I have 30+ oak mouldings to clean up and refinish, all 38 inches long. It is a simple concave moulding of about 1-1/4" in height. There is no overpainting and the original 'brown windsor soup' finish still exists although this has been over-varnished and perhaps more than once. I can do this by making a sanding block of the correct profile and then start with very coarse stuff (40-60grit) and work through to finer grades of abrasive. A less labour intensive approach might be to use a suitably profiled flap wheel in a piller drill with suitable jigging. Any idea how to profile a flap wheel? I've seen them made and used by an old and long departed engineer friend. Alas I am no engineer.
Another option might be one of those paint remover discs. Theyre an inch or so thick, made of open nylon mesh (or something similar) with grit dotted about. The idea is they remove the paint but not the wood, though whether theyre successful at this I dont know.
Thanks. Chemical stripper & oak (or any other decent hardwood) - no thanks. The effects upon the timber are not good and later processes take at least as long as hand working from start. As op'd this is a simple concave moulding. It has no other profiles to speak of, just rounded edges. These can readily be finished by hand. The existing finish is surface only and removed quite easily by abrasion. Oh well, hand finishing it is. I do know that flap wheels can be profiled. Diamond dresser perhaps? Thanks again and condiments of the season to all.
Expensive, yes...... but perhaps much potential. Unfortunately not really suitable for the job in hand. For short runs such as my present task, hand working is perhaps the easiest option. One day I'll remember how to profile a flap wheel. Of course it will then be far too late. Thanks GS
Expensive, yes...... but perhaps much potential. Unfortunately not really
I've not done it, but am thinking if you run the wheel backwards, the vulnerable backing is getting hit instead of the tough abrasive. What ever you use to cut/grind/etc it down, its going to be much easier running it that way. Possibly a coarse abrasive would shred the unwatned flap material, or an angle grinder.
Impossible to profile a flapwheel other than by running it against the same profile as your moulding cast in concrete or similar. Even then it will soften the edges horribly. There used to be a gadget called an Engis sanderhead that I used many years ago to sand a 4" wide moulding in bulk. You could cut each flap individually, but even that wasn't very good.
Chemically strip them. Nitromors-style organic strippers will shift modern paint and won't touch oak. A caustic dip stripper will work too, so long as you make sure it's strong and hot. It's not the caustic chemistry that causes the splitting trouble with tank stripping, it's the prolonged soaking when some cowboy is running a worn-out bath. Caustic soda isn't a problem for oak in general, unless the bath is contaminated with metals. It's acids (mild lightening), ammonia (significant darkening) or acetic acid salts (black stains at the merest hint of an iron nail) that you need to watch out for.
I've never heard of a profiled flap wheel and can't imagine that it would work accurately. The usual sanding bob for profiles is a hard felt with embedded abrasives. You shape this by cutting perpendicular saw cuts into a length of the moulding, then using those corners as rasp teeth directly into it.
Brush sanders can be good for some mouldings, but still won't do sharp internal corners and can tend to round a sharp arris if they're facing across it. Not cheap either - the Makita one is about 300 quid.
The whirly plastic filament abrasive brushes have almost no effect on wood. I use them to polish copper and to wax polish finished woodwork, but they'll not strip paint. Axminster's are better made than Screwfix's / Wolfcraft's. 3M make some excellent abrasive plastic filament whirlies too with a lot more poke, but I've only seen them in cup disk and Dremel-sized styles, not a radial brush.
For clean-up after stripping, the best thing is probably a number of scrapers. Sharpen them square edged or with only the tiniest of hooks for stripping paint, or else they'll go for the wood too. You'll likely need some custom-made scrapers, ground down from other scrapers or old sawblade steel. A broken glass edge is excellent for this too, so long as the moulding shape allows access.
Personally I'd chemically strip them, then use a scraper, probably glass ones.
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