.

 

[SweetShark]

Does the sticker really matter? Just buy a new one for ten cents.

Well, because these specific stickers are very important for my work, I don't want to destroy them and still be able to stick them in other surfaces.

Let just say I won't get paid if I destroy these stickers. That how important is.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Rubbing alcohol and q-tips and LOTS of patience and then add new glue for the re-adhesion.

Sadly, in reality I need to unstick stickers as quick as possible, so I don't think this solution is for me.
Also I need the glue of the sticker intact.

I don't think there's any way to remove the stickers while keeping the glue intact.

 

[Spambot 3000]

Does the sticker really matter? Just buy a new one for ten cents.

Well, because these specific stickers are very important for my work, I don't want to destroy them and still be able to stick them in other surfaces.

Let just say I won't get paid if I destroy these stickers. That how important is.

Well I was going to say, if it was just some elephant sticker you accidentally stuck to the back of your 3DS or something then you should just rip it off, but it looks like that isn't the case ...

 

[SweetShark]

I used to work in a book store and we had to remove stickers from book covers all the time.

The trick is simple.

1) Get a clothes iron with water in it for steaming.

2) Lay a dry hand towel over the sticker/surface.

3) With the iron on low/medium heat place it on the towel and press lightly. Rub it on the towel slightly to make sure of uniform heat application. Steam JUST A LITTLE. You may not need steam at all. It's a judgement call on what kind of surface you're removing the sticker from.

4) After 20-30 seconds remove the iron and towel and finger the sticker. If the glue has warmed you should be able to peel it up easily. If not then repeat process.

Note: Sometimes--especially when dealing with long attached stickers--the process can take several minutes. We just had to remove price stickers the size of a mail stamp usually so it was a quick and easy technique for the job.

Hope this helps.

Another good advice I must say....but sadly as I said before it is for my work.
I don't think I can bring a clothes iron to my workplace to do this action.

I need a solution that is fast and not so "visible" to the eye.

 

[FireAza]

It really depends on the sticker, the plastic-iy ones will often peel off if you take it slow. Paper ones... Well, not so much. About your best choice will be to use a hair dryer to heat up the sticker, you should be able to carefully peel it off and re-stick it again. I do this for the metallic stickers on game consoles, works a charm. Just be careful you don't heat up the plastic too much and warp it.

 

[Altorin]

it completely depends what stickers they are and what they're stuck to

there's no universal answer.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Paint thinner or nail polish remover (stuff that would likely contain acetone) would work quickly. And it would also remove the adhesive.

 

[DoPo]

Rubbing alcohol and q-tips and LOTS of patience and then add new glue for the re-adhesion.

Sadly, in reality I need to unstick stickers as quick as possible, so I don't think this solution is for me.
Also I need the glue of the sticker intact.

How quickly do you need them off? You could spend 5-10 minutes very slowly peeling them off the surface. Then again, you may have many of them, so...might not be feasible.

 

[Angie7F]

I think we really need to know the surface you are working with.
I usually use nail polish remover but then again, if you dont want to damage the surface it wont be a choice.

 

[SweetShark]

Rubbing alcohol and q-tips and LOTS of patience and then add new glue for the re-adhesion.

Sadly, in reality I need to unstick stickers as quick as possible, so I don't think this solution is for me.
Also I need the glue of the sticker intact.

How quickly do you need them off? You could spend 5-10 minutes very slowly peeling them off the surface. Then again, you may have many of them, so...might not be feasible.

Well, I need to remove them intact in one minute or less........also the stickers are paper like and small.

 

[Flatfrog]

Another good advice I must say....but sadly as I said before it is for my work.
I don't think I can bring a clothes iron to my workplace to do this action.

I need a solution that is fast and not so "visible" to the eye.

Frankly, you need to give people more information, then. You've been given half a dozen answers and they're all unsuitable because you haven't explained the problem, which appears to be that you've fucked up by putting a thousand stickers on the wrong thing and you're too chickenshit to admit it to your boss.

Sorry to be so harsh, but seriously, dude - man up.

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

What I've done works wonders for warranty stickers, such as that of say an xbox 360 warranty sticker! So, get yourself a hair dryer and put it on high setting and pretty much aim it at the sticker until the glue/adhesive that holds it becomes soft/not adhesive and then you'll be able to remove the sticker without voiding the warranty, works like a charm on the xbox 360 warranty sticker, oh and yes you'll be able to put the sticker back on as well!

Ah! Someone already put this one up, and reading through the entire thread....yeah sounds like you need to come clean or at least provide all the details.

 

[Skaven252]

Most common sticker adhesives are fat soluble. So you can first rub the stain with vegetable oil or orange peel aka citrus oil (they sell this specifically for label removal). The adhesive dissolves into the oil, and you can then wash both off with soap and water. This won't damage the plastic, like some solvents and thinners may do.

But before this, you need to get rid of the paper in the label, just scrape/peel off as much of it as you can before applying the oil.

The sticker need to be in good condition and be able to put them again in other plastic surface.

Oh, um, this won't work after the oil treatment. The adhesive wont's stick after it's been greased.