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Paint stripper v hot air gun

I keep finding other jobs to do strangely ...as those 6 doors look at me , calling to be stripped off... ...funny how weeding has become so attractive all of a sudden!!
Having a job you really don't want to do is a great way of getting loads of little jobs done. Self-help/pop psychology theory posits you should always do the biggest job first, but for anyone of sound mind the clear and obvious reward for doing the big job is a pass on all the others.
 
Chemicals for the fiddly little crannies, but a good old-fashioned paraffin blowlamp for the bulk. Needs a bit of practice to avoid burning stuff to a cinder, but there's much pleasure to be had in priming the blowlamp up with meths (Ah! The Smell!), pumping it up, then getting a roaring flame going. Old paint doesn't stand a chance.
 
mainly hot air gun for larger surfaces. Decent shave hooks for the shape of surface you are stripping. I have two triangular ones, on with flat edges for flat surfaces and another with various different curved surfaces for more intricate surfaces.

Keep the blades of the shave hook clean.

I just did a door frame with a heat gun and spoke shaves - managed to get in all the intricate mouldings, which were all parallel.

on a more complex object like a ceiling rose, I'd get straight for a chemical stripper
 
I keep finding other jobs to do strangely ...as those 6 doors look at me , calling to be stripped off... ...funny how weeding has become so attractive all of a sudden!!


We had all the 7 internal doors 'dipped' by a company (in acid I guess)
They came up looking amazing, then I treated them with clear neutral danish wood oil.
(the doors are approx 120 years old.)
 
We had all the 7 internal doors 'dipped' by a company (in acid I guess)
They came up looking amazing, then I treated them with clear neutral danish wood oil.
(the doors are approx 120 years old.)

some doors are worth doing that way. Others are not. My brother had what he thought were 4 >100 year old doors stripped, only to discover they weren't that old, and the stripping process ruined all the doors.
 
We had all the 7 internal doors 'dipped' by a company (in acid I guess)
They came up looking amazing, then I treated them with clear neutral danish wood oil.
(the doors are approx 120 years old.)
Yes, I had this done too, and you're right, our door looked terrific also - every scrap of paint and crud removed. When you do it yourself, getting the last little flakes out of moulding's a real pain.
 
Definitely stripper. I tried the hot air gun, and it damages what's under the paint. Useless.
 
damages what's under the paint. Useless.

didn't damage anything on the door frames i recently stripped. Only time i have scorched then underlying wood is through my mistakes. You need to be gentle and keep the gun moving at the perfect distance for what ever you are stripping. This takes practice and skill.
 
Took me a day to blow torch my first door so hired a decorator; he made such a charred mess of his first door that i terminated his employment.

Later found out he burnt down a house across the valley when a bit of burning paint dropped through the floorboards and found some dust.

Light sand and a fresh coat of paint worked well, varnished pine would have been out of fashion by now anyway.
 
Getting it stripped by a dipping outfit probably cheaper than buying enough stripper gel. Not to mention your own time/effort. While the door(s) are away you can be getting on with other aspects of the project. When they come back, a light sanding and a finish of your choice.

I am recent convert to Danish Oil on some Oak wood frames of my older (1785!) windows. They look beautiful now.
 
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5013a2.htm

Chemical strippers can cause lead to migrate from paint into the wood. It’s not safe to sand chemically stripped wood,and it’s not safe to oil finish chemically stripped wood that was previously coated in lead paint if young children might ever come into contact with it. F$ck$ing lead paint is an environmental nightmare and it seems that the UK lags behind the US in recognizing this.

The paint companies should have been forced to pay for remediation but they were too well connected politically.
 


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