Paint Stripper – Anyone use this thing?
vtjayman5
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
Got lots of scraping in my near future. Didn’t know if this would be worth the cash?http://www.silentpaintremover.com/.
Replies
You might try googling John Leeke. He has website on restoring old windows and I seem to remember some reviews of this machine. The usual: I have no relationship with his site.
john
Recipe for Fornby's or Hope's furniture stripper
Equal parts of acetone, methanol (wood alcohol), methylene chloride and tolulene
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
OK, I'll play. I've been lurking here a long time as a DYI homeowner doing a restoration of a 1912 bungalow. I've picked up a lot of info by osmosis doing through the posts of the professionals. This is something that I've been using in my house
I've been stripping the paint from the interior woodwork that is throughout out my house. Some great old growth stuff that in was originally finished and at some point painted white. For my case (and each situation is different), I get the best results using heat (as opposed to chemicals or mechanical). Personally it fell that the infrared method with the silent paint remover works great. I can strip huge areas relatively quickly with little mess. After stripping, I them wipe it down with denatured alcohol and can begin the refinishing process. The limitations of the device is that it works well on flat areas but on corners, and detail work, it does not do well. I tend use a heat gun for those areas. The infrared method does not heat the surface as hot as the heat gun so there is less risk of scorching, etc. A bit pricey but it is a very useful tool for my restoration work.
You can also build your own as it is really is just a quartz heater with a handle. There are instructions here if you want to take a look: http://www.oceanmanorhouse.com/paintremover.html There are a lot of house blogs on the tool that you can find if you Google "infrared paint remover" that gives a lot of feedback.
Cheers
Thanks for playing!
That's an interesting website. Seems like a bunch of folks out there making these things and modifying designs. I may have a lead on a used one so if it materializes, I'm going to jump on it. If not, building one looks interesting too. Anyhow, thanks for all the advice on this.
Jay
As far as I know, like DianeA, everyone who uses one loves it. I confess that I still have my Master heat plate, plus a Milwakee adjustable temp. heat gun, but not a Silent Paint Remover. Anyway, I concur about using heat in general, and especially where there is paint over shellac, it works great.BTW, I noticed in the Harbor Freight ad that they have an adjustable temp heat gun for $10. It doesn't go as low as the Milwakee, but at $10 it might be just fine for many things.
We use the device extensively.
There is no faster method.
The speed is gained by being able to position the unit ahead of the area just heated.The company sells a vast array of positioning equipment.
When stripping paint with heaters is there a problem with fumes from all the lead paint on older work? Does it create lead fumes?
Buic
Yes. Devices that produce heat in excess of 1100 degrees F. pose a risk.
With the silent paint remover i heard that you don't need to worry about fumes. Can anyone verify this?
From the Silent Paint Remover website:
Radiation and fire-safe. The Silent Paint Removerâ„¢ only emits as much radiation as is produced by the embers of an open fire. Operating temperature is normally just 400 - 500 degrees. The surface is only heated to approximately 300 degree's. Only the exposed surface becomes warm, in contrast to the 1100 degrees produced by a hot air gun which can start fires. The exact frequency generated by the IR tubes has been meticulously calibrated to penetrate wood surfaces.
Sounds like it would not produce lead fumes.
And the LEAD has to be heated to around 1100 degrees to produce fumes. I doubt any heat gun and probably not my heat plate heats the paint to 1100 degrees, unless maybe when I sit it on fire.
Many older heat guns and some new heat guns will produce enough heat to cause lead-base paint to release lead fumes. Most of the currently available heat guns have a max temperature of 1050 degrees or less.
Thanks for the reply about lead fumes... Buic
You're welcome.
nice site -
maybe I am lazy but it seems like a bit of work -
I am tempted just to try a quartz hearter out of the box!
That reminds me of back when I used to subscribe to the "Mother Earth News". They would have you build your own refrigerator. Thanks for posting it.
I've got one, I'm sold. I also have a Paint Shaver, better and faster for big areas, but lots of mess and dragging a shop vac onto the scaff.
