Q: De-staining furniture with paint stripper

[S.V.Proff]

Hello All:

Need some advice on paint strippers...

I have been using Bix brand stripper to take the stain off of an old furniture. It is working well in most parts of the furniture with the following exceptions:

- At the edges it runs over to the other side and leaves darker residue.

- It runs from the beveled edges.

I read the archives of the two news groups and got some ideas, but I have some questions before going off and trying them out.

Q: Is there a stripper brand that would strip stain and have a better vertical hold than Bix does?

Q: Is it OK to apply a diferent brand of stripper on the same project?

Q: I want to poor some of the Bix stripper into a teflon coated pan and dip the smaller loose parts of the furniture to avoid run off. Are the chemicals in Bix OK with teflon? I wanted to use bare aluminum pan but cannot find large ones for the job.

Thanks!

Sam (Please post your replies here. My e-mail address is spam proofed.)

[RamblinOn]

Do all of the sides that adjoin in one application. Clean the stripper off first with a scraper, then medium coarse steel wool. Down to medium steel wool, to remove all the stripper that you can. Then wash with fine steel wool and mineral spirits - slosh it on generously and scrub vigorously. If stripper is left in the grain, it dries to a plasticy consistency and interferes with staining/finishing. Believe it has paraffin in it for "body". Wipe well with rags or paper towels to get all the residue that you can. Using a 3M scrubber works fine as well, and will get the little bits of steel wool that may snag on the wood grain. Let it dry. The end grain absorbs stain and stripper quickly, so you need to take care to wipe off the goop before it soaks in. If the end grain is still streaky, and you are not going to stain the piece, you may want to consider sanding it - not recommended for antique pieces. Using stripper evenly and removing residue before it dries should get rid of the drip marks.

I'm not familiar with Bix. Have used mostly Stripeeze (not water wash). Works great and removes most of the stain.

Brand should not matter. Type may (water vs solvent). For uniformity, I'd give the whole piece at least one application of one type of stripper.

Coffee cans are great for stripper and the residue. Semi-past remover will hang onto vertical areas pretty well. Keep it out of the sun and wind. You can also fashion a tray from aluminum foil; works great. Use heavy duty or two layers of regular.

[Baron]

Use a thicker finisher remover and you shouldn't have such a problem. If it drips over the side, wipe it up right away. After you have finished the top, strip the sides. This will help remove any drip marks. Using different brands of stripper is fine. Just don't mix solvent and water base without thoroughly washing off the stripper from the piece first. It's probably better to stick with one type throughout. You can use plastic to hold the stripper. That's what the stripper comes in. It is usually HDPE. Check to be sure. By the way, if it is your goal to remove the "stain", a furniture stripper might not be enough since they are designed to remove film finishes rather than stain. You may need some type of bleach or, in cases of pigments, you may need to sand.

Good Luck.

"S.V.Proff" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

[S.V.Proff]

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Just in case others need this in the future:

I found Bix e-mail. Dropped them a line and asked about teflon. They say that Bix won't do anything to teflon.

Sam