Stripping

[StillRunningWithScissors]

Wood that is.

We have some original 1930s doors that we had dipped years ago, and they've been in the garage awaiting an extension.

Well, it appears some of them reacted better than others. So, a number of the doors still have (very stubborn) paint left in the detailed bits of wood.

I've sanded, used a scrapper and very fine wire wool, but it is predictably taking ages.

Tl:dr any recommendations for a paint on gel/stripper that will save me loads of time and finder ache?

Thank you.

I'd go with a heat gun in that situation tbh.

Thanks for replying. The heat gun has been unusually ineffective. Not sure why to be honest. I'd thought it would be the winner to start with :-)

Have you tried Nitromors paint remover, it's very effective but highly smelly. You paint it on, wait a bit then scrape it on, it seems to take forever but it does work.

I haven't used it. Is it that it take a while to react, or that I'll be scrapping away for ages?

Thanks for replying btw

I've had good success with Colron furniture stripper. There's still a bit of elbow grease involved but much easier than sanding alone. IIRC, you apply it with an old paintbrush, leave it an hour or so to react, then scrub it off with some wire wool. This removed most of the varnish but I still had to go over some stubborn areas with 40-grit sandpaper. More recently I used the Screwfix own brand stripper (think it's called No Nonsense) and it was totally useless.

Gillian (love the name), good tips there. Especially knowing the own brand isn't recommended.

it sort of bubbles up then you have to scrape it off, it smells horrible but it does work if you have a lot of patience! If it's detailed bits of wood then you'd be at it all day with a little screwdriver or something. How about picking out the paint and filling the gaps with a matching wood filler instead.

the paint stripper chemicals were reformulated several years ago to make them less toxic and injurious. The result is that they don't really work any more.

If you find a product currently on the market that does work, please let us know.

Thanks retired.

PigletJohn, I feared that may be the case, hence checking on here.

I'll ore you posted if I find a miracle solution :-)

I use Rustins strypit on my furniture projects which was recommended to me on a retro furniture restoration forum. It seems to be pretty effective but hasn't damaged the wood underneath at all.

Thank you bear will have a look :-)