Forrest
we have no success w/ the paint shaver on the older properties we seem to have to deal with.Slightly cupped clapboards create huge poblems.
nearly all clapboards are cupped.Any contact w/ metal is expensive.
I like the the PS just for the cupped clapboards - it makes 'em flat. I sink all nails, listen for the click, and sink the shiny spots - those triangular tips have 6 edges, and I only flip one at a time.
Forrest
100--120 yr old flat sawn heart pine clapboards.
cut nails.
we are trying to make a living here.
Look in the background! 1886 heart pine
View Image
I only use the Silent on trim and and decorative shingling. PS is quicker.
Forrest
So which is 'her car'? The hot rod?
<G>
"It's always better to have regrets for things you've done than for things you wish you had done..........."ponytl
A friendly WARNING to all: Some local fire departments require a burn permit if you are using paint heating devices on a fixed part of the house. Be sure to check, I have been cited once. And remember those pesky insurance companies, if you didn't get a permit, they don't have to cover any loss. That being said, heat plates/guns are the best if you have anything like a Victorian, but be very careful at joints and cracks. Just be sure to use a good epoxy sealer on bare clean wood before painting. Good luck to you fellow restorers!
have had one for about 4 yrs - worked very well, thought it worth the money - doing clapboards on 100 yr old Queen Anne Victorian - worked better after "painting" the clapboards with linseed/paint thinner
<worked better after "painting" the clapboards with linseed/paint thinner>
Interesting - have to try that. Any speculation on why that helps?
Forrest
concept is the linseed/thinner penetrates into the old oil and then allows better heat transfer - part of the way the SPR works is to "melt" the old paint - you do have to scrap it but if you do it just long enough for the paint to bubble. it usually comes off pretty easy - not good if the paint hits your "bare" hand - kind of hot
much cleaner technique than chemicals (meth chloride -aka orange stuff/peel away - aka oven cleaner)
So the linseed/thinner prepping.....Are you pre mixing these two products at 50/50 then painting them on as one mixture? How far in advance are you painting them on? One hour? One day? Thanks for all the input!
Jay
The SPR came with instructions for the thinner/linseed oil mix, I just did it roughly like they said - maybe 1 part thinner to 9 parts oil - and paint it on thick and let it set overnight - should wash the old paint first so the mix in going on the paint and not the dirt - next day, heat till slight bubbling with the SPR and off with a wide scraper - flat edged seemed to work better than one with a sharp/chisel edge
good luck
Yes, pre-mix. I just get a quart of each and dump them in a gallon container and shake it up, then pour some in a paint pail and paint it on.As long as you use a compatible primer, you can paint over it pretty much right away. The reason to wait is to see if you have applied enough, ie when it stops soaking in. Then just wipe the excess away with a rag.If you use a water based primer, I'm not sure how long you need to wait.EDIT: Oops, sorry. I was thinking of another discussion, about prepping the wood for the paint, not prepping the paint for removal.
Edited 8/29/2006 3:10 pm ET by BryanSayer
Great!
Thanks for the info.
Jay
You did read the whole thing, right? The proportions for softening paint are much more boiled linseed oil and much less turpentine.
I have used a heat gun to do the same thing. It seems to work well on old paint. You will need to scrape the paint when it gets soft by heating it.
Edited 8/23/2006 8:36 am by gb93433
I have been using the Paint Shaver Pro and their sander on a 100 year old Heart Pine ship lap siding house in NE Florida. Now the qualify, the house had asbestos siding put on it prior to 1950, and it was a good spplication, I hve found that the 2 units do a very good job. Yes, you have to get the shop vac on the scaffold but then I have 16 feet of hose so it doesn't require moving very often. Yes, most of the boards are flat, when I do get to a cupped section I just use the snading unit. The problem that I have with using heat is the fumes, and I don't see how you could heat the paint so that it would come off and not emit fumes, IMHO.
I was lead to buy one recently from this board amd am happy with it. Their Big Dawg scraper is superb.
The homebrew toaster oven stripper looks credible.
You can rent from them and evaluate the piece for yourself.