How to remove varnish from wooden sil and surround ?

[8misskitty8]

Moved to this house 2 years ago and it has white upvc windows which are in good condition. But surrounding the windows and the sil inside are timber, which the previous owner decided to varnish in dark mahogany ! In our previous house we also had a timber surround and sil on our windows but we varnished it in a clear varnish which really brought out the natural grain of the wood and looked lovely. These surrounds look awful.
I scrubbed the windows when we moved in as they were filthy and it took of a bit of the varnish on the sil so i think it's only one coat on it.

What can i do to get this varnish stripped off so I can re-varnish in clear/natural ? I don't really want to go down the paint stripper/nitras mols route as it will go deep into the wood and I only want this top layer off. Would an electric sander work ? (Loads of windows so can't face hand sanding ! ) Any recommendations ?

Thanks.

A heatgun is your friend. We've been removing about 300 layers of gloss and then the mahogany varnish which is underneath it. It looks a bit like a hairdrier. Ours was only £9.99. You'll need the gun, some heatproof gloves and a small paint stripper, then you just head and scrape. If it's just one layer of varnish it'll come off easily.

hairdryer i meant!!

Yes an electric sander might well do the job if it comes off that easily.

I love nitromors myself but you are right, it does penetrate somewhat.

You can always try sanding (get a small pointy one like the Mouse sort of shape - good for tiny corners) and then if you have any left on there, you could get a piece of fine wire wool and dip it in a small amount of nitromors and just rub with that. Then clean off with white spirit and then loads of soapy water.

Mind you with the intricacies of window frames I think there may be quite a lot of bits you can't access with a flat bedded sander. Don't try a mini belt sander, it will destroy the wood too

heat and srape i meant not head (i really should proof read before posting!). I love the heatgun, but an electric sander would probably also work if you already have one, someone else might know...