Painting timber framed windows

We have a 50 year old house with timber double hung windows. The external paint is badly flaked, and old coats of lead based paint are now exposed and degrading. The paint has degraded in places to the point where the lead paint cannot be 'painted in'. Professional painters don't seem interested in quoting for the re-painting job. We are looking at doing this work ourselves, but we are extra cautious about sanding and re-painting because we have young children in the house. I would welcome any comments about the risks involved, and ways of reducing the risk.

PP

http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/mao/leadbasedpaint.htm

One option would be to pull the window(s) out and send them to a place that does chemical paint removal. You'd probably be up for abour $50-80/window. If the glass is held in with putty, then this would need to be re-done. Otherwise use paint stripper and do it yourself but it will take ages. Don't use a heatgun or sandpaper.

Hay Stix, (get it..sorry)
Remove them and screw, press or nail something in the hole while you do the windows. You can get 'em dipped, or as I do, put a suitable mask on (any mask really..it's not as if you do this all the time) and hit the windows with an electric planer. (just enough to get the paint off) Within minutes you will have all the large surfaces done. The rest can be done with a Sandvik scaper. (the ones with the little triangle bit)

Finish sanding with whatever you sand with and paint them. Another advantage of painting them this way, is you can place them on a table at the right height and not stress the body out. (it can be done with beer in hand)

While the windows are out you can clean the frame too. If there is thick old paint in the corners use a sharp chisel to remove.
Preparation..preparation. Do it well now and you can relax for a long time.

Onya,
conwood

Thankyou for the ideas - I hadn't considered taking the windows out. I will have a look at this, although the frames will still need to be done, and I am still concerned about containing the lead based paint.

I did my whole house by taking the windows out. I personally think that the electric planer is a bit extreme - a good quality scraper will remove the loose paint - what won't come off with a tungsten scraper may as well stay on, esp. if it is lead based. Hint - if the screws holding the hinges on are difficult to remove, heat the heads with a hot air gun. This warms the screw shaft and loosens them nicely.

Thanks to all, we may still take the windows out to get them stripped professionally, but my wife has volunteered to do the preparation and painting of the frames - she thinks I can't afford to lose any brain cells to lead poisoning.