Sand or strip?

I bought this cute little bookcase at the Morrow sale, and so far I've chewed through one sanding disc and barely made a dent in the cream over RED paint layers, not to mention a good coating of dirt. Should I keep sanding, or resort to paint stripper? I've never stripped before ( ; - ) ), so any recommendations on product/method would be helpful.

I had to sand an old cedar chest once that had multiple layers of different colored paint on it. There is a striping solution you can get at Recardi's or Home Depot that makes the job much easier. Can't remember the name of it, But I am sure they will know. It is kind of stinky and you will need to do it outside. I did mine in my open garage, out of the wind. Turned out beautifully, and manged to do it in one day.

Thanks, emmie. I'm thinking it will end up being easier, if a bit messier. Even power sanding gets tiring after a while, and I won't be able to get the rotary sander into the corners in any case.

I'll take a trip to Home Depot and see what I find.

You won't be sorry, I didn't us a mask, but you might want to pick one up if you are sensitive to strong odors.

Edited for typos

I'd spend a little more time sanding so you can see whether it's worth stripping down to bare wood. I've been disappointed a couple of times to find very poor quality or mismatched varieties of wood under paint. 80 Grit on the Dewalt ro sanders in the background would make very quick work of this. If it looks good, then buy paint stripper.

jasper said:
I bought this cute little bookcase at the Morrow sale, and so far I've chewed through one sanding disc and barely made a dent in the cream over RED paint layers, not to mention a good coating of dirt. Should I keep sanding, or resort to paint stripper? I've never stripped before ( ; - ) ), so any recommendations on product/method would be helpful.

Absolutely no question that you need to strip if you are looking to stain. If just repainting, I'd sand to sound paint and repaint.

I would be careful of the dust, though, that looks like it's been around the block a few times and I wouldn't be surprised if some of those layers are lead paint. Very cute bookshelf, though! Post a picture when you're done :

Zip Strip - you can get it at Riccardi's . It is messy , it smells but it works.

Speaking as someone with a lot of experience in such endeavors, -you are looking at a lot of difficult work there. Especially trying to get the paint cleanly away from all the corners.

Yes, a product like Zip Strip will work but it will be really messy, still difficult and also will burn your skin and eyes if you are not careful.

Personally, I'd probably paint it black and call it a day.

But if you enjoy such a Zen project, -enjoy.

Good ventilation and a heat gun and scraper are also an excellent approach for the bulk paint removal. Then go to the stripper with steel wool and brass brushes. Finally a light sanding.

Thanks for all the input/suggestions. I did wear a mask for the sanding, and I always do this kind of work outside. I just checked the box of sanding discs I have, and they're 100 grit, so maybe that's why I can't make enough of a dent into the thick paint. Last time I went to Home Depot, they didn't even sell these discs anymore, but I see I can order them online, and I'll plan to get a box of 80 grit.

In the meanwhile, I already ordered a quart of Citristrip, so I'll give it a try and see what happens. I have no expectation of finding fine wood underneath all that paint, but I just want to get to a clean enough surface to allow for a decent coat of fresh paint. I would consider staining if I could get all the paint out of the corners, but that may not be realistic. I'll report back when I've made some further progress.

I would try a stripping product and buy one of those little tools that look like a miniature Japanese hoe (with a pointed blade) to get into corners. I stripped an antique packing crate once (it had brass handles and a lock, so it wasn't just for shipping oranges from California ) and I needed the small tools to get into crevices where the hardware used to be since I took off the handles and lock to strip the wood under them. I used an orange stripping goo first, using a spackle knife and smaller pointy tools to get as much off as I could, let it dry thoroughly, then sanded with a coarse grade first, then successively finer grades until it was nice and smooth. Then I stained and put on a coat of semi-glossy poly. Came out looking good.

A heat gun is useful for multiple layers. I was able to clear a lot of the original molding in my home using one.

I tried the Citristrip today. I'm not sure if I didn't put enough on, or if I left too much time between application and scraping (it said to wait 30 minutes, but I got interrupted and it was more like 3 hours), but while the paint peeled off fairly easily in some spots, it was still stuck in other spots, and I was left with a very crumbly, sticky mess wherever it did come off.

I'm going to try reapplying to see if it will work through what's left, and make sure to scrape after about 30 minutes. It's turning out to be more work than I'd hoped, as I believe it might still need a sanding to clean up all the residue, and I'm worried that it will just gum up the sanding disc

try covering with saran wrap/plastic wrap if you think it may need to stay on longer

So I ended up applying a full second coat of the stripper, which helped a lot, but that red paint is beyond tenacious and I decided to do the undersides of the shelves as well, so here's how it stands at the moment, with spot touches of the stripper on the recalcitrant red spots and another full coat on the cream over red undersides.

All I can say is that if I knew how much work this was going to be for this little shelf, I'd never have started, but at this point, I'm determined to finish. For anyone thinking of painting furniture red, be sure you love it, because, like diamonds, red is forever.

Sorry, I forget whether you plan to paint or stain when you are done stripping... If paint, you are almost done... Just sand it smooth. But if you plan to stain, you are very close!

Congrats for persevering!

I think I warned you.

But seriously, after you use the stripper you will also want to use denatured alcohol (available at HD etc) to neutralize the stripper residue or it will continue to affect whatever you put on as a finish (and yes, you will need to sand).

Or give up.

Either way works, but one is much less work. Good luck.

Slow and steady wins the race:

Peggy, I was planning on painting, and while the emerging wood grain makes staining tempting, I don't think I'll ever get it cleaned up enough to make that an option, so I'll likely just paint.

Thanks, steel, for the warnings, advice, and what I hope is some sympathy. ; - )

Somewhere in this mess of cans on a high shelf in our garage behind not one but two enormous kayaks hanging from the rafters may just be a can of denatured alcohol, but the only one whose label I can make out, never mind reach, is a can of acetone. I'll have to enlist Mr. Jasper's help to figure out what we've got up there. Then again, it may just be easier to hop over to Home Depot on one foot.

jasper said:
Peggy, I was planning on painting, and while the emerging wood grain makes staining tempting, I don't think I'll ever get it cleaned up enough to make that an option, so I'll likely just paint.

A nice red would look good.

Well done (said with admiration as well as sympathy).

DaveSchmidt said:
A nice red would look good.

Or maybe I could decoupage it with pieces of the New York Times. ; - )

Well done (said with admiration as well as sympathy).

Thanks.

And a voice from the garage announced that we have denatured alcohol. Saves hopping to Home Depot.

I say decoupage with New Yorker covers!

If you want less grain when you paint, there are products that will make the grain recede. Of course, I can't remember what that is called...

Indeed, New Yorker covers are amazing. I'd almost order the magazine just for the covers, but then I'd feel compelled to read them before recycling and they'd start piling up. Hmm, I could store them on my new little shelf. Oh dear.

I think a couple of coats of paint will cover the wood grain.

Hah. I used to look at the covers, read the cartoons, and put them aside. But they do tend to pile up, and they cut back on cartoons!

Okay, I stripped, I scraped, I wiped, I denatured, I sanded, I wiped, and now I'm priming, but after much shaking and stirring, our who-knows-how-old-it-is can of primer has the consistency of Marshmallow Fluff and it's hard work to spread it thin on the wood. Should Ijust stop now and get a new can?

Yes. You've worked too hard to have it not turn out right because of old primer.

Thanks, sweet, on my way to HD now.

There are local paint stores that sell lead paint test kits. Call me if you need further info.

Don't know if I'm too late, but sand smooth and coat with Zinsser BIN primer before painting. It's a shellac based primer that will seal in anything left over from the stripping process before you put on the top coat.