Stripping varnish

l'escargot

l'escargot

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I have wooden toe rails, rubbing strikes etc. with peeling varnish of varying kinds including polyurethane, which I have a particular dislike of.

I intend to take things back to bare wood and use oil in it.

What is the best stripper that will take off the various varnishes effectively and also be safe to use close to fibreglass and treadmaster?
 
The fastest and cheapest way (by far) is a hot air gun and a variety of scrapers . Practice and you'll soon get up to speed.
 
Don't think there is a "best". You have to experiment because different methods may prove better than others. The main alternatives are chemical stripper such as Nitromors, hot air gun or dry scraping, and often a combination is required. Some finishes come off very easily, others can be very resistant and no way of really knowing until you try.
 
Paint strippers from the 'sheds' have gone green and are hopeless. You can still buy 'decent' paint stripper but its only available for commercial application. The stuff I use is 'Paramose' in 5L cans but i have to buy it through my son's engineering business.
 
As tranona says.
My own experience is that the only way to restore wood to its original grain pattern is by dry scraping with a very sharp scraper.

After a few days of that you will have forearms like Popeye.
 
Careful of Paramose it burns your skin, I got some in the corner of my eye 3 years ago and it's like eczema now constantly itches :( Paramose is water based and can be bought from most decotaters outlets not only trade places but I wouldn't bother with the mess and you still have to scrape or sand.

I used a rotary sander and Dremel to do my boat this year, took about 7 hours to do all woodwork, mast, spars, rubbing strakes, grab handles etc with lots of tea breaks.
 
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I've just checked, my tin is the same but says professional use not industrial use and says it water washable. That's interesting to know thanks. Nothing seems to get original paint of Series 2 Land Rovers but your stuff might. :)

Yes lesson learnt, I now cover up and wear goggles etc
 
I had a lot of old varnish to take off Kindred Spirit. I tried chemical stripper (from a DIY shed, not Robin's industrial stuff) and wasn't very impressed. Best results were with a scraper similar to this, with plenty of replacement blades, and also with a wheel that you use with a drill, made of purple stuff like a more open-weave version of scotchbrite.

The scraper was better for long and flat areas where you could get a good stroke, the wheel better for fiddly bits. Areas done with the scraper still needed a light sanding to get the last bits off; probably not necessary if you were re-varnishing but I was switching to bare teak in some areas and oiled in others.

Pete
 
Absolutely a set of sharp scrapers although I prefer to pull the blade towards me.

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how to
 
I've stripped a very dark varnished fire surround back to its natural oak grain using Nitromors (available most DIY stores in a yellow can, I bought a 750mm one, and another recently for a paint stripping task). I also used wire wool to bring out the grain detail. Once finished, I waxed it with a quality wax polish, and it looks great (now around 5 years on from when I finished it).
 
I've been stripping off internal woodwork and floorboards, finished with a matt/satin varnish. I've found a coarse sandpaper on a Black and Decker sander (the kind with a delta shaped front and a rectangular back) works pretty well, but I use a sharp chisel as a scraper for bits where I can't get the sander in.

Didn't find the hot-air gun much use, but I have no idea what varnish was originally used, and suspect that different varnishes may react to heat in different ways.
 
Jean said:
I've stripped a very dark varnished fire surround back to its natural oak grain using Nitromors (available most DIY stores in a yellow can, I bought a 750mm one, and another recently for a paint stripping task). I also used wire wool to bring out the grain detail. Once finished, I waxed it with a quality wax polish, and it looks great (now around 5 years on from when I finished it).
Click to expand...

Nearly suggested Nitromors. I have used it myself with success, after buying a couple of cans very cheaply.

I did find it would soften GRP, so best to mask off with newspaper or whatever. Wire wool works well but tends to leave bits which can rust and disfigure GRP so take care.
 
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