Sanding a painted jarrah door

[Complete Novice]

Hi everyone!
This is my first post so be nice ok?
I've acquired a beautiful old jarrah front door for my little townhouse and need help bringing her back to life.
At first it was painted green (shocking!!) and I've removed most of that with a paint stripper. I've got a lot of the undercoat off with my little Mouse Sander, but DAMN it's taken a while!!
The door also has 5 glass panels, which is very nice. Problem is I can't get the paint off the little wooden bits holding the glass in, without risking scratching the glass....
Can anyone please help me? Is there any easier way of sanding the bugger, and how would I go about sanding the little bits holding the glass upright? Also, it's got small sections of white wood filler in it where the previous door handle has been, which will show when I eventually stain it. Any suggestions?
(Sorry, told you I was a novice!!)
Thankyou!!!
Matt

[miked]

Hi Matt,

I had a very similar problem to you when I restored and french polished an old side board a couple of months ago. The way I eventually stripped the small battons of wood around the window glass, was to use steel wool (000 grade) soaked in a bit of turps. It took a while, but it worked and didn't damage the glass.
As for the coloured wood filler, I ended up removing it to just below the surface and refilling the holes with a colour matched filler. Maybe someone else on the board has some better (easier) ideas.
I hope this helps and good luck with your project.

Mike

[bitingmidge]

Commercial stripping companies sometimes use high pressure water to remove the gunk, if you try it, I think it would pay to remove the glass first!

The water blast can damage the surface as well, usually making it a bit furry as it lifts the grain around weathered timber, but I haven't seen any damage which could not be fixed with a relatively light sanding.

Cheers,

P

[wombat47]

If the hole where the previous door handle was is still standing out like the proverbial after following the excellent advice given above, you might consider adding a finger plate to cover it.

[nt900]

Finger plates are a good idea, I used them in my own place. But would drilling out the filler (thus removing it from both sides) and making jarrah plugs for both sides help?

If you don't already have some, plug cuttets can be obtained from all woodworking stores, and even the B place.

[vsquizz]

Welcome Matt, the B place is Bunnings if you didn't pick that one up.

There is another way and that is grit blasting believe it or not. They use glass or garnet (very very fine) in blasting cabinets and it works magnificently. You'll have to search the yellow pages and the glass will have to come out, which I think would be a good thing anyway as you can re-trim/bead the glass. It can be worth it.

Otherwise stick with the paint stripper, scrapers followed by steel wool and metho (not turps). Using a sander whilst hard paint is still present will end up with timber being removed in some areas possibly damaging the door. BY all means use a sander when the top coats are off.

BTW, depending on how old the door is some of the paint may contains some fairly undesirable substances so a dust mask is probably the minimum PPE.


Cheers

[simon c]

I think a few may be missing Matt's point. Matt is asking about how to sand the wood that holds the glass in without damaging the glass. Most of our replies require him to remove the glass. It may be that Matt hasn't considered that removing the glass and sanding the beads or re-beading is his best option, or believes it may be too advanced for a novice.

Simon

[nt900]

Matt, have a look at the Festool Duplex linear sander. Rather than orbit, it moves in a single axis, forward and back. Not just for this job, but for many other renovation jobs, it is an excellent tool, where sanding items cannot be removed. The tool allows you to use profile pads, and even allows you to build custom profiles, then you can just run along your work piece profile without much other effort or risk of running off line and into nearby surfaces, like the glass you don't want to scratch.

Having said that, your profile may be still to small and delicate for power sanding or smallest radius that can be achieved with the custom profile on the Duplex. Also, most people consider Festool equipment as expensive. depending on how much other work you have to do in the future, this may be an option. Or if this is your only sanding job coming up, spending approx $500+ on a sander for this only job is a silly idea and I am sorry I mentioned it for you.

Now, my money where my mouth is. I have one of these sanders, and it has saved hundreds of hours worth of sanding, but I am today going to attempt to challenge the tool my making the smallest profile it may be able to achieve, to sand the bead profile of in-situ baltic lining boards. If successful, I may get a chance to post an image of how it looks and the end results.