Shopping around for the best-rated heat gun, since the Craftsman Heavy-Duty is no longer available, I came up with the Porter-Cable PC1500HG. It's 1500 watts, variable temperature control, two fan speeds, hands-free stand and a hook to hang it up while it's still hot. $30 shipped.
James
Best heat gun for stripping paint?
-
phil
- Has many leather bound books
- Posts: 4616
- Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:11 pm
- Location: Near Vancouver BC
Re: Best heat gun for stripping paint?
it seems most are about 1500 watts. someone here said he was taping two together and I tried that and like it , I need two cords and it is a bit heavier to hold but 3000 watts goes faster. of course you have to watch the burning and it depends what you do with it.
with two it isn't a very well balanced tool and a bit heavy. since they are all around the same wattage I'd opt for the lightest cheapest plastic ones. If you go get the milwalkee or whatever , metal ones they are a bit heavy for this.
If you try this don't be shy about turning it away from the work momentarily and back again to control the heat. and watch what is around you, don't start a fire but if you learn to control it it is faster. Look for a long handled putty knife and wear a glove on that hand at least. If you are doing fussy things like molding then just use one, but if I do the side of my house I'd consider two at once. otherwise every time you stop and start it takes about 30 seconds to get the paint hot again. some of the time you have to devote to getting the stuff off the knife. nailing down a coffee can so you have something to scrape the knife off in is ok. one might devise a pot with a permanent scraper blade to clear the putty knife blade on. you kind of need an edge to clear the paint off while it is still hot, then turn back to the heating and scraping. you can use a second scraper for clearing it but that takes two hands so you have to put the heat gun down to do that.
if you use a scraper rather than a putty knife you can. the carbide stays sharper longer. I'm doing a lot of interior trim and I just use a putty knife at least for the worst of it. the scrapers are harder to clean off. if it's rough and you use a putty knife it might want to catch and go under making splinters. generally you pull scrapers but you have to push a putty knife so the ergonomics are different. a putty knife won't damage as much on smooth surfaces. .
let us know what works best for you after you try some different ways. good to keep a hose and bucket of water handy and think about the possibility of starting a fire in the wall and how you'd react. even having an axe on hand just in case probably isn't' a bad idea so you could chop a hole and stick a hose in if you really had to. of course you'd want to avoid that..
The point is think about it before you go catching some spider webs on fire or something. never stop to run in the house to answer the phone or something and just leave. always do your own fire watch period for a while after just in case. a lot of it is just paying attention to the potential and never putting yourself in a situation where you aren't' prepared. if you need the hose you dont' want to have to go find it you want it right here at your feet, just in case. a working phone as well. sometimes you can pre-wet things to make sure they don's get started to begin with. sometimes it is easier to pull stuff off and work it over then put it back. better ergonomics, better access , less masking. lower fire risk.
scraping paint is a lot like gas welding. you have to control the heat. You don't want it hotter than it needs to be but you want it just right. every surface is different. every time you stop and start you are preheating but you can't go continuously. If you try little experiments as you go you'll find what works best for you. usually I find if I just follow the heat gun with the putty knife I can notice the resistance go down as it reached the right temp. if your chips are turning black you are heating too much. if the paint is too hard you need more heat. you won't usually burn if your heat is on top of paint but if you go back and try to get little spots that's where it burns so if you can get it all as you do a swath it is easier. the hotter the paint is the more smoke you are breathing so you dont' want too much.
if you think about what is going on you realize the paint layers are like a blanket and your heat is penetrating it. if you take the heat away the blanket keeps it warm for a little. if you are fooling around getting little spots all over and stopping to clear the blade and restarting a lot you wont' have consistency. If you are heating and pushing right behind the heat about an inch or two that's perfect. If you have to pull scrape that's going to work differently again. if you try to get one layer and go back for a second layer you can but you have a thinner blanket the second time. the blanket of paint is protecting the wood from burning.
when I use the putty knife I follow the heat and I can feel the resistance but I dont' push the knife very hard. when it catches I can feel it so I stop rather than driving the knife into and under a splinter. If you are pushing hard you won't have that feel. If you are pull scraping the blade won't get caught on splinters as it is at a different angle If your paint is already flaking you can see if dry scraping with a pull scraper will work. You dont' always need heat. it's always a good idea to wear a respirator for chemical fumes and not just a dust mask. the long term effects might not be too healthy.
