Stripping paint from detailed wood - Dremel?

G

Garrett M

New member
Hey All...

I live in a Victorian House and I am restoring the wood in the Livingroom from a garish orange (YES ORANGE!) colour back to the natural wood. I have been using a corabination of heat gun, Nitromors-esk (not Nitromors as this stuff is industrial and good) and Peel Away.

The Heat gun I have had to stop using as I have discovered the other layers have lead in them, which is putting fumes into the air and I have not mask to protect me from that, the other issue is the smoke alarms are going nuts when I use the heat gun for too long (they are wired to the mains but still go off even when I turn them off).

The Nitromors-esk stuff has been great, however with the tools I have (mainly a shaving hook, paint blade & wire wool) I am struggling to remove the paint from the detailed bits contained within the shutters around the windows.

The bits stuck in the detailed wood seem to be set like conrete and are not reacting very much to the Nitromors stuff.

I have a thought that dremel type tool with some of the bits available maybe useful to get into these areas and remove the paint without damaging the wood too much.

Anyone think this is a good or ridiculous idea?
 
It could work but it's a lot of work and you need to be careful not to be too heavy handed or you'll end up sanding into the wood too.
 
Unless you are extremely careful, a Dremel will remove the detailing on the wood along with the paint. The Dremel will also kick up dust with lead paint particles in it, so you will need a mask. Using strippers is messy, but it's the safest thing for your lungs, as long as the area is well-ventilated.

I don't envy you - stripping paint from detailed areas is a horrendous task.
 
My folks had the exact same detailing on the doors in their house, if memory serves right it was a corabination of strippers and chissles that took it off. Well, that and a crap ton of elbow grease im afraid
 
Thanks dude - That is my fear and never having used a dremel it is a high possibility.



Cannot drip and strip as that panel or detailed wood is not coming off without causing considerable damage, splitting & breaking of the wood.



I never thought of a chisel. I do need something that goes to a very fine point as the detail bits are very narrow.

Thanks for the advice, I just saw some videos on youtube and thought it might work especially with the really sturaborn solid bits
 
Hey All...

My Birthday is next month so I have decided to hold out until then for a Dremel. Think it maybe useful for other bits of wood round the room.

But I have opted in the short term for Ivor's approach of very small chisels. Managed to picked a pack from good old B&Q for about £8.

I have to say they have worked wonders after Sat & Sun of trying to strip as much as I can from the bay windows. So pictures attached of how the wood looks now after weekend along with the new tools and how details look after a bit of work tonight:
 
If you fold some medium to coarse sandpaper to a fine edge that will help shift some of the grot, too. Just run it up and down the line of the moulding.

If it's any use, I have done this type of thing repeatedly with Victorian door surrounRAB. The main factor is time and patience. Once the grot has gone and you have painted them nicley they look amazing - so much so that I have had visitors comment on them.

Glad the chisels worked.
 
Thanks man. The plan was to have the livingroom finished off by end of March. However, that timescale was based on a professional doing what I am doing, then we found out that our roof neeRAB to be replaced and that is going to eat most if not all (and then some) to fix so the pros were ditched for me (queue A-Team music).

However Once I have most of the wood stripped and that includes the skirtings and door surround I will get the pros back out for another quote and hopefully it will be vastly reduced and they can do the floor at the same time.

When I get more done (after the weekend I will update with more pics).
 
Aye aw-right Guv... :-)

There is a phrase we have in Scotland I can paraphrase here...
"file... chisel... Sh*te... jobby!" :-)

But you are right they are files but worked a treat nonetheless. But I have a 4mm chisel (smallest I could get online) in the post along with some other carving tools.

Anyone know where you can get even smaller chisels?
 
I'm presuming that you have used paint stripper on the skirting. If the plaster work is looking ropey, patch it in with a pallet knife and smooth down with some fine grade sandpaper.

Once it's painted it'll look as good as new.
 
Ropey is an understatement (but thanks for being kind). However we are considering getting the room re-plastered but tha is not high on the list. The wood is the focus for the moment. But I have a pallet knife and deep fill polyfila which I do plan to use.

I am on my fourth pack of B&Q files - just snap after a while.

Col
 
Ivor thanks for that. I use Polyfilla deep fill and it is like working with a slightly more substantial foam. However there is a lot of patch work required and the tub is quite small.

Have you got any recommended branRAB or the one you have used?

came across this stuff but not sure if this is just own brand polyfilla:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/ready-mixed-patching-plaster/invt/221666/

Cheers
Col
 
When I did some work in my house I started with some shop own brand ready mix plaster for the big gaps and then when it was dry I sanded over and finished it off with some Polycell smooth over (before sanding again) to fill the smaller tiny gaps.

The walls came up very nice.
 
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