Thread: Cleaning up reclaimed timber.

The workshop buzzer would be faster but paint can be hard on knives. There may be nail heads hidden under the paint too.
Use a good mask as old paint may be lead based.
A big belt sander would be good but make a lot more dust

Yeah the lining boards are a ship lapped pattern and I've slowly been de nailing and dressing on the tablesaw, finishing up with about 75 x 22mm, I thought the same thing about it being hard on the buzzer blades. I do have a belt sander but thought it'd be to slow and haphazard?

Originally Posted by Ando967

, I thought the same thing about it being hard on the buzzer blades. I do have a belt sander but thought it'd be to slow and haphazard?

welcome to the REAL world of recycling

It will kill the buzzer blades and stop working before your finished , same with a hand plane , same with sand paper. The only way is to strip the paint off first. Heat gun and scrape ,then a stripping soloution or dip it . or pay some one to strip it . A high pressure cleaner might take it off but they can chew up wood as well.

I've used an electric hand planer to skim off the paint layer. Mine is a cheapy and has those replaceable tungsten carbide blades. I bought a card of spares for replacements but so far I'm still on the originals and I've done a lot of metres of both hard and softwoods (Ironbark and Oregon).

Hmmm might go down the leccy plane road and maybe see how the belt sander goes, the joiners might be a bit when they go to use the buzzer again!

couple of goes with paint stripper then through the thicknesser

I've never understood why people try to sand off paint? Go the paint stripper!!. you may find that's all it needs .

If this was old timber it was prolly painted straight over shellac and the paint wont have penetrated the grain. if you sand it off or use a thiknesser you'll probably make more work for yourself getting back a perfectly prepared surface. my 2c

Apart from the wear and tear issues, my problem with the thichnesser is how much material you will loose.

If you don't mind the paint stripper, that is a go.

As for the belt sander........don't dis the belt sander.....a well tuned belt sander can be a very good thing capable of fine work......the problem is most people only see belt sanders used as butchery tools and don't know how to tune them.

Get the platten properly flat, a graphite slip cloth, a good quality belt and hooked up to dust extraction and they can do quite fine delicate work, an excelent choice for working on boards.

cheers

I also use the Electric plane to remove paint and find hidden nails. Still on origional blades after about 5 years

Originally Posted by astrid

I've never understood why people try to sand off paint? Go the paint stripper!!. you may find that's all it needs .

I think it is a matter of horses for courses. In my case I have used the planer on painted rough sawn timber that was going to be further resawn to get final material. It is also very quick.

I have always found paint stripper too messy and irritating on anything large. If I need to preserve size and final shape and am willing to invest the time, I have found stripping with a heat gun is easier. An electric heat gun will be less likely to burn but a gas gun is quicker.

Also if stripping I find it incredibly easier if I sharpen the scraper occasionally.

A hand held electric plane will do a good job of geting the paint off. Use some dust extraction and ware a mask. Look at the reverse side of the board to get an idea of where nails may be and punch out as required. The replacement blades are not too expensive but I have found they usually last for years. My electric plane is mostly used to clean up old timber.
Regards
John

Ran the first 3 up this arvo with the planer and it came up a treat, set it to about 0.5mm and gave it a nice slow pass, needed a follow up to remove some ingrained paint. Thanks for the tips all. I'm not a big fan of stripper after I restored and old captains chair with it, a few pieces of sand paper and two weeks of spare time! it has its place but I'd rather exhaust other options first!