Varnish/paint stripper.

[Geoff 555]

Hi all. Decided for the first time to strip a cabinet on which the varnish was bad. Went to the local D I Y shop and went to get a can Of Nitromors which was the only stuff I had heard of but was aware that it was or could be pretty nasty stuff. Found something else which was labeled 'Homestrip' ( www.homestrip.co.uk) which is non toxic, and does not burn your favorite jeans, hands, cat, etc. and gosh does it work. Brush on leave for an hour and the varnish just comes off with a wipe Oh and the smell is not too bad.
I found it great.
Cheers.
Geoff.

[HamishBoxer]

Thank You.

[KB-KR20]

Thanks Geoff,

I bought some yesterday and tried it today. It is excellent.

Mick

[Geoff 555]

Thank you for your kind comments Gentlemen, it is most appreciated, I am glad it was of use.
Cheers.
Geoff.

[fetteler]

Since reading this thread I've been out and bought a tub of this stuff after checking out the manufacturer's website. We're going to be testing it soon on some doors and frames with very old paint (200+ years) on....

I have high hopes and will report back.

Steve.

[FERNSEH]

Thanks for imforming us about this product. you can guess after what happened to me I'm taking no chances with funny chemicals.
I remember that one whiff of Nitromors would make me feeling quite ill, even when using the stuff outdoors.

DFWB.

[HamishBoxer]

Never forget,we are surrounded by toxins these days from soap to shaving cream etc.

[Silicon]

Can I use it on aluminium?

Some water based strippers use caustic soda.

[fetteler]

According to the manufacturers it can safely be used on aluminium and other soft metals as well as ferrous metals, I contacted them and asked just this question.

Steve.

[Bazz4CQJ]

When you go to the Homestrip website it tells you that they have a Trade product called....Tradestrip! And because that is an industrial chemical there must be a Materials Safety Data Sheet for it and Mr Google provides that. Tradestrip appears to be an aqueous solution of triethylphosphate. Seems like that is well known as an intermediate material in chemical manufacturing but this looks like the first domestic application. Few will be sorry to see the back of Nitromors!

[david3006]

Stuff I find useful is 'Sticky stuff remover' sold by Betterwear (you know, the door to door people).

It is primarily to get off the adhesive left when you remove the label from a jar, but I find it works well to clean off any kind of sticky gunge, including felt pen markings. I have not managed to melt any plastic with it yet.
Stuff to beware of is the equivalent made by HG ( who do make some good cleaning stuff) which takes paint off white goods and melts some plastics.

David

[fetteler]

Since first posting I've got a big tub of Tradestrip and have been trying it out on various finishes and materials. So far so good. It likes to be kept moist for an hour or so, the longer the better, so I've used cling film or plastic bags to stop it drying out. The results are excellent on:
Wood - layers of paint going back in time from 1970's to 1720's! needs several applications as the various layers come off...
Cellulose on steel - no problem.
Domestic paint and cellulose on aluminium - no problem but slight milkiness seen on the bare aluminium afterwards, cleaned up well by rubbing with brasso.

No odour, water soluble, no horrid dermatitis.

Full marks and highly recommended.

Oh, I tried polyurethane varnish on wood too -great!

Cheers,
Steve.

[Bazz4CQJ]

As I'm down to my last 100ml of the old Notromors, I decided to go find some of the Homestrip reported in this thread. None of my local stores stocked it (we don't have a local B&Q) but I stumbled upon some paint stripper in Wilko's (their own brand), so bought that. It has proved to be very good; its been taking about 4 hours to work fully on the stuff I've tried so far, but worth the wait. It's based on benzyl alcohol, and seems to be pretty safe. Although "hazardous by inhalation", the boiling point is ~200'C, so not much vapour at room temperature (I can't smell anything). It comes as a white paste, rather like UVP adhesive, so brushes on and does not run. Very satisfactory .

[Radio Wrangler]

The test of a good paint stripper has to include the ability to paint the denuded item afterwards So I'll wait for the final score

David

[Bazz4CQJ]

...'denuded'.... A term seldom heard in Yorkshire!

Heard on Laurie Taylor's programme last night, "Perhaps you could unpack that phrase for me?"

[fetteler]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

The test of a good paint stripper has to include the ability to paint the denuded item afterwards So I'll wait for the final score

David

I can report that repainting after stripping with 'Homestrip' has been perfect.
The project was a steel turntable top plate and the refinish was with acrylic spray cans. After stripping, the steel chassis was thoroughly cleaned with detergent using a Scotchbrite pad then rinsed extra carefully in water, scrubbing with the same Scotchbrite and then dried.

All good. This is the stuff for me from now on.

Cheers,
Steve.

[Diabolical Artificer]

The modern Nitromors no longer burns your skin etc and is not as powerful as it once was. I've just bought a can off the interweb as I couldn't get it in my local town.

Thanks for the heads up on Homestrip.

Andy.

[Boom]

I think the Nitromors we all know, love and have burnt ourselves with is fast coming to an end for environmental reasons.

The latest stripper I bought was one called Enviromoose. It's a modern caustic one which takes its time but strips everything in sight. I had to leave a gramophone horn soaking for 12 hours to totally remove the paint. Strangely - unlike Nitromors - this stripper doesn't set which certainly makes life easier.