infrared Speedheater paint remover

[jimj]

I have been searching for a non sanding, non chemical stripper to remove film type decking products eg. Sikkens cetol deck-Intergrain DWD. I have been reading the comments and specs on a reasonably new tool called a Speedheater Infrared heater. They are at www.i-strip.com.au. I am wondering if anyone on the forum has had any experience with this tool. Thanks for any feedback.

[ozwinner]

The thing is called Speedheater.

Sooooo, why does it need a Classic Arm or a Speedheater Tripod Attachment?

Al :confused:

[jimj]

Thanks Al for having a look. I think the arms allow the user to work on vertical surfaces as the unit may take several minutes to free up the product. I guess if you are doing this all day on the side of a building it would just help in reducing fatique from holding it all day. It would also allow you to have it working while you are scraping the section just completed. On decks they wouldn't be needed.

Jim

[soundman]

A mate of mine baught one of these things.

He drags it out to show me... yeh it heats up the paint the paint blisters & you scrape it off.

It didnt strike me as being very fast... shure Its posibly less hasardous to your healt than sanding ..... but hell.... I dont think the pro painters will be buying them any time soon.

You be you will need some sort of stand because you wont hold this thig up with one hand ad scrape he bit youve just heated with the other.
certainly not standing on a plank...

cheers

[durwood]

There are several LPG torches that do this with better results. The old tradesman used to use one of the old blow lamps run off Kero. Burning off is the quickest most successful way to remove paint from wood, especially on normal painted surfaces. It can be hard to do a good job on a clear finish because of the tendency to char the wood slughly requiring extra sanding.

Porta gas works just as good and saves all the mucking about with primus prickers needed for a blow lamp.

I restored a weatherboard house in Sydney and burnt off all the woodwork with a Porta Gas bottle, torch with hoses Just remember to hold the scraper in your writing hand or you will tend to burn your hand whilst trying to scrape with a scraper. You will find a normal paint scraper is easier to use than a triangular scraper like that used in the video.

If you get the heat right the paint will blister up and you can then scrape it off removing all the paint without charring the wood.

Watch out for dry rot or such things as birds nests at the back of areas you are burning off.

The house painters rule always was to clean up and wait about half and hour before leaving for home in case something was smouldering somewhere.

You should be able to do a whole house on one normal gas BBQ bottle of gas. A lot cheaper than paint stripper and a lot less messy. You end up with dry paint you can sweep up.

[soundman]

DO NOT I repeat DO NOT use a naked flame for paint removal on a timber building. The process has been specificaly outlawed in many states as the have been many occurances of house fires from this practise.
Check with your insurance company, I doubt very much that any insurance company will cover fire on a site where this practise is in use.

Half an hour..... Dream on.... all it takes is a tiny ember to catch in fine trash like matter betwwen the boards and helo fire brigade.
Small sources of ignition can smolder for many hours before getting enough heat up and air flow to start a full blown fire.
Then the fire is nicely placed inside the wall cavity where all the nice dry hairy timber is.

The infrar red heater type devices are SUPOSED to not get hot enough to cause ignition, thats why they arent as fast as the old fishtail burner.


If there was a practical and effective alternative to powertool driven abrasives for stripping exterior paint almost all painters would prefer it.
There isn't and they don't so consider that.

cheere

[jimj]

I appreciate the feedback from my original posting however it seems as if the discussion has drifted away from what I am seeking information on. I am trying to find a way to remove film layer coatings ie: Sikkens cetoldeck-Intergrain DWD from exterior timber decking. At the moment I am using Citristrip stripper followed with high pressure 2000psi water blasting. It is very messy and slow. Sanding also has its problems due to the fact that most of the decks are secured down with galvanized dome headed nails. You can't get them down flush with the wood surface and you don't want to sand them as you will take off the galvanising as well as making them look awful. Many boards are often cupped which adds a further complication to the process. Any suggestions on a better way to strip back to bare timber these type coatings with dome headed nails would be greatly accepted.

Thanks

[soundman]

Righto jim, I see that the core of your question is the job at hand.

You will probaly get better effect from whatever stripper if you give the boards a scrub with a stiff wire brush prior to application of the stripper and after the application , prior to blasting.

The prior brushing should remove any finish that is not well bonded & skuff the surface to hasten penetration of the chemical.
The brushing after should assist the blasters efforts.

Water blasters are a great thing but certain types of matter they are less effective on mechanical abrasion plus water blaster should give you a better hit.

Try to get a wire brush like a scrubbing brish with a broom handle if you get me. easise on the back.

What ever you do this one will be an unpleasant and tedious job, its a matter of trying a few things till you find the thing that gets you some acceleration.

Whatvere you find works best, please report back on results

So we can all learn from your mistakes:D

One thing to consider is that the boards will probably be a bit fuzzy and grain lifted after its all said & done. so you might need to use some sort of abrasive once toe timber is dry to deal with this.

cheers

[jimj]

Dear Soundman,

Thanks for your interest in my speedheater-decking coating removing issue. I have been having very good results from initially waterblasting the deck if it isn't coated in a film type coating but with a faded stain type coating. If it is a Sikkens-DWD type I start with the citistrip and remove it and the coating with about 2250 psi on sound hardwood decking. I then lay down a healthy coating of a solution of sodium percarbonate for about 20 minutes. This solution really frees up the dirt on the wood. Manually scrubbing is not that much fun so I use a comercial scrubbing machine that has two cylindrical brushes that can scrub with the grain or across the grain with no damage to the grain. This is very handy as many boards are cupped and the brush can drop into the cup and scrub the board cross grain.The scrubbing machine also can pickup and collect the water and dirt on the surface.It can also scrub over dome headed nails with no damage. I have three differnt degrees of stiffness in brushes to choose from but as the machine is so efficent I can generally get by with the softest bristle.Raised grain is usually a result of too high of water pressure blasting. I can regulate my blaster from 50-3600 psi. After the scrubbing of the sodium percarbonate I follow up with a 50-50% oxalic acid -water wash and scrub. This process is fairly tedious but prepares the wood for recoating and generally makes ordinary looking timber look good and allows the recoating of the decking to come up looking very pleasing. I hope this description makes some sense.

Thanks,

Jim