removing finish from old furniture

[big soft moose]

Having just moved in with swimbo , we are furnishing our house on the cheap. I have just picked up an old writing bureau from freecycle but the finish is scratched and scuffed to hell and back so the only realistic way ahead would be to remove it and start over.

I am aware of the webrax and white spirit approach for french polish , but i have a nasty feeling that the finish is lacquer or similar so that probably wont work.

short of resorting to the random orbital sander does anyone have any other ideas or advice on how best to strip it ?

also on this subject i have also acquired (also from freecycle) a hardwood chest of drawers that some muppet has thoughtfully painted with grey gloss paint - again this needs to come off so advice on stripping paint would also be appreciated - Would a heat gun work ? or would that damage the wood ?

 

[Shultzy]

BSM, sanding off large amounts of paint, varnish etc. will soon clog sanding sheets. My preferred methods are Nitromors and/or scrapers.

 

[BradNaylor]

Nitromors.

Marvellous stuff!

Equip yourself with a variety of shaped scrapers for getting into mouldings.

Keep your best chisels well out of the way so you are not tempted to reach for one of those! :lol:

Dan

 

[Bodrighy]

Whilst I don't (can't) make furniture like you clever guys I love old style furniture and most of our stuff is from junk shops, bonfires, etc and renovated. I have a load of old chisels (also from junk shops, bootsales etc) that I use to scrape off varnish, french polish etc. Different sizes for different areas. It is a lot cleaner than using a sander which gets every where and you can get into any detailed mouldings etc very easily with the smaller ones.

Pete

 

[Derek Willis.]

Paint stripper and scrapers is definately the way to go, finish off by sanding, but, use abranet, it will not clog, and used with a ROS if you have one with dust collection will work very well.
Derek.

 

[lurker]

I'm with Derek

But I would try without stripper -ie just abranet through the grades

An ROS + vacumn cleaner + abranet will do a good job in double quick time with no mess.

Stuff last for ages and is well worth the outlay.
Got to be tried to be believed

 

[Derek Willis.]

Lurker,
I'm glad to hear you agree I have now been using Abranet for about a year and since the first have not used any other type of abrasive.
Derek.

 

[maltrout512]

Nitomors (green tin) is the way to go. With most modern furniture the finnish is very hard to remove even with nitro. I mainly strip finnish of old antique furniture using nitro and the plastic spatulars which you get with two pack filler, and for mouldings etc a pease of wood shaped or pointed to pick out the harder to get too places. I don't want to loose the patina which has taken many years of use and abuse. When all the finnish has been removed a good wipe down with meths and fine grade wire wool with the grain, bringing it up and ready for refinishing.

 

[Grinding One]

If its not fine furniture,take a tarp put it under object to strip,and sand blast it.Stay about 12 " away and watch it peel the paint off just keep moving the nozzle along.....works like a charm.I got 13 coats of paint off of a chair in ten minutes,it looked brand new a little sanding was done just to let my mind at ease...could not believe it was that easy.Take chair off from tarp and all the sand and paint from object is now disposed off properly.no bad chemicals,not a lot of scraping,and harly any sanding....

 

[Derek Willis.]

Sandblasting is always an easy way for paint removal, but I doubt many of us have that type of equipment, it doesn't fit along too well with fine chisels and planes, routers and thicknessers.
Derek.

 

[Grinding One]

But it is eviormental,I thought that sandblasting was expensive too till I saw what I could buy for a few bucks(Like 20.00) and I was done in 10 minutes.If you can beat that with hand tools....well your a good man Charlie Browm as they say over here.

 

[big soft moose]

But it is eviormental,I thought that sandblasting was expensive too till I saw what I could buy for a few bucks(Like 20.00) and I was done in 10 minutes.If you can beat that with hand tools....well your a good man Charlie Browm as they say over here.

you'd have a good point if i had a compressor , but as i have never needed one i dont - and while the sand blasting kit is only arround 40 notes (sterling) i dont feel like splashing a couple of hundred on a compressor to run it.

I think Nitromoors and/or abranet could be the way forward - thank you all for the advice , will let you know how I get on

 

[Grinding One]

Do you not have rentals over there??

 

[johnnyb]

best way is to remove the bulk of the lacquer with scrapers(cabinet type). then smother in paint stripper, mangers is good and cheap. scrape off (wallpaper type) then using coarse wire wool take off as much as you can. the most important bit is mix up some ammonia(with water)and a webrax and give it a damn good scrubbing(suger soap would also work) if its oak get a brass brush on the grain. finally jet wash all this off(preferably with hot water) leave to dry outside then move somewhere warm to dry and tomorrow it will take any finish you throw at it. if its a fairly modern piece the lacquer will be very difficult to remove and is best left as firewood. ps use meths and wire wool for french polish.

 

[big soft moose]

Do you not have rentals over there??

yeah but i'm trying to do this cheaply - hence the sourcing of furniture from freecycle. If I rent a compressor and buy a sand blasting kit (or indeed rent them both) i will have spent nearly the equivalent of buying a nice writing bureau second hand.

a tin of nitromors and a scraper is much more affordable (and i already have a ROS)

 

[AndyT]

I've had good results with this stuff: http://www.paint-stripper.co.uk/ - much nicer to work with than other strippers and v effective.

Andy