Thread: We found a workshop...uh, I mean house!

Storage - what a waste, I'm sure you'll make far better use of it!

Good find should make a very good man cave. Sorry house
The bathroom part can be a godsend as you can use that instead of tramping shavings through the house.

Are you able to use paint stripper to remove the bulk of the paint.

Is the beam rough sawn or dressed, if rough sawn the belt sander is a good option or an angle grinder with a sanding disc.
If dressed then the paint striper and then sander with a vacum should do the job.

Either way it is going to be messy.

I know that I am not the only person that looks at a house and considers the garage before looking at the house.

It is something that had evolved since I was about 8 years old.

Good tips Jim. I think they're solid beams. The paint is pretty thick though. The one in the master bedroom is not painted, but is pretty high up. I'll have to climb up there an confirm. I like the angle grinder/sanding disc idea. That would make getting into the tight spots a lot easier than with a belt sander.

Christos, we eliminated several nice houses that didn't have any shop options. My lovely bride is very patient with me!

G'day mnpete,

It would be worth trying a hot air gun to remove the paint from the beams. It does make a bit of mess but it's quick and you don't have to deal with nasty chemicals in the paint stripper. Once the paint is off a light sanding should be enough.
Congratulations on the new workshop, oh yes, and the house too.

A bathroom next to the shop would be great for when you just have to go (and the clothes are covered in dust and shavings). Just having running water and a sink is great to not only wash your hands but also brushes and other items.

Be careful, you could make many a person jealous.

I've used a citrus based stripper to strip 100 year old paint off the inside of the house and it worked really well without any nasty chemicals. Still needed some sanding afterwards though. I've also used a sanding disc on the angle grinder on the outside of the house and it's certainly effective but very messy. It also has a tendancy to leave circular marks in the wood as it's very difficult to prevent it digging into the timber. Lots of wooden houses here have characteristic patterns from having paint sanded off with a grinder. Maybe if you could do most of the sanding before you moved in the dust would be easier to deal with.

We've got some painting we'd like to do as well, so we arranged to have our household goods delivered about 2 weeks after we close on the house. The previous owners really liked stenciled wall paintings.

That'll give me some time to take a crack at those beams. There are some stairs on the back deck that need some attention too.

Looks like I'll be busy with house projects for a while before getting after some real woodworking!

could be a good excuse to go the festool route as their sanding systems are pretty much dustless have used the rotex150 to remove years of paint off timber beams with very little dust

fubar...you are a genius my brother! Going to the Festool site now to build my case!