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Old 27th Jul 2019, 1:34 pm   #1
Nanozeugma
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Default Traditional Paint Stripper.

About a year ago I used up the last of my traditional formula Nitromors to strip a Murphy A104.
Both I, and the cabinet emerged unscathed.
Back to the veneer and cleaned off / neutralised in about an hour.

Now that our masters have decreed that we cannot be trusted with methylene chloride (in case someone decides to paint their face with it and sues?) I can't legally obtain more as I'm not...
Working in an industrial environment and
Haven't sat through a safety course (at cost) and
Haven't got a certificate to prove that I won't attempt to wash my gonads in it.

Is there anything out there that a sentient private user may purchase that actually works within a reasonable timeframe now?
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 3:07 pm   #2
Bazz4CQJ
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

I'm a big fan of Wickes' Paint and Varnish Stripper https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Pain...E&gclsrc=aw.ds and always have a bottle in the garage, but I see from the reviews it's got that no one else seems impressed .

I've had a lot of success with it, though it doesn't work on all paints. There seems to be a trick with it; you have to leave it for some time, but you mustn't leave it so long that it begins to dry out. If it hasn't started to work after 20 minutes, it probably isn't going to.

B
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 4:07 pm   #3
David G4EBT
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanozeugma View Post

Now that our masters have decreed that we cannot be trusted with methylene chloride

Is there anything out there that a sentient private user may purchase that actually works within a reasonable timeframe now?
I can't speak for anything else presently available on the DIY market - I'm down to the last dregs of Paramose Industrial stripper, which is widely available but all the suppliers that I've come across state the regulations that came into being back in 2009 and call for proof that you are a trained professional, as follows:

Quote:

In accordance with the new European Regulations 455/2009/EC this product containing Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride) is FOR PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY - NOT TO BE USED IN PREMISES OTHER THAN INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATIONS (proof will be required).

IMPORTANT NOTICE: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS DICHLOROMETHANE (Methylene Chlorine, DCM) PLEASE CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE PARAMOSE USER FORM BEFORE ORDERING. THESE DETAILS ARE REQUIRED BEFORE YOUR PRODUCTS CAN BE DISPATCHED.

End quote.

I occasionally attend an autojumble on the outskirts of York and despite the regs, occasionally see it on sale here and there. It's vicious stuff and I can understand why they don't want DIYers striping varnish off floorboards or paint off banisters with it. Sensible safety precautions are widely disregarded by those who are bent on proving Darwin's theory of the non-survival of the stupidest.

Paint stripper, creosote, the move away from high VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) in paint and varnish to help save the planet, leading to water based products, sold on the basis that they're odourless and easy brush clean under the tap, and so on it goes.
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 4:22 pm   #4
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

A few years ago we had our internal doors stripped of decades of old paint and varnish by a firm offering this service. If such firms are still around, one of them might do it for you.
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 4:32 pm   #5
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Solid wood only, a radio cabinet should be OK. They're not kind to lesser materials!
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 4:46 pm   #6
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Our doors have 1930's plywood panels, and they survived OK.
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 5:29 pm   #7
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

I think that the door-stripping companies use very concentrated baths of hydroxide for that task, and perhaps they even warm it up too.

I'm sure the moves to discourage the use of VOC's is something that all the industrialised nations have pursued over the last ~30 years. As David has said, it's as much an environmental concern as it is a safety concern, and it was often the State of California which led the way, and not the EU, as some may believe. Personally, I'm happy (perhaps 'content' would be a better word) with that.

B
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 6:26 pm   #8
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Although everyone bemoans the passing of methylene chloride paint strippers I find that the modern stuff is perfectly effective but takes much longer. I've recently stripped two table tops which had been smothered in polyurethane varnish by liberally applying paint stripper, covering with plastic sheet to prevent drying out and leaving overnight.
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 6:44 pm   #9
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Wilkinson's own brand paint stripper works really well in my opinion. It's only £3.50 for 500ML and goes a long way.
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 8:20 pm   #10
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TimLiggins View Post
Although everyone bemoans the passing of methylene chloride paint strippers I find that the modern stuff is perfectly effective but takes much longer. I've recently stripped two table tops which had been smothered in polyurethane varnish by liberally applying paint stripper, covering with plastic sheet to prevent drying out and leaving overnight.
An excellent post - I couldn't agree more

Cheers,
Steve
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 9:14 pm   #11
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Strypit paint stripper gets my vote, powerful stuff
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 9:35 pm   #12
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

I've used some new style nitromors recently and didn't notice any difference in efficiency, smells the same, works the same.
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Old 27th Jul 2019, 10:01 pm   #13
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

You can still buy methylene chloride by the five litre container from umpteen sellers on eBay. It doesn't have the gelling properties of Nitromors, but is better than nowt.

