Never used a heat stripper before....am now using it on door frames on a Victorian house.
One thing I am finding is that once heated - when I scrape the stuff off - it has a most unusual property - it's almost putty like ??? (this is very different from heat stripping my front door which just flaked off). Is this normal ?
Apart from lead is there something else nasty going on here ?
-- Phil
I've seen this too, many times. I guess it must depend on the type, and age, of the paintwork being stripped.
Rick
Just breathe it in you can't live forever. ;-)
I took to wear a proper mask just in case.
Mark S.
If, when it goes cold/cool, it's hard/brittle/crispy and breaks up into tiny bits if you crumble it in your hands then it's undoubtedly old LEAD paint! Be very careful and always wear a mask/respirator! I had this in a 1930's house and stripped the whole damn house of it! Then SWMBO wanted to move - Grrrr!
I had this stuff here - bugger to get off. Get most off with heat, let it cool then sand it.
Scott
But very friendly stuff compared to arsenic pigment paint. Paris green was a fashionable colour in the 1890s, but unfortunately is very toxic. There may be a small number of Victorian houses that still have this paint in place. I found what looked like Paris green at the last house and had it tested, but thankfully it was a non-arsenic version.
Regards, NT
It sounds like a layer of varnish. It was once widely used on top of paint which in olden days was a mixture of metal ores and linseed oil. Todays paint doesn't need it.
The varnish turns to toffee on heating then sticks to the knife like stab. Have another blade handy to wipe the paint scraper off with. Why not just use Nitromorse? It's a lot easier to do.
Nitromorse ? Is a lot more expensive than electricity?
Mark S.
i have (or rather had) that over all my internal woodwork, had the doors dipped after removing furniture and the ever so fashionable hardboard. I used electric blowtorch and a scraper regularly sharpened on an oilstone for the stair stingers and understairs woodwork after testing between it, gas blowtorch and nitromors. Nitromors failed miserably - probably due to the fact that there were about an additional 6 coats after the original brown toffee. As previously suggested i finished off with an electirc sander for the little bits of toffee left over. I pulled the skirting off both landings and replaced, likewise all architrave. I also ripped out the old banisters and nasty spindles.
Over all i think the ripping out replacing saved a lot of time and gave a nicer finish. Although i am now going off the antique pine stain, and may now paint over it :|
Nitromorse is crap. It's expensive, stinks, is slow & creates loads of mess. Also something rather satifsying about stripping paint with a heat gun.
"Scott Mills" wrote in news:B%Edc.209$585.44@newsfe1- win:
And explodes in Oxford? Or a very fast jag?
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