Phil
with two it isn't a very well balanced tool and a bit heavy. since they are all around the same wattage I'd opt for the lightest cheapest plastic ones. If you go get the milwalkee or whatever , metal ones they are a bit heavy for this.
If you try this don't be shy about turning it away from the work momentarily and back again to control the heat. and watch what is around you, don't start a fire but if you learn to control it it is faster. Look for a long handled putty knife and wear a glove on that hand at least. If you are doing fussy things like molding then just use one, but if I do the side of my house I'd consider two at once. otherwise every time you stop and start it takes about 30 seconds to get the paint hot again. some of the time you have to devote to getting the stuff off the knife. nailing down a coffee can so you have something to scrape the knife off in is ok. one might devise a pot with a permanent scraper blade to clear the putty knife blade on. you kind of need an edge to clear the paint off while it is still hot, then turn back to the heating and scraping. you can use a second scraper for clearing it but that takes two hands so you have to put the heat gun down to do that.
if you use a scraper rather than a putty knife you can. the carbide stays sharper longer. I'm doing a lot of interior trim and I just use a putty knife at least for the worst of it. the scrapers are harder to clean off. if it's rough and you use a putty knife it might want to catch and go under making splinters. generally you pull scrapers but you have to push a putty knife so the ergonomics are different. a putty knife won't damage as much on smooth surfaces. .
let us know what works best for you after you try some different ways. good to keep a hose and bucket of water handy and think about the possibility of starting a fire in the wall and how you'd react. even having an axe on hand just in case probably isn't' a bad idea so you could chop a hole and stick a hose in if you really had to. of course you'd want to avoid that..
The point is think about it before you go catching some spider webs on fire or something. never stop to run in the house to answer the phone or something and just leave. always do your own fire watch period for a while after just in case. a lot of it is just paying attention to the potential and never putting yourself in a situation where you aren't' prepared. if you need the hose you dont' want to have to go find it you want it right here at your feet, just in case. a working phone as well. sometimes you can pre-wet things to make sure they don's get started to begin with. sometimes it is easier to pull stuff off and work it over then put it back. better ergonomics, better access , less masking. lower fire risk.
scraping paint is a lot like gas welding. you have to control the heat. You don't want it hotter than it needs to be but you want it just right. every surface is different. every time you stop and start you are preheating but you can't go continuously. If you try little experiments as you go you'll find what works best for you. usually I find if I just follow the heat gun with the putty knife I can notice the resistance go down as it reached the right temp. if your chips are turning black you are heating too much. if the paint is too hard you need more heat. you won't usually burn if your heat is on top of paint but if you go back and try to get little spots that's where it burns so if you can get it all as you do a swath it is easier. the hotter the paint is the more smoke you are breathing so you dont' want too much.
if you think about what is going on you realize the paint layers are like a blanket and your heat is penetrating it. if you take the heat away the blanket keeps it warm for a little. if you are fooling around getting little spots all over and stopping to clear the blade and restarting a lot you wont' have consistency. If you are heating and pushing right behind the heat about an inch or two that's perfect. If you have to pull scrape that's going to work differently again. if you try to get one layer and go back for a second layer you can but you have a thinner blanket the second time. the blanket of paint is protecting the wood from burning.
when I use the putty knife I follow the heat and I can feel the resistance but I dont' push the knife very hard. when it catches I can feel it so I stop rather than driving the knife into and under a splinter. If you are pushing hard you won't have that feel. If you are pull scraping the blade won't get caught on splinters as it is at a different angle If your paint is already flaking you can see if dry scraping with a pull scraper will work. You dont' always need heat. it's always a good idea to wear a respirator for chemical fumes and not just a dust mask. the long term effects might not be too healthy.
Phil
-
Gothichome
- Moderator
- Posts: 4184
- Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 8:34 pm
- Location: Chatham Ont
Re: Best heat gun for stripping paint?