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Old 28th Jul 2019, 4:52 pm   #14
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Quite so, but there are caveats on the sale, such as the buyer being over 18 years old and "qualified to use a product containing Dichloromethane and have passed the competency training". How one proves that, or indeed how the seller judges it to be true is anyone's guess. I am a qualified organic research chemist (retired), but other than showing my birth certificate and degree certificates, I am at a loss.

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Old 28th Jul 2019, 7:35 pm   #15
Craig Sawyers
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Everything is far too "nanny says" these days, in my opinion. It is because the lawyers rule the roost. Instruction manuals for things like pistol drills are 90% warnings about every darned thing you could do to yourself if you were lobotomised. It is nigh impossible to find the two paragraphs of how to use the tool buried in ten pages of warnings.

I well recall books when I was a lad in the 60's on butterfly collecting which said "buy a small amount of cyanide from your local chemist".

Or on copper plating "buy some copper sulphate from your chemist"

I know for certain that my granddad bought strychnine easily for dealing with a mole problem in the garden.

My 1970's Wadkin radial arm saw has absolutely no safety measures, and an instruction manual that assumes you are prepared to take it to bits and fix it. Absolutely no disclaimers, caveats, warnings at all - their starting assumption was that you knew how to use the machine, and not cut your arm off. In fairness in the process of fixing it up I added a zero voltage switch and a dead man footswitch too.

Rant mode off

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Old 28th Jul 2019, 7:48 pm   #16
ColinTheAmpMan1
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

I tend to agree, but the reason is, I think, "ar?e protection". No-one wants the "ambulance chasing" lawyers to come knocking on their door, blaming them for not clearly warning the terminally stupid folk that they shouldn't cut their arm off.
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Old 28th Jul 2019, 8:19 pm   #17
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

There was a report in the papers last week of a train operator receiving a £1m fine because of someone who had been killed by putting his head out of the window when the train was running. Apparently the warning sign was not big enough. What happened to common sense?
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Old 28th Jul 2019, 9:14 pm   #18
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers View Post
Everything is far too "nanny says" these days, in my opinion. It is because the lawyers rule the roost.

My 1970's Wadkin radial arm saw has absolutely no safety measures, and an instruction manual that assumes you are prepared to take it to bits and fix it. Absolutely no disclaimers, caveats, warnings at all - their starting assumption was that you knew how to use the machine, and not cut your arm off. In fairness in the process of fixing it up I added a zero voltage switch and a dead man footswitch too.

Rant mode off
One of the reasons lawyers rule the roost is that years ago in the good old days, Mr or Mrs average Blogs couldn't afford one back then, if they had an "accident" it was often a case of tuff ti*s and if it was little Jonny Blogs he would have just got a slap round the ear and tuff t*ts for him too, these days cheap access to a lawyer for those circumstances is usually no problem for most because we have progressed from the dark days of shoving little boys up the chimney without having to think about paying compensation due to shear neglect.

A bloke I worked with had a Wadkin radial arm saw as did I once, we were Sawyers for years (sawing for a full time living) he must have sawn millions of board ft. during his time, then one day nature did what nature does...conspires....finger gone in a flash...took himself and finger to hospital, couldn't re-unite the two, his prime guitar finger too.

All the footswitch will do is prevent the rest of the claret spurting all over the place from the blade after your finger(s) hand or whatever has succumbed, that's if your not already frozen s**tless and shaking like a leaf from the ordeal.

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Old 29th Jul 2019, 8:24 am   #19
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Can we get back to the subject of availability of traditional paint strippers please.
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Old 29th Jul 2019, 12:56 pm   #20
Bazz4CQJ
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Default Re: Traditional Paint Stripper.

Posts 2, 8, 9, 10 and 12 (and some others to some extent) all suggest that there new strippers available which work well, if perhaps not so well as the "Traditional Strippers".

The the sale of the latter to the public is now illegal. What are the chances that any such material, showing up regularly at car boot sales, has been stolen? Personally, I'm surprised that the availability of such stuff is being discussed on this Forum.

As someone who spent his professional life working with chemicals far more hazardous than methylene chloride, I am quite happy to see it gone.

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