Stripping wood cabinets

[Big Al]

Trying to gather ideas about stripping some kitchen cabinets. The doors and drawer fronts are made of 3/4" plywood. They have many coats of paint I'd like to remove. What's the best stripper? At what point do you stop stripping and start sanding? If I can get them clean I'm going to stain them.

What is an older adhesive used to hold 4 inch tile to a wall? It's brown and hard and I need to remove it too. Tried a scraper but it will take a year that way. What is the beast way to get it off?

Al

[buffalobill]

this job will never end. we have done it well after exhausting a crew's elbow grease and stripper, and we have done it poorly when our helpers ren out of energy. if you do it well you will have passed the incredible patience test. if you do it poorly you will curse the day you bought stripper and steel wool and sanding supplies and exhaust fans and another shop-vac and 4 coats of urethane and now the countertop looks like hell and the new cabinets/countertops/sinks will really look attractive at home depot.

that adhesive is from 1955 and it doen't like to let go. look at

[SQLit]

I considered this once. I bought a can of stripper chose the smallest door in the kitchen and outside I went. After using a quart of stripper~$10 and a couple of days, I had ~half the door half assed done. There was no way that I was going to tackle the vertical styles on the cabinets with stripper.

I used a saw and crowbar and removed the cabinets and replaced them.

[Norminn]

With "many coats" of paint, it may cost more to strip than to get replacement doors. I doubt that I would bother stripping plywood. How many doors and drawers do you have? What is cabinet face made of?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I have limited experience, but that past year stripped paint of a maple chest. I hesitated figuring it would be a real PITA, but is worked out fairly simple. I bought a gallon of paint remover from Wal Mart. I forget the brand. Applied a coat of it on a side. They gave you a sprayer, but I had better results with a brush. Waited 10 minutes. With a putty knife, I just lightly scraped and all the finish came off. Rinsed with water, let it dry, sanded with 150 grit, then 400 grit and done.

A few spots had to be touched up. Overall, it came out excellent and it is now refinished and looks as good as it did 50+ years ago when it was in my bedroom as a kid.

Plywood may not turn out as well, especially the edges. It may be easier and look better to replace the drawer fronts.

[hallerb]

BEFORE starting a stripping project look at lowes stock cabinets, I bought some Kraft Maid they were low cost and looked great. Remember stripping cabinets is a lot of work, will likely require some new hardware, plywood drawer fronts may not stain nicely, and during all that time the kitchen will be disrupted.

now buy some stripper and try on a couple spots, use with good ventilation for the types that require it, and decide for yourself if its worth the work.

[John50049]

I have been refinishing furniture for about 30 years and have tried alot of ways. To remove paint I use a heat gun and putty knife. Just experiment to learn how much heat and how fast to move. Once you start heating and the paint start to melt just slide the putty knife along at the speed the paint will melt. Just don't stop in a spot very long or it will burn. I have done this many times on furniture, wood work cabinets, etc. and it work great. After taking most the paint off with heat then I use Parks liquid strip and steel wool to wash it off then sand it. Hope this helps

[John50049]

I have been refinishing furniture for about 30 years and have tried alot of ways. To remove paint I use a heat gun and putty knife. Just experiment to learn how much heat and how fast to move. Once you start heating and the paint start to melt just slide the putty knife along at the speed the paint will melt. Just don't stop in a spot very long or it will burn. I have done this many times on furniture, wood work cabinets, etc. and it work great. After taking most the paint off with heat then I use Parks liquid strip and steel wool to wash it off then sand it. Hope this helps

[Big Al]

So far I stripped one with Jasco Premium paint stripper and one with another brand. The Jasco worked better and cost the same at Home Depot. I'm going to try something else and make a decision on what to do. I have 10 doors and some drawers to do. Was going to sand and repair the cabinets and just veneer them. Is that a good idea? The doors and drawer fronts are 3/4" plywood but they would be hard to replace. There is no center board between them and they fit perfect and have beveled edges and sit half way into the cabinet opening. Besides that they are all different sizes:(

Al