Phil, excellent, discription of heat gun use. Pretty well describes my technique. If I may add a bit of detail that works for me. On larger flat surfaces, I lead with the heat gun with the knife about three inches behind. I angle the gun adout 120 degrees. This technique in my experience warms the paint well ahead of the gun and spreads the heat out, by the time the putty knife gets there the paint has lifted and allows a smooth continuous run and large swaths of paint can be removed. For the fiddley trim that requires a pulling of the scraper I have developed an crossing over at the wrist technique. This allows the heat gun to warm the paint ahead of the scraper. It takes a bit of practice, but you can remove longer runs of paint. I also have several scrapers and knives I just rotate, once they all get clogged up I can clean them all and start again.
-
phil
- Has many leather bound books
- Posts: 4616
- Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:11 pm
- Location: Near Vancouver BC
Re: Best heat gun for stripping paint?
with gas welding I hold the torch in my left. I support the hoses by running them over my wrist so the position of the torch isnt' affected by the weight of the hoses. I work to the left, feeding the rod into the puddle with my right and observing the puddle as I go. If it's getting too hot I hold the torch further away. with gas welding Im normally kind of drawing little circles with the torch as I go and it's a rythm you learn as you go. as you get better youll make minor changes in angle , heat flame size, distance... but to be consistent you need to work into a pattern that comes naturally and then you will just get better at it without really thinking about it. keeping the speed, angle and distance and rate even are important. you can run a larger puddle on thick stuff but as you go to thinner stuff you have to worry about it burning right through or warping stuff.
with the heat gun well the position isn't as critical. how you turn the heat gun affects how much heat you are sending toward your right hand. or as you put it prehgeating aead of the work area. it takes a littel time for the heat to penetrate to the wood. the action of how far away the heat gun is relative to what is going on is very similar to welding. If I have a tricky little spot I turn the heat away or just hold it further momentarily to let my right hand catch up without loosing the heat entirely. usually I go so far and stop but if I can have a coffee can I use that. If I can get the paint off the knife while it is still hot then great I keep going and if I can't easily clear the blade I stop and clean it off. I don't like it when I have bits of paint riding along the knifte that havent cleared because they will get hot stink. Ive been keeping a little scraper handy to clear the blade by scraping when it gets cold. Good idea to have more than one scraper or knife.
if you look at the edge of a board, assuming it is flat sawn if you were going to plane the surface you can carefully observe how the grain runs. on some boards they are more wavy and you'll find it doesnt' matter but on others you can clearly see by the way the grain pattern runs that the blades of the jointer are cutting in such a way that it is more likely to tear out. once you realize this and look for it it's pretty obvious you just want ot plane in the direction where the grain is running down into the wood.. its hard to explain in words but it so simple when you just observe the pattern and how the grain rises toward the surface or away. when you are scraping you can usually only see the surface.
you can improve your result by simply running the boards in the most favorable direction. this is the same if you hand plane or if you are using a putty knife and it keeps hooking and wanting to dig into the grain then try reversing direction. I often find that it hooks less in one direction than the other.
the other way to prevent it hooking is dont'; worry so much about the grain direction and instead purposly go at an angle to the grain , it won't hook as often that way. If I'm working on baseboards or floors I dont' want to tear out even small spots so if I do find Ive stuck the putty knife in and created a little splinter then I stop and put some glue in there and then use a weight to hold it shut until dry. then I wont' have a chip to get caught on or deal with later. its invisible so long as you dont' loose the piece.
if you want you can grind the very corners of your putty knife or scraper to prevent scratching the wood with the sharp corners of the blade. a thinner blade might hook more but it might also bend when it hooks and give you warning. you might want to dress it so it is more sharp or a bit blunt or pick a knife with a thicker or thinner blade. one of my favorites is a real long one I found at some discount place for a dollar or so. its a fairly thick one. a good putty knife has a springy blade. with some of the better ones the blade is tapered. if the blade isn't springy it's just junk. If you happen to be at a garage sale and notice old ones with rosewood handles and brass rivets those are the best ones but they are hard to find. you know you have a good knife if you notice that the blade extends through the handle and it is tapered as you go toward the business end. If you find ones like that look after them. the ones you'll find int he building store for 10 dollars are ok for stripping. the really old ones were probably from old print shops and I saw many that had been in use for a century or more and the owners would be quite protective of them in the same way a butcher would look after his knives. If you forgot to clean one you'd be in for a little talkin'
another favorite tool i have is a little spatula that is designed to be used by an artist who does oil painting. it is extremely thin at the end and tapered. I covet this one and I use it to work glue into cracks in boards or for things like picking the paint out between two boards where there isnt' a big gap. I have one that broke so I shaped it in a good way to clear out stuff between boards. sometimes a little fleck in between really shows and it's hard to find a blade that will work well and conform to the contours of a crack. the artist spatulas are way thinner than a putty knife and not brittle like an olfa.. Im sure you can find those at places that sell to artists. Like everything else really good ones are probably more expensive and older ones might be better steel. the next best thing is a feeler guage.
Phil
I dont' know if it is suitable to use a putty knife on the side of a house as it might be too rough but i guess whatever works for you is right.
with the heat gun well the position isn't as critical. how you turn the heat gun affects how much heat you are sending toward your right hand. or as you put it prehgeating aead of the work area. it takes a littel time for the heat to penetrate to the wood. the action of how far away the heat gun is relative to what is going on is very similar to welding. If I have a tricky little spot I turn the heat away or just hold it further momentarily to let my right hand catch up without loosing the heat entirely. usually I go so far and stop but if I can have a coffee can I use that. If I can get the paint off the knife while it is still hot then great I keep going and if I can't easily clear the blade I stop and clean it off. I don't like it when I have bits of paint riding along the knifte that havent cleared because they will get hot stink. Ive been keeping a little scraper handy to clear the blade by scraping when it gets cold. Good idea to have more than one scraper or knife.
if you look at the edge of a board, assuming it is flat sawn if you were going to plane the surface you can carefully observe how the grain runs. on some boards they are more wavy and you'll find it doesnt' matter but on others you can clearly see by the way the grain pattern runs that the blades of the jointer are cutting in such a way that it is more likely to tear out. once you realize this and look for it it's pretty obvious you just want ot plane in the direction where the grain is running down into the wood.. its hard to explain in words but it so simple when you just observe the pattern and how the grain rises toward the surface or away. when you are scraping you can usually only see the surface.
you can improve your result by simply running the boards in the most favorable direction. this is the same if you hand plane or if you are using a putty knife and it keeps hooking and wanting to dig into the grain then try reversing direction. I often find that it hooks less in one direction than the other.
the other way to prevent it hooking is dont'; worry so much about the grain direction and instead purposly go at an angle to the grain , it won't hook as often that way. If I'm working on baseboards or floors I dont' want to tear out even small spots so if I do find Ive stuck the putty knife in and created a little splinter then I stop and put some glue in there and then use a weight to hold it shut until dry. then I wont' have a chip to get caught on or deal with later. its invisible so long as you dont' loose the piece.
if you want you can grind the very corners of your putty knife or scraper to prevent scratching the wood with the sharp corners of the blade. a thinner blade might hook more but it might also bend when it hooks and give you warning. you might want to dress it so it is more sharp or a bit blunt or pick a knife with a thicker or thinner blade. one of my favorites is a real long one I found at some discount place for a dollar or so. its a fairly thick one. a good putty knife has a springy blade. with some of the better ones the blade is tapered. if the blade isn't springy it's just junk. If you happen to be at a garage sale and notice old ones with rosewood handles and brass rivets those are the best ones but they are hard to find. you know you have a good knife if you notice that the blade extends through the handle and it is tapered as you go toward the business end. If you find ones like that look after them. the ones you'll find int he building store for 10 dollars are ok for stripping. the really old ones were probably from old print shops and I saw many that had been in use for a century or more and the owners would be quite protective of them in the same way a butcher would look after his knives. If you forgot to clean one you'd be in for a little talkin'
another favorite tool i have is a little spatula that is designed to be used by an artist who does oil painting. it is extremely thin at the end and tapered. I covet this one and I use it to work glue into cracks in boards or for things like picking the paint out between two boards where there isnt' a big gap. I have one that broke so I shaped it in a good way to clear out stuff between boards. sometimes a little fleck in between really shows and it's hard to find a blade that will work well and conform to the contours of a crack. the artist spatulas are way thinner than a putty knife and not brittle like an olfa.. Im sure you can find those at places that sell to artists. Like everything else really good ones are probably more expensive and older ones might be better steel. the next best thing is a feeler guage.
Phil
I dont' know if it is suitable to use a putty knife on the side of a house as it might be too rough but i guess whatever works for you is right.