Sometimes I buy tools to do jobs that I hate doing, then I find out that the job wasn't so bad after all when I had the right tool. The feature tool for his issue is something called the "Silent Paint Remover" (SPR). Around our house the paint stripper is my wife, and depending on the project she is working on, she is anything but silent, so this tool intrigued me .... a lot! This tool incorporated a new technology, Infrared, that I wanted to know more about.

The idea behind the SPR is that in order to remove old paint from surfaces it needs to be modified in some way that makes it malleable and therefore easy to scrape off. Anyone who has scraped paint of old furniture will understand that the words "easy" and "remove paint" are seldom used in the same sentence. Removing paint from old wooden objects can be real tough. .

The SPR uses a newer technology, Infrared heat, to warm the paint up, making it much easier to remove than traditional methods. I know a bit about Infrared as one of the heaters in my workshop uses this same technology. It produces a very even heat that is almost like the heat given off by the element on an electric stove. If heat can be called "soft" that is what Infrared heat is like. It is much harder to burn anything with Infrared heat which is why it is such and ideal element for removing paint.

The problems of removing old paint are many and the first one is safety. Traditionally the instrument used to strip paint is a heat gun, which works like a hair dryer on 'extra-burn'. It is easy to burn the paint, scorch the wood, burn your hands and more (I know all this first hand). Fire is always a concern with heat guns and they can ignite chips of paint and wood. The second problem is dust and particles being blown off with the heat gun as you scrape. If you are working with paint that has lead in it, this can be extremely dangerous, especially around children and should be avoided at ALL costs. The problem is, most people have no idea which paints contain lead. The other alternative to removing paint is one of chemical removers. I don't know about you but my luck with these is less than with the heat gun and I am always offended by the smell and just working with such a caustic solution.

The Silent Paint Remover solves all these problems by introducing a more efficient method of removing paint and cleaning up after, but the greatest asset to this tool is that it makes the tedious job of removing paint far more bearable ... even enjoyable. The fact that it is environmentally friendly, inexpensive to operate and silent are just bonuses to getting the job done right.

Silent Paint Remover available here ... 

Copyright Colin Knecht - woodworkweb.com