Renovating an oak cupboard

I thought James' post re finish on oak was going to answer my question but, although similar, mine is somewhat different hence the new post.

The previous owners of my house PAINTED a large hall cupboard (alternate layers of solvent and water based paints just to make to removal job hard). As I expected, underneath was some beautiful hard wood looking very much like oak which matched the rest of the timber in the house.

Unfortunately, the paint has got into the pores and, although the stripper softens it, the paint scraper obviously won't get it out.

Does anyone have any smart (sensible) suggestions or do I get out the old sand paper block and start sweating?


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Badger - A gruff short tempered animal that sleeps most of the winter

G'day Badger

Aint paint in the grain a bitch! Especially white paint in cedar *groan*

My methods in removing the paint usually involves scrubbing with a brass bristle brush whilst the paint is still soft & then using a high pressure washer to blast the rest of it out.

Another method is to strip all the surface paint off, wait till it's dry & then coat the piece with a layer of shellac. Let it dry for a day then strip it again. The paint in the grain sticks to the shellac & pulls out.

Have had good success in the past on oak and cedar (usually the 2 main ones to come in for lots of coats of paint) with this method.

After the final scraping apply another coat of stripper and cover with foil or cling wrap to stop it drying out. Leave it for at least 10 - 15 minutes longer if possible. Get a bucket of almost boiling water and shave some pure soap into it (velvet or similar laundry soap) using a vegetable grater or knife to make thin slivers that will disolve easily. About a couple of big tablespoons to a bucket of water. Stir until disolved.

Peel the cling wrap or foil off the stripper then scrub the stripped surface down with the hot soapy water using a good strong bristled scrubbing brush. The soapy water will fizz and carry on a real treat but should remove pretty well all the old paint from on the pores of the wood.

Use rubber gloves and eye protection. Don't breathe the fumes and under no circumstances inhale the fumes through a cigarette. In fact don't bloody smoke, it's not good for ya. https://www.ubeaut.biz/fireface.gif

Wipe the whole thing down ASAP to dry it off and when dry go over the whole surface with metho and a medium to course grade steel wool to help remove any stubborn bits and clean up the surface ready for sanding. Often after a few days when completely dry it may be possible to brush out any paint that has stubornly clung to the surface using the same brush.

This method works really well on turned legs and all work that is hard to get a scraper too.

This method works because the lye in the soap sets up some sort of chemical reaction with the stripper and makes it work better. No idea how or what exactly happens, but it certainly does the job.

Hope this helps a little.

Cheers - Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

Thanks for the advice folks.

The cupboard is built in so I think I'll give the high pressure hose method a miss. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gifBut I'll keep it in mind. Think I'd better mask more of the walls too if I'm going to cut lose with a scrubbing brush.

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Badger - A gruff short tempered animal that sleeps most of the winter

Some time ago, I read about removing paint from oak using a stripper and then removing it from the grain by applying a thin coat of shellac. Remove the shellac by stripping it with alcohol. I tried it and seemed to get good results. However, that was back in the 70's and I'm not sure if my memory of what I did is right. Anyone tried this?

Bob