Sanding Painted Doors????

[Ken Massingale]

I have an appt. tomorrow to look at 27 'old historic' doors that the customer needs sanded to be paint ready.
Knowing there may well be lead issues and that it's important that the wood not be damaged, I'm asking what may be the best tools/method to approach this? I have a good variety of sanders, are there tools intended for this that I'm not aware of?
Thanks for any advice.
ken

 

[McRabbet]

Ken -- by all means, you must wear a good dust mask while you sand anything, but especially old paint. I have a good fase mask that I wear whenever sanding and usually connect my sander to my Shop Vac to capture the dust. The picture below shows the mask I use (it is from Grizzly for $19.95, it is their Part Number G7870 and you can get both spare dust filters and volatile organic filters for it).

Another thing I have is one of the ClearVue Mini CV06 Shop Vac Cyclones (shown mid-way down this page) that sits between my ROS and my ShopVac atop a 5-gallon drywall compound bucket -- it is very efficient and separates out 99% of the dust before it gets to the Vac canister. I still would use a HEPA filter on your Vac to capture any fines.

You may also want to consider some of the chemical paint strippers, but they are messy and still require lots of hand scraping. HTH

 

[tmerrill]

Ken,

If the doors are in relatively good shape, then sanding using the method and precautions that Rob describes is probably the way to go.

But I'm thinking that old historic doors probably means a lot of worn and chipped areas, as well as intricate designs and trim. If so, here is another thought:

If there are any antique/restoration shops in your area that have a dip tank, you might consider getting a quote from them to just dip and strip the bulk of the finish. Then you can do the more labor intensive detail work and prepare them for painting. They should be able to give you an idea on how much of your time it will take per door after they get the majority off.

Tim

 

[Nativespec]

You could try stripper, but it does not work well with lead paint (lead paint holds extremely well), but it will take off the latex. I would also use a good carbide scraper and then finish with sanding. Heat guns and puddy knives will also work, but I am not sure if this is a good idea with lead paint.

david

 

[Travis Porter]

Ditto on Dave's suggestion on the scrapers. You can get some with different shapes to make it easier to clean up moldings.

Also, totally agree with the sanding precautions. A hepa filter and mask is the way to go. If you know someone at a state facility or university campus you may be able to use one of their dipping tanks. They work extremely well, but they could have the adverse effect of weakening any glue joints.

 

[Ken Massingale]

Thanks Rob, Tim, David and Travis.

 

[Ray Martin]

Ken,

If there are any antique/restoration shops in your area that have a dip tank, you might consider getting a quote from them to just dip and strip ...

Tim

Be sure to ask what kind of strip they do. Some of these kinds of treatments can have a significantly deleterious effect on glue and glued joints.

Ray