Jarrah.

[soloist]

Hello. Seeking advice on some jarrah that came my way a few months ago. I did a job in Melbourne on an old 1923 home in Surrey Hills. The woman wanted the verandah ripped up and a new sub-floor & merbau deck installed, about 12 sq metres which was done. When I pulled up the old floor it was tongue & groove jarrah, which surprised me as it was in quite good condition & that she wanted it replaced with merbau? Anyway she just wanted the jarrah thrown down the tip so it is now in my garage. I intend to make some small pieces of furniture with it, but it has been painted on one side with a gloss paint. To remove the paint would I be better off to take a small shaving with an electric planer, or a sander? Or any other suggestions. Thanks...

[BobL]

To remove the paint would I be better off to take a small shaving with an electric planer, or a sander? Or any other suggestions. Thanks...

Jarrah boards are always good value and worth resurrecting even if they are painted.

What sort of "electric planer" are you thinking. The easiest and best job would be done a thicknesser whereas an electric hand planer would be the most difficult.
Paint will usually ruin planer blades so be prepared to have to resharpen or replace the blade several time.

It's a pity you didn't use a floor sander on it while it was still on the veranda. You can still do this but it's not that easy. A better machine would be a large drum sander of some kind.

If the paint is really thick I would consider making a paint stripping bath out of black plastic sheet and then sand them.

[pjt]

Hi Soloist,
Paint is always a hassle, a few things I do.....and it depends on the type of paint and how old it is, new fresh paint is the worst but mostly best to get rid of it with a heat gun/blow torch if it bubbles up a lot thats good, of it's going slow with a heat gun u want more heat (blow torch?) but if it's not bubbling more heat is not the go as all u r doing is making a hot melted gooey mess, use a scraper and scrape while hot, keep ur scraper sharp and ding free will also help, I just use a new 10/12" single cut fine file and file at 90° to the blade, when sharpening keep the amount of blade sticking out of the vise (or other holding method) as short as poss, helps to stop vibration and ridges on the surface of the end of the scraper blade which can then effect the surface of the timber u r scraping

a sander on new paint will usually just clog up the paper far too quick, u also want good dust collection with the sander as u never know what is in paint (lead for eg) heavy metals accumulate in the body and r hard to get rid of

paint stripper is ok but messy and it gets a bit expensive, although as Bob suggests a caustic type of solution in a bath could be worth checking out

Old flaky dry crumbly paint just scrape and sand (it usually is the easiest to get rid of)

Paint will/can increase blunting on blades, mostly depends on type of paint especially if taking a light skim such as with a hand held planer, best to take a reasonable cut and get underneath the paint into the wood, the downside is hidden nails that r hiding under the paint:((:(( a metal detecter is good value here, but no good for detecting grit /rocks:oo:, if u can pressure wash at any stage of the process that will help get them clean, with some of those presure washer they will take paint off so that might be worth checking out, probly the better option as far as time taken and outcome

hope it helps and of course we want pics of the process and the final out come:2tsup:

Peter

[soloist]

What sort of "electric planer" are you thinking. The easiest and best job would be done a thicknesser whereas an electric hand planer would be the most difficult.

It's a pity you didn't use a floor sander on it while it was still on the veranda.

Thanks for the response, I've actually toyed with the idea of buying a thicknesser for some time, this will probably give me the excuse to go out and get one. It would have been great to have sanded the jarrah while still on the verandah but as I do this for a job, I think the woman just wanted her new deck and me gone. My initial thoughts were an electric hand planer, but the sniping at either end worries me as I want to preserve the wood as best I can.

[BobL]

My initial thoughts were an electric hand planer, but the sniping at either end worries me as I want to preserve the wood as best I can.

The sniping is the least of your problems, the big problem is getting an even finish and it just takes for ever, I know because I have done it

[orraloon]

I am a fan of the elect handplane for this kind of thing as a set of blades for it is about $20.
A very thin skim to get the paint off in a few passes. With the paint removed and the wood declared nail free then to the thicknesser, jointer or handplanes.
Regards
John

[GraemeCook]

Hi Soloist

I like using salvaged wood and keep an old pair of thicknesser blades specially for this task - there will be nails, grit, etc embedded somewhere in all that paint.

If the tongues and grooves have survived largely intact the challenge is to remove exactly the same amount of timber from the top of each piece so that the tongues and grooves continue to line up. (For this reason, I would not use a jointer)

I usually adopt the following steps:

* Wash timber with Karcher high pressure hose (at 300mm distance so it does no damage)
* Strip off paint - either heat or chemically.
* Using old blades, take 0.5 mm cuts off top surface of all timber until it looks clean.
* If necessary, do same on bottom side of all pieces.
* Replace thicknesser blades and do finish cuts to top surface.
* I rarely do a finishing thicknessing cut to bottom surfaces.

Finished timber is usually 2 or 3 mm or so thinner than original, but the tongues and grooves still align.

Cheers

Graeme

[Geoff Brice]

Make sure you run a metal detector over it before putting it through a planer.
Cheers:;

[DJ’s Timber]

Run an electric hand plane with carbide blades over it first to get rid of the paint and then feed it through a thicknesser to finish it off.