Paint stripper

[Welderpaul]

I remember many years back I used Nitromors & it also bubbled in next to no time & would burn your skin. But this other stuff isn't worth the pain! Might even take it back after only using a little & complain its useless!

Anything you can buy from B&Q and the like is junk now. Made safe for Joe Public.

 

[Ashley Burton]

Anything you can buy from B&Q and the like is junk now. Made safe for Joe Public.

All good & well being safe, But it would be nice if it actually worked! Haha

 

[brightspark]

for god sake are these people for real https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-paint-varnish-stripper-500ml/17091

 

[Welderpaul]

for god sake are these people for real https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-paint-varnish-stripper-500ml/17091

non-methylene chloride
Biodegradable
non-drip
non-flammable
non-caustic formulation

.....doesn't sound too powerful does it?

 

[Ashley Burton]

for god sake are these people for real https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-paint-varnish-stripper-500ml/17091

They can't be using the same product is all I'm saying!

I did buy some of the No Nonsense stuff, But also bought the B&Q stuff as it was cheaper. So taking both back as they are pointless.

 

[Robotstar5]

I've got some of this to try on a painted fuel tank, will have to see how it goes, plenty of warnings on the can so it should work

 

[Ashley Burton]

I've got some of this to try on a painted fuel tank, will have to see how it goes, plenty of warnings on the can so it should work

For that price it best work!

 

[mrsbruce]

Now, this is a subject I CAN talk about. I used to have a paint stripping business, until I decided to semi-retire and start a new business run from home.

All the eco stuff, and shop bought strippers are carp, believe me, I have tried them all. Even Nitromorse should be given a body swerve (over price, weak as dishwater). The stuff you want contains (if my memory serves) dichloromethane. A horrible stuff, but does the job you want.

Go to a proper paint supplier, and buy something like Paramose, and avoid Peelaway, Nitromorse, or other such ilk. You might need to supply a letterhead to buy it.

The amount of dichloromethane in the stripper was greatly reduced, mainly because ordinary people used it at home, with no regards to their health. Also, a number of manufacturers decided to stop making it, as it just wasn’t worth the bother.

Take a look on ebay, as 5 litre tins of Stripqwik(?) sometimes turns up on ebay for under £20 incuding postage.

Just to add, I remember the days when even wearing my marigolds, the stuff was strong enough to react with my hands. Gone are the days of ripping off the gloves to get away from the chemical heat, and I don’t miss them (although I do have a couple of 5litre tins stashed away, just in case).

 

[Onoff]

This thread made me recall a story of my youth! If we were slack at work we would get sent to site to clean and even polish / T-cut the customer's machinery as a PR thing. We used white spirit for pretty much everything to do with cleaning or degreasing. I arrived on site one day to clean 3 roof cleaning rigs made from 5"x3" aluminium I beam. They were painted Paris Blue I remember. I nipped round to the local Robert Dyas to find they were out of white spirit. Saying I wanted something for degreasing the assistant pointed me at Mr Muscle Foaming Oven Cleaner. Equipped with 3 tins of the stuff I when back to site and used pretty much a can on each machine. It was lunchtime so I grabbed some grub for an hour. When I came back each machine was a mass of blue tinged foam. It had taken the paint off back to the aluminium!

After washing it all off I went to see the client and told him as I'd started cleaning the paint was just falling off... so I took it right back. The bloke came to look and was OVER THE MOON! These things had come up shinier than a shiny thing. I explained they couldn't unfortunately stay like that or the ali would oxidize. On the back of it we got the job to repaint all three.

I do not miss the Xylene induced headaches, lack of COSHH & PPE of those days!

I wonder if Mr Muscle still removes paint?

 

[mrsbruce]

Nitromors sold in the last couple of decades is identical to the screwfix/b&q/toolstation/pound shop stuff.

The old formula (before it got 'new and improved') was good and actually stripped paint of pretty much any sort, including leaded. Don't know if you're old enough to remember that though

It's a pain that dcm based stripper is either hard to get or expensive now.

Ok, it'll do you no good in a sandwich - but surely it's better than aspirated particles from mechanical removal (even with appropriate precautions for each). It doesn't fly all over the place and affect others for a start, and cleanup is/was far easier.

One of my customers phoned her mum to tell her that I had confirmed that her staircase was painted using lead paint. Her mum replied “what are you worried about, when you were a child, all your toys had lead paint on them, and you happily chewed on them without killing yourself”.

As to scraping paint off wood, I’d see these guys dressed in their full noddy suits, scraping the paint off doorways. All fine and well, but the customer then had to live in the house, with all that stuff, which is impossible to completely hoover up.

The paint chip dust would still be in landing on surfaces months later.

 

[mrsbruce]

As I used to tell my customers, the chemical smells, but once I finish for the day, the room soon airs.

Scraping also loses the detail on ogee frames and stair spindles. It also makes it a pain to get a proper wax finish on the wood, as the scraping upsets the grain.

Yes, the same applies to scraping paint off metal, more danger in breathing in paint dust ages after completing the job, than using a good chemical stripper in a well ventilated room.

Problem with paint stripping was that there were so many cowboys who thought it was a cushy number stripping the wood in Victorian houses. They’d last a year, maybe two, then give it up, and many a time I was called in to try and fix their messes.

 

[MCKDAVID]

"....Her mum replied “what are you worried about, when you were a child, all your toys had lead paint on them, and you happily chewed on them without killing yourself”.


Very true and a very rare attitude these days, everyone's usually out to find someone to sue and win the easy money. "the always someone else's fault" culture we live in..

 

[jordan1]

Methylene Chloride works every time for me, use it outside though fumes can be unhealthy.

 

[tlovatt]

DCM has been banned in all domestically sold paint stripper for some time now under EU REACH regulations - you can still buy neat DCM and a number of engine cleaners are still the same formulation as old paint stripper, or if you can qualify as an industrial user you can buy the old formulas with DCM still in.

 

[mrsbruce]

If I remember, it was a woman from England who fought to get the stuff banned. Someone gave her an award for her tireless campaign.

 

[jordan1]

If I remember, it was a woman from England who fought to get the stuff banned. Someone gave her an award for her tireless campaign.

I could think of a suitable award

 

[Burdekin]

DCM has been banned in all domestically sold paint stripper for some time now under EU REACH regulations - you can still buy neat DCM and a number of engine cleaners are still the same formulation as old paint stripper, or if you can qualify as an industrial user you can buy the old formulas with DCM still in.

You can buy it online with DCM in it.

 

[keithski122]

I just bought some starchem paintstripper with no problems.Its working well on my 1930's wooden door frames.This is what is says on the instruction sheet:-
Ingredients
%
Dichloromethane
90 to 95

 

[mrsbruce]

It’s the percentage that dropped on the industrial stuff. Dropping it to just below the original percentage apparently saved a lot of hassle for the manufacturers (so one told me), but dropped the effectiveness quite dramatically.

 

[droopsnoot]

I've heard good reports about the Starchem stuff. I've also heard that a simple fix for those of us that might have bought a gallon can of paintstripper because it looked like a bargain, without considering that there might be a reason for that, is to buy some Dichloromethane (which apparently isn't too difficult) and add it back in. I haven't tried it yet, as I haven't had anything that needed stripping.