Infrared