Planer for Paint Removal?

[dkerfoot]

I am continuing to renew the entryway to my 90+ year home. I want to bring some of the exterior boards down to bare wood - there are many layers of very hard paint. I also happen to have recently purchased a Ryobi 1301 planer.

You can see where my mind is going here...

I did plane one board down and it did a nice job, but I just have to wonder how hard it is on the blades. The paint is MUCH harder than wood.

Is planing the paint off the perfect plan or am I crazy to be thinking of it?

[charliex]

It will destroy your blades in a hurry and they ain't cheap. My son stripped all the paint in their home and found a good heat gun to be the most efficient and economical. Where that didn't work they replaced the woodwork. You just have to be careful not the get it too hot and scorch the wood. I used stripper many years ago on my first home and if I had to do it again I would sand and paint. The wood was "paint grade" at best.
Chas

[poolhound]

As chas said as long as you dont mind wreking a bunch of planer blades go ahead. How about a belt sander with 60 grit, at least to get the bulk off. Then you could run them through the planer and only use one set of blades which you can throw away afterwards.

[Texas Exile]

Years ago when we bought our house (an old Victorian) we needed to take off the paint on all the woodwork outside. We bought a paint shaver (http://www.paintshaver.com/) that was a handheld grinder that had been modified with a converted head with carbide blades. It was adjustable for depth of cut in two dimensions as well as having an optional dust collector that attached to a shop vac. It worked very well. The only downside was its tendency to sometimes open the grain of the wood. We would go back over the bare wood with a sander and were very pleased with the result. Looking at the price it doesn't look like they've gotten any cheaper but it depends on the size of your job (we had a whole house to do).

[slieber967]

especially if you have young kids ,dealing with the lead in the old paint is probably more of a problem then just removing it.

[docrowan]

I just stripped a door that my wife painted. I tried a belt sander, bought a Ryobi pad sander, but the best thing was a HF heat gun and a sharp putty knife. The sand paper just gummed up and took forever. However, I'd be highly concerned about lead in the paint in a 90 year old house.

[Russianwolf]

An old set of blades (I keep my old ones as they have many uses) and a couple strokes with a file and have at the paint. Just keep your good blades away from it.

[dkerfoot]

Great feedback all - I had forgotten that I do have an old heat gun. My ex bought it nearly 15 years ago for a project it was not well suited for. It has been taking up shelf space ever since. I gave it a try last night and I think it is probably going to be the solution. Well, actually my 22 yo son who is living at home, combined with the heat gun will be the solution.

The paint I am dealing with has an incredibly hard bottom layer. I stripped the front door a month ago or so and neither chemical striper or sandpaper was very effective at removing it. Both would eat down to the last layer, and then just stop. It is almost as if the paint has petrified. I ended up using a card scraper for most of it, but that was pretty slow (though much more peaceful than sanding). The heat gun seems to take that layer with the rest.

Russianwolf - great idea. I will definitely keep the planer blades when they get old - but since it is a new planer with all of 10 or 20 BF of use, I think I'll let them mature a good bit before I apply them to grunt work.

[cabinetman]

A heart gun has solved a lot of problems for me. Planer blades, new or old collect and load up debris and can burnish the surface. I went through several methods of removing 50 year old paint, and ended up with using a heat gun and a good paint scraper. The scrapers with a removable carbide scraper knife work well.
.

[pecker]

The Ryobi planer blade replacements are only $20 per set, and are double sided. I think I'd be willing to sacrifice a few sets on a big job vs scraping/sanding multiple layers of 90 year old paint.