A neighbor is replacing their staircase and there is a bunch of nice 6/4 oak scrap in front of their house; but it is all painted.
Can I remove the paint by running it through the planner? Okay, I know I can, but can I do it without causing excessive wear to the planner?
If I have to use paint stripper, it probably isn't worth it.
If you're talking about a portable planer, just be prepared to buy a (or more) new set(s) of knives. Although how bad it will be depends some of what the paint is and how much...if it's 1/4" of built-up oil based from
80 years of repeated painting, that's one thing. If it's a single coat of latex, that's something else again entirely.I've run a fair amount of old material through a planer, but I have one of the cast iron industrial-type planers w/ heavier knives. It dulls them up pretty bad but I keep a set of old knives specifically for such purposess. These knives are regrindable, however, not disposable and significantly heavier than those for the new small portable planers.
I have run a couple hundred feet of stained and varnished cherry through my planer without any ill effects. I know that I have also run some painted stuff through it as well and it is still chugging right along.
I do clean it well after each use, whether it is finished or raw wood. ____________________ Bill Waller New Eagle, PA
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I have successfully done this many times, I dismanteled an entire barn made of 6/4 walnut with a friend and have been recycling that wood for a few years now. I keep my old portable planer around for running junk wood. Duane is right your going to go through plenty of knives. Fortunately for me I can resharpen my own knives so it's just a matter of time. There are a few points to regard.
The following are in the 'nuff said catagory
I take a 9" automotive grinder with 50 grit and try to knock off as much loose paint as possible. For me the best life I get out of the knives is taking the deepest cut the planer will handle on the first pass. If you are cutting wood and not paint it goes pretty well. the comment about 1/4" of old oil base is true it'sll slow down the process and eat your edges...
Knothead
Last time I looked, paint is softer than just about any wood. Worst that could happen is for the paint to soften (from heat) and stick to knife sides. Easily cleaned off.
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
It is from a 22 yo house, so I figure it was probably painted twice with latex.
It is a light portable planer, but the blades are nearing the end of their life anyhow.
Thanks for the advice.
Don't forget to look for nails or nail heads!
RonB
Not old oil based paint. Plus it's very abrasive, almost like the glue in plywood.
The suggestion to use a right angle grinder w/ coarse grit first is a good one to increase planer knife longevity at the expense of time.
why not use a belt sander with 40 grit? You could take off the paint on any given board in a couple minutes. You'd still have the flat underside (presumeably unpainted) to use as the flat side in the planer, to true up the belt sanded side.
You're kidding, right?
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
Yes, if you want to screw up your planer blades.
I'd sand it first which not only gets rid of the paint but also exposes any nails or other metal you might have missed.
If you are going to use the wood in small batches, use a belt sander with 24 or 36 grit paper.
If you need a lot at one time, find a commercial drum sander for the job.
Lew
He's not. I killed a set of planer blades with one modest board covered in very old paint .
I only put reclaimed wood through a planer as a very last resort.
-Steve
Not hardly (so to speak)...
I'll give you some of the old barn siding and let you run it through your planer and judge if you want to come by and get it...
Maybe convert the planer to 220 volt?
G,D & R
You'll remove timber too, especially if it's less than flat. I happily plane painted timber if I want to thickness and flatten it, but I don't expect a thickness planer to be a paint stripper.
Check for hidden nail heads under the paint.
I'd also wash it clean first. Gritty dust and dirt wears your planer knives faster than paint does. If it's moderately sealed against moisture so that you can easily wash it down, then I'd take the opportunity.
Just a note of caution: nails and other hard little metallic things hide really well under a coat of paint, so beware...also, very fine dust from whatever has been applied over the years will be floating through the air in copious quantities, so wear a good mask...
Paints contain metals and other minerals that are dangerous to inhale. For instance Titanium dioxide is found in nearly every modern paint and has been know to kill people if inhaled in sufficient quantity. Wear a dust mask and expect to dull your knives. Clean your machine after the work. I've done this many times. Always trashes the blades. Rabbit
Got a reference for that?
_water_ will kill you in sufficient quantities, but TiO2 is an inert as you could wish and certainly doesn't count as a special hazard,
Not the greatest stuff to play with, but not as lethal as the OP suggests.
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