Thread: Painted timber

I do, but usually regret it. Paint hides nails well for a start, then there's the percieved blunting of the knives by the paint. What about a heat gun?

Thanks. Same problem, a heat gun would take to long. Nails at this stage are not a problem as i believe i have found them all using a metal detector. i was just worried that as you suggested that the paint would dull the blades

Just as long as you factor in that you will need to get the blades resharpened afterwards.

TiO (Titanium Oxide) in the paint tends to dull the blades.

Yep, paint and primers ruin knives pretty fast. If you have to pass the boards through the thicknesser to remove the paint, it is best to remove as much material in one pass as your thicknesser can handle keeping in mind your overall required finished dimensions. Taking 0.5-1.0mm passes is absolute murder on the knives. When you have removed the paint, you will need to pass the boards through again with a better set on knives, even if you just touch the current knives up with an oil slip stone. The surface finish from paint dulled knives is a bloody awful compressed surface finish.

Get a cheep hand held electric plane for cleaning up recycled wood. The tungsten blades last a long time and dont cost a lot. When you get the paint off and have checked for nails then you can go to the thicknesser.
Regards
John

I got a pile of old painted jarrah skirtings from a friend a while ago - and I remove most of the paint with paint stripper before running them through my thicknesser.

Like what Orraloon says, the cheap electric plane is gold for this sort of work. I also use it for old redgum fence posts. They tend to have a layer of dirt and the odd small stone embedded into the surface.

Cheers

Bryan