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I am looking to repaint a large (6000 sq. ft.) old (100yr) house. The paint condition runs from very good to bare wood on the pine clapboards (4/4×12). The paint is obviously lead based and is very thick. Looking for ideas on paint removal. Thinking about the Paint Shaver product that looks like it planes off the paint and sucks it up with vacuum attachment. Any ideas or other suggestions?
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I think I responded to this once and it was deleted by one of the crashes.
I bought the Paint Shaver. Used very little. (I keep hoping it will be the miracle to stripping a big house and try it every 6 months or so.) Make an offer.
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Todd,
I have not used the paint shaver, I've seen one in use & it seems to work. I HAVE used the Porter-Cable disc type paint remover. It uses various grit carbide discs (versus the planer blades of the shaver) and depth and edge stops to control the cut position & depth. I've stripped most of my home with great results. It isn't affected by siding nails, putties or knots. (I don't know if that's the case with the bladed shaver???) The only drawback is if you're trying to contain the debris. It basically turns the paint to dust & lets it fly. I've done two things:
1. Work on a very windy day and disperse the material over a great distance.
2. Work on a very calm day and catch the debris in tarps and drop cloths.
I live in a very rural, open area and containment is not a real big issue; the wind blows a lot and fairly hard most of the year.
I've been very satisfied with the finished product! Be ready for many hours of intense work in order to get that "like new" look.
*Todd,I have not used the paint shaver, I've seen one in use & it seems to work. I HAVE used the Porter-Cable disc type paint remover. It uses various grit carbide discs (versus the planer blades of the shaver) and depth and edge stops to control the cut position & depth. I've stripped most of my home with great results. It isn't affected by siding nails, putties or knots. (I don't know if that's the case with the bladed shaver???) The only drawback is if you're trying to contain the debris. It basically turns the paint to dust & lets it fly. I've done two things: 1. Work on a very windy day and disperse the material over a great distance.2. Work on a very calm day and catch the debris in tarps and drop cloths.I live in a very rural, open area and containment is not a real big issue; the wind blows a lot and fairly hard most of the year.I've been very satisfied with the finished product! Be ready for many hours of intense work in order to get that "like new" look.
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Todd - What has worked for me is carbide bladed scrapers. I use Wagner but hear that Sandvik's is pretty good. In some areas I can strip a swatch of clap for several feet from 8 or so layers (1904, aluminum sided in 60's. When its still tenacious, I use heat plates with a 5-in-one tool. I use drop cloths for "containment". I just haven't found any power combination that speeds it up. Did see two guys working together with a "super" heat plate - looked like they made it with an electric oven element and cookie sheets. Tied into 220v box - one guy moved plate other guy scraped.
*I've seen two 'shavers' but not used either. 1) is made by Metabo. Norm Abram tried it on a show and decided it was too slow. The other is a modified 4.5" angle grinder by a company in NE somewhere. Which are we talking about?Has any one tried the 3M abrasive product that is an H&L disk (5 or 6") about 5/8" thick and made of some sort of expanded plastic? I think the idea is that air circulates through the expanded plastic and keeps the abrasive surface relatively cool so that the paint adoining the "bad" area doesn't melt and bubble becoming another "bad" area. Didn't want to buy a whole $99 box just to see how they work (my supplier only had 5" by the piece and would have had to order a box of 6" for my 6" ROS).
*The Paint Shaver is by a company in Rhode Island - American International Tool methinks - and is based on a Hitachi grinder. Its a disc with blades mounted like a plane. It seems to have been developed for wooden boats and comes to houses as a secondary market.I'm interested in the Metabo power paint scraper but have not heard anyone report on it until your post.Stripping paint from a whole house is just plain hard work.
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i bought the metabo paint eater. don't think it was designed to deal with anything except dead flat surfaces. i felt like i rendered it unreturnable b/4 discovering its limitations in re stripping paint off of clapboards. so here is what i did to recoup the $500 investment...
pulled the cutterhead and spaced it out with a garden hose washer. this gives the machine more bite than you will ever get overwise. enough to deal with the vagueries of siding and effectively voids any warranty and makes the machine even more dangerous than it was ever intended to be. then i taped the rabbitting doors shut so they wouldn't fly open exposing even more cutterheads.
then i called metabo usa toll free to ask what to do about the hardened paint welded into the cutter bolts making the provided torx wrench totally useless. the friendly but clueless phoneperson had never heard of the problem so the cutters are changed with drilling and a screw extractor and some good old fashioned american bitching.
used carefully, the machine is faster than propane, or any sort of sanding device which loads up with paint nearly instantly. propane does have the distinct advantage though, of radically increasing the chances of burning the entire project down to the ground.
*Bill,The Paint Shaver does not sound like the golden answer I was looking for but I figure that if I had a good easy way to remove paint off the house I would be rich and not doing it my self. If your PainT Shave is just collecting dust I might be interested in giving it a try. Let me know the knid of $ you are looking for. I think it comes in a kit with dust collector and replacement blades. Do you have the PS dust collector? Let me know your thoughts.Todd Harvey
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I am looking to repaint a large (6000 sq. ft.) old (100yr) house. The paint condition runs from very good to bare wood on the pine clapboards (4/4x12). The paint is obviously lead based and is very thick. Looking for ideas on paint removal. Thinking about the Paint Shaver product that looks like it planes off the paint and sucks it up with vacuum attachment. Any ideas or other suggestions?
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My neighbor used a paint shaver that looks like a large angle grinder with a very stiff wire brush with the ends of the wires pointing perpendicular to the painted surface. It has a vacuum hook up. Seems to work pretty well, particularly on flat surfaces but is a little tricky on the rounded edges of the siding in our neighboor hood. Also, watch out for taking divets out of the wood if you linger. This one cost about 450 to $500, but I'm pretty impressed with the work. Certainly not the 15 seconds per square foot they advertise, but not bad. It is advertised in "Old House Journal". It does requires sanding afterwards for a really smooth finish.
As allways, wear appropriate protective clothing and a respirator, and don't wash the clothing with any thing else. If you can just through it out all the better.
Now what to do with the scrapings AFTER they have been collected.
Good luck!