How to remove a strong, (silicone?) adhesive that holds felt onto a tennis ball?

I want to put new felt on tennis balls. But first, how do I get the old felt off?


I tried heating up the felt to 305C using a soldering gun. I started at lower temperatures before that. The adhesive may have started to melt, but the felt started to burn. This wouldn’t be a problem in some situations, but smoke is a problem in this situation.


I placed one overnight in acetone, thinking that could break down the adhesive. Some of the yellow dye came off the tennis ball, but no adhesive.


I placed one in 5%HCl as well. Again, no luck.


Somewhat useful information can be found in a 3 minute How it’s Made video on Youtube. <https://youtu.be/ovalwd7VZLU>


These are tennis tennis balls, not dog tennis balls, not practice balls. I have to clarify because some cheaper balls use a cheaper adhesive.


It’s possible this is a silicone adhesive as opposed to some other kind of adhesive, which is part of the problem!


