Replies

1. 
   Westchester | Apr 04, 2011 05:31pm | #1

   Strip Finish

   Paint remover to scrub off finish - zip strip or rock miracle will work -

   SA

2. 
   SteveSchoene | Apr 05, 2011 12:39am | #2

   Yes, use a chemical stripper.  Any will work, nothing special about the T&T in that respect.  Methylene chloride based strippers will work more quickly, but do require personal protection and serious ventilation. 

3. 
   Saville | Apr 05, 2011 09:49am | #3

   I use heat

   Whenever I have to strip paint or varnish I use a 1500 watt heat gun and a cheap furniture scraper. The heat makes the finish bubble and it scrapes off with very little pressure. Once you get a rythym going you can hold the heat gun with one hand and scrape with the other and you just move along the surface.

   I stripped an entire 28 foot sailboat this way (above the water line) and it took less than a day.

   Keep a file handy to file a new burr onto the scraper. After scraping the finish off you do the usual sanding stuff and off you go. No messy chemicals.

1. 
   GretchenTHE FIRST | Apr 05, 2011 04:32pm | #4

   Speed is OK, but this might not be particularly beneficial to the patina of the wood of a piece of furniture.  The stripper will help maintain the wood's patina, unlike sanding and scraping which makes the wood "new".

1. 
   Saville | Apr 07, 2011 12:36pm | #10

   g

4. 
   Saville | Apr 06, 2011 09:29am | #5

   When you use a heat gun you are not scrapign the wood. The finish bubbles up and comes away from the wood.

   When you use stripper you can rest assured you will be sanding the wood. So I don't think there's much of a patina benefit there.

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Apr 06, 2011 01:51pm | #6

   Done right, letting the chemical do it's work, removing softened finsih with a stiff brush and neutralizing as directed aalong with following up using a lacquer thinner,  the only abrasive that might be needed is a little 3-m pad work.  A scaper sharp enough for a burr on the edge, is quite likely to shave wood in most hands.  Gel coat isn't the same, and there isn't patina to save anyway. 

2. 
   HowardAcheson | Apr 06, 2011 03:18pm | #7

   Tried and True is not really a film type surface finish.  It's a finish that is absorbed into the pores of the wood.  Heat can work as a paint remove because paint is on the surface of the wood not in the wood.  Tried and True isn't.  Heating will primarily make the T&T more viscous and cause it to be drawn more deeply into the wood.

   Using a chemica stripper will tend to draw out the T&T,  You don't need to sand the surface aggressively.  You can even get away without sanding at all.  Give it a try--nothing lost.

3. 
   GretchenTHE FIRST | Apr 06, 2011 03:53pm | #8

   In additon to what the others have added to my recommendation not to use a heat gun, after stripper removal and good neutralization of it with mineral spirits, the grain is not raised, and little to no sanding is necessary. Steve also said this but I am sort of reiterating it. I have used a heat gun to remove paint on something I needed that kind of treatment--a door.  And scraping also. But for a nice piece of furniture that has already been given an "in the wood" finish, I would consider it too much overkill and ruining the wood.

5. 
   Saville | Apr 07, 2011 12:35pm | #9

   Used on both paint and varnish

   When I wooded the boat I removed both paint AND varnish. There are acres of varnish on deck. Topsides were painted.

   Experience - we are all new at one point. You only gain experience by doing. Gotta start sometime.

   Scraping for about 5 minutes will teach you all you need to know to remove the finish but not the wood. I maintain it's actually kinder to both the wood and the patina if you use heat and a scraper, as opposed to multiple chemicals. You are NOT bearing down hard on the scraper - don't have to.

   I can assure you that it's really very simple to NOT scrape away wood. You do not have a sharp burr on the scraper nor do you need to bear down hard.  You do NOT scorch the wood unles you try really hard. The outflow from the gun is very focused and all you do  is hold the gun at the spot - about an inch off the wood - until you see the varnish..or paint.. bubble, then you scrape it off after moving the gun to the next patch.

   Varnish is also a penetrating finish and, the resultant re-varnishing came out great.

   There...I think I've dealt with all the stated objections. I don't know about the objectors but I've tried both schemes - chemical stripper as well as heat. I'll take heat every time. No messy chemicals; I maintain kinder to the wood than dousing with a variety of chemicals which also get soaked into the wood and are never totally removed; very little sanding required after; not in the slightest bit difficult.

   However everyone has their druthers and if others prefer chemicals I say more power to them and happy woodworking.

6. 
   Saville | Apr 08, 2011 09:58am | #11

   One ought to consider what happens to paint or other finishes when you hit them with a chemical, soften them up, change their chemical nature from a finish to  finish+chemical sludge, then scrape them away with whatever you use...plastic scraper, putty knife, steel wool (as some stripper recommend for a final treatment)....

   if you think some of that softened slush which is now an entirely different chemical doesn't remain in the pores of the wood I suggest you reconsider.  After that you treat wht wood with yet another chemical to kill the stripping action of the first.

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Apr 09, 2011 06:49pm | #12

   Yes, and that process does a good job of preparing the wood to accept a new finish,  ultimately making the surface more receptive to be evenly stained or dyed that wood where the old finish is just mechanically removed by sanding.  In that case, unless the sanding is quite heavy, the old finish remains in pores in a relatively uneven fashion depending on how porous different parts of the wood were.  That new chemical is more susceptible from being removed from pores when rinsing the stripped surface with lacquer thinner than the original cured finish which remains immutable unless all the wood around it has been removed.  This works for sanding floors, but not nearly so well for refinishing furniture. 

   You throw the word "chemical" around as if it were some sort of pejorative.  But everything is made of chemicals, some useful others not so much.  Even "natural" products are chemicals.    

7. 
   GretchenTHE FIRST | Apr 10, 2011 08:03am | #13

   We are talking less about what happens to the softened finish than about what you are doing to the wood after the finish is removed. As Steve has said, depending on the wood pores, the finish that can remain in them can be VERY problematic (read "oak") and in my experience sometimes repquires aggressive brushing with a brass brush or even using a dental pick to get the softened finish out. A heat gun would not be any more effective.

    That aside, thinking in terms of a close pored wood, AND the T&T finish we are discussing, where the finish is literally able to be wiped off with steel wool and a stripper, there will be really no sanding required.  The surface of the wood is not "removed"  and the grain isn't raised, or not so much that the wood patina is destroyed. Scraping or regular sanding DOES remove this patina, and you are back to new wood. There is often nothing wrong with this, but if refishing a piece of old wood, this is not the ideal you want.  There is nothing wrong with heat guns if that is the tool for the job. Not all jobs are created equal.