Paint stripping

I’ve been waiting for a warm day to search for the old metal hiding under layers of paint. This old house has heavy steel heating grates, and door hinges and handles and hardware that are also over 100 years old, so you can’t just pop in to Home Depot to grab some replacements. And I quite like the unnecessarily heavy and ornate bits that add some character. So Saturday was the day to strip metal.

As I’ve done a fair number of these over the last decade or two I’ve learned a lot about how to do this. The first two times I did this years ago, I used a caustic and corrosive and nasty paint remover, carefully “painted” it on, followed by a steel brush, then some knife scraping into all the fancy corners, then more paint remover, more steel brush, and so on. Nasty, smelly, glove wearing, mask wearing work.

But now I’m on metal set #7 and it’s slick and smooth. No paint remover, no chemicals. It’s easier, more environmentally friendly, and does a better job. The trick? I cook it!
That’s right, I make a big old pot of metal soup. Well, maybe it’s more of a casserole. I bought a big pan just for this from Value Village, and I boil all the pieces for about 3 hours. The layers of oil paint (and lead?) and latex paint and whatever else was on there all gets loose, and peels off, sometimes in chunks. Then I clamp the piece and go at it with a steel wire wheel connected to my drill. What used to take days now takes only hours.

In the pics below you can see a before picture, two shots of the soup/casserole on the stove, and a picture of the finished product. Take note in the last picture of what I’m holding in my hand. One of the door plates had the whole coating of paint come off in one piece. I fished it out of the boiling water and let it dry in the sun. There was still plenty to brush away with the wire wheel, but it shows how awesome the boiling technique is. I’m delighted to have that part of this project complete.