Paint stripping advice?

[al]

Been using paint stripper today to remove some ancient paint from my garage frame. Not a pleasant experience - damn messy stuff and it burns if you don't notice it drop on your skin!!

So ... I'm now looking for an electric stripper :o) .. and yes, we're still talking about paint!

Dropped into HomeBase on the way home and they only had a single brand there. Can't remember what it was but I'd never heard of it. It cost £15 and was 1500W. Didn't buy it as it looked a bit crap!

My question is what you get for money - should I pay more for a better one elsewhere? Is it just a case of any old one will do? If quality matter, any advice on what to get? I don't want to spend too much as I won't be doing a huge amount with it. Just occasional refresh work.

a

[al]

OK, so Heatgun is the correct term for it! Found two:

?id=14303&ts=91603One's a DeWalt (£13 more) and the other is a Ferm. Anyone used either?

a

[John Jardine]

Buy the cheap one. My cheapie has been abused summat rotten for years and years and is still going strong. There's nowt in 'em so cost doesn't correlate with quality. I'd also add, that nowadays, the old adage about quality tools being pricey doesn't generally apply. I could scream at the number of times I've come across people who won't touch the Chinese imports because they have fixation that a cheap price means an inferior product. (sheep :) They'll spend hundreds on a DeWalt tool to be used only occasionally and then snottily condescend upon DIYers who actually do the biz using tools they know from hard personal experience to be of lasting value. From an engineering POV, just compare the flimsy mouldings and poor metalwork of a Bosch router with the overall much higher quality Chinese imports offered at a quarter of the price. regards john

[al]

Sounds good to me. It's really just a hair dryer in a harder case! I think I'll go for the Fern one from Screwfix though rather than the Homebase one - at least I recognise the name. Got a cheap belt-sander from them before and it works really well so far!

a

[Rob Graham]

If its 'ancient paint' won't it be lead based and therefore unwise to be taken off with heat ? Stick to stripper and a tough pair of gloves.

Rob

[N. Thornton]

I've seen someone use a hairdryer and put their hand over the air intake to get the air hot enough. It worked alright, but I dont think it was a very smart idea.

I dont recommend this! The piont is just that it is a higher temp version of a hairdryer.

Regards, NT

[Dave Plowman]

It should have a cutout to prevent the air getting too hot. Sounds like it wasn't working.