Thread: Thicknessing Painted Timber

Originally Posted by doug3030

Ttake the paint off with a circular sander and some 40 to 80 grit paper then put them through the thicknesser when the paint is off to clean them up.

Be mindful of the source of the timber and what is in the paint. Recycling boards painted eons back could expose you to lead dust when you sand or thickness them.

If you need to take paint off with a planer, it is much better to take the deepest pass possible. Taking light passes has the knives inside the painted skin for a longer portion of the cut and will grind away your edges far quicker than a deep pass.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Be mindful of the source of the timber and what is in the paint. Recycling boards painted eons back could expose you to lead dust when you sand or thickness them.

It depends what you mean by eons.
Lead was removed from in paint in 1970 but there was an awful lot of paint around for many years after that that contained lead.
A few years back a neighbour took down his back pergola and the 12 x 4" beans of jarrah were going in the skip so I rescued them (I still have some behind the garage). I asked him when he had erected the pergola and he said it was back in the early 80's. When I tested the paint it contained lead and when I asked the neighbour about it he said the paint was in the shed when he moved in in 1975 and he still had some. It was a large drum of white oil based paint and he had used it all over his house. He moved out 3 months later.

Originally Posted by Kuffy

If you need to take paint off with a planer, it is much better to take the deepest pass possible. Taking light passes has the knives inside the painted skin for a longer portion of the cut and will grind away your edges far quicker than a deep pass.

If the wood is thick enough it may be safer to cut the paint layer off rather than plane it off.

The other reason that putting painted board through your thicknesser can be bad for your blades is that it is hard to see the nail heads.

A cheap electric hand plane is another good way to get it off.

Originally Posted by Kuffy

If you need to take paint off with a planer, it is much better to take the deepest pass possible. Taking light passes has the knives inside the painted skin for a longer portion of the cut and will grind away your edges far quicker than a deep pass.

This is good advice in general, not just for painted boards.

Originally Posted by BobL

It depends what you mean by eons.
Lead was removed from in paint in 1970 but there was an awful lot of paint around for many years after that that contained lead.

Perhaps I should have said the if the paint was sourced eons back . I can remember my grandfathers place in the 70's when we cleaned it out there was paint from probably the '50's in cupboards & in unopened cans.

Originally Posted by Damienol

I put a partially painted crate through. Is that enough to stuff the inserts?

Now what to do with the other 4 crates!!!

I'd just run the lot and call it a learning experience, the cost of one edge on a set is pretty low in the big picture. You can also double the life of a set of inserts by only rotating every second row.

I find using the band saw size permitting is the best way for me. I just remove as little as possible. I know you lose timber but I figure its better than replacing blades on helical thicknesser.

With the obvious "check for nails" warning, i either cut the faces with a circular saw with an "old" blade, and/or use an electric plane (with the cheapy disposable blades) before putting it anywhere near a jointer or thicknesser. If I am dead keen to retain very close the original dimensions then use of a heat gun and/or paint stripper, and as a last resort, sandpaper.

Generally my objective is to salvage material, so the small amount of "waste" is acceptable. Putting painted timber through good blades is false economy in my mind. That said, there is some very nice timber hiding under paint, and in my youth I also sinned.....

Tried the electric hand plane and it worked a treat. The process end to end still takes about the same time

+1 for the electric hand plane. Blades for these are cheap enough.

Was just reading some stuff on Pinterest that makes me think glue may have a similar effect on blades. Is this the case