This isn’t so much about the project, but the product that I used and was very pleased with.
I have a lamp base made by my grandfather. It’s oak that he had turned on a lathe and then finished with lacquer. I didn’t like the way the lacquer yellowed so I regrettably sprayed it with a textured granite paint years ago. Researching on the internet told me that type of paint is extremely difficult to remove. I haven’t used paint stripper or remover for quite a few years so I had no idea what to try. I really wanted the texture of the granite paint off the lamp base so I would be down to wood grain again. I dreaded the job. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get the granite paint off and I had no expectation of getting the thick layer of old lacquer off.
After perusing the options at Lowe’s I decided on a can of spray since this was a fairly small job – Crown Tuff-Strip. It’s described as a heavy duty stripper that clings well to vertical surfaces.
How it worked
I took the lamp base and the spray stripper outside so I wouldn’t breathe the fumes. I had purchased chemical resistant gloves to protect my hands. I put the lamp on a piece of cardboard and sprayed one side of the lamp.
The directions said to use a putty knife to scrape the melted paint off. Because of the curves I was going to end up gouging the wood more than removing the paint. I had a bag of steel wool and switched to using it to wipe the melted paint off. The can said to wait 5-10 minutes after applying the stripper. Closer to five worked best — at 10 the paint was starting to re-solidify. It also worked better doing small areas.
The paint wiped off amazingly easily, but the process is tedious. Spray the stripper, find something to do for a few minutes, wipe off the section, repeat, and repeat. It took a while but when the paint was off I realized only a couple small patches of lacquer remained, so I worked on them and got them off. The entire lamp is down to bare wood and looks gorgeous.
I didn’t breathe any bad fumes, didn’t hurt my hands, and with a little over and hour of working I had a clean lamp base. I will definitely use Tuff-Strip again — the product really did perform as the can promised.
(note: I have no sponsors so this is an objective review.)