Heard today on the news that Sherwin-Williams will no longer be selling methylene chloride paint stripper.   It's also in danger of being completely removed from the market by the feds.

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/flexner-on-finishing-woodworking-blogs/methylene-chloride-proposed-ban-misguided-policy

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/jun17/flexner-finishing-epa-paint-strippers

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/alternative-paint-strippers

 

 

I can’t believe a division of our government would abuse its power and make uninformed decisions- NOT!!!

That particular division makes some really bassackward policies.  

circumvent...

 

Equal parts of acetone, methanol (wood alcohol), methylene chloride and tolulene....

48 minutes ago, Stick486 said:

circumvent...

 

Equal parts of acetone, methanol (wood alcohol), methylene chloride and tolulene....

What would make it thick, though?

1 hour ago, Gene Howe said:

What would make it thick, though?

beeswax....

Hydroxy ethyl cellulose...

Solvitex....

 

2 hours ago, Stick486 said:

circumvent...

 

Equal parts of acetone, methanol (wood alcohol), methylene chloride and tolulene....

Known as an ATM stripper (Acetone, Toluene, Methanol)

Gene the very best stripper was the thin type. I will have people argue with me but that is the ones that never used it ever day like we did.. I had a vat built out of stainless steel.  It was only like 2 inches deep but was big enough to sit things in to start brushing the stripper on and keep on till all the paint ran in to the tank...continually brushing more stripper on  This was not hard work at all just had to have lots of ventilation.

  We use no scrapers on flat areas. Using scrapers would just make marks and gouges that would have to be attended to later. Once the lacquer or paint was off, and while it was still damp with the remover, we used 0000 steel and lacquer thinner to dry the complete piece and make sure  all the protruding joints that had crevices and edges were cleaned of the old finish.. Within a short while the piece was ready to start regluing if need be and sanding getting ready for the new finish.

  99% of everything we refinished had lacquer on for the original finish. But the varnish was just as easy to strip as the lacquer...Only the sure nuff old antiques had varnish and was usually checked down to the wood and easy to remove.All the furniture back then had much thicker veneer so one would not sand in to the next layer unless he didn't know what he was doing....I did watch the new guys at first to make sure they did have some experience and not just say they did.......Yes some did say they had experience even though some kinda lied kinda.. 

  Lots of early american style back then so that meant lots of turned items. If it was too long to lay in the vat just lay it partly in the vat and start brushing the stripper on and once you knew that portion was stripped , run the lacquer thinner filled steel wool around the rungs and it would start drying as your turned it...then move it down and repeat the process till all was stripped...

  Also if we knew the piece had to be reglued like say a wood dining chair, it was knocked down completely and laid in the vat and rolled back and forth and it about 5 to 10 minutes it was completely stripped ready to be dried with lacquer thinner and steel wool.. No chairs back then had brads shot through the rungs like todays stuff..

  I bought lacquer thinner 54 gallons at a time. Remove the plugs, screwed in the faucet that had a long pipe attached that went to the bottom of the barrel and the air nozzle to pressurize the barrel was screwed in to the other hole the plug came out of...Actually I still have those two very important items stored away someplace.. Those items saved lots of floor space for we use to set the the barrel up on a stand horizontal and just let gravity do it thing.. but weighting about 432 lbs to be exact, it usually took more than my helper to get it up there and she was going to nursing school back then so wasn't always available...

   So if someone tries to tell you how to strip furniture and starts off by mentioning the thick remover, they haven't been there and done that and is just passing more of that hear say which by the way is coming on way too often... 

   Thinner was 90 cents a gallon 54 gal at a time. and Naphtha or Kerosene at the gas stations was 14 cents a gallon.  This is what I used in the parts washer... Metal parts!!   I think gas stations quit selling these products years ago... for your lanterns and lamps!!! 

 

Thanks, Stick and Jesse.

We don't do much stripping. It's only for ourselves. But, it's nice to know there's alternatives to the weak stuff.

I believe Bob Flexner knows more about methylene chloride strippers than the idiots at the EPA. 

1 hour ago, It Was Al B said:

I believe Bob Flexner knows more about methylene chloride strippers than the idiots at the EPA. 

And that makes any difference?

 

When I first started doing income taxes for myself (after 5 years of logic and math theory), I kept getting frustrated, because things just seemed to not make any rational sense and be logically consistent.   I came to the conclusion, "It does not need to be logical, it's just the way it is."    Apologies to Mr. Spock.

 

 

46 minutes ago, kmealy said:

And that makes any difference ?

 No it doesn't, unfortunately ! 

46 minutes ago, kmealy said: