I'd like to purchase several of these 5 gallon natural color (translucent) buckets for a project.
They won't be used as buckets, so the print is a problem.

I tried to remove the print from a common Home Depot (orange color) bucket. Acetone, paint
thinner, and few other solvents had no effect. Obviously, the manufacturer formulated the
print to be solvent resistant.

If I can't remove the print without damaging the natural color buckets my project will be canceled.
Is there a chemical that will do the job?

 

Nothing will remove the label without damaging the bucket.
It is either heat or chemically bonded to the plastic and short of scraping off the top layer it can not be removed.

 

Maybe you could spray paint it. They sell spray paint for plastics that cover well.

 

At a supplier like us plastics or maybe uline you may be able to buy a similar bucket without markings.

 

A lot of paint buckets use labels instead of print that is part of the plastic. Might check construction sites for empty buckets. They are usually light grey in color if that makes a difference.

 

As Carbide Tipped mentioned I would just buy buckets without the labels. There are numerous sources and the two that Carbide mentioned will sell in small quantities.

You can also hit up paint and sheet rock contractors. Both of them use and throw away a lot of 5 gallon buckets. Some have paper lables stuck onto the buckets instead of imprinted into them.

 

Most if not all joint compound buckets have the label imprinted in the plastic.

 

You're absolutely correct, GregH. I just wasn't thinking when I posted about removing the print.
Heat (or chemical) bonding is forever. Stripping off the ink would effectively destroy the bucket.

I need very clean, unused buckets. They must be translucent, so I can't use spray paint.

If I wanted hundreds or thousands of buckets the shipping cost would be meaningless. I need six
buckets. The shipping cost for six buckets is staggering! Uline and several other companies charge
a fee for "walk-in" customers. ($25.00 for Uline.) Why? Because they are not retail businesses with
a storefront. I can buy natural color buckets from Home Depot at a reasonable price, but they're
covered with ink.

There are large translucent food storage containers. That could be a solution.

 

A casual Google search turned up the following, but it still may be out of your range, but it is reasonable. I "carted" 6 buckets and with shipping it was $34.

Shopping Cart

 

If a spray can of vandal mark remover doesnt work, I dont know what would.

We have a local dairy distributor that sells used white buckets for 50 cents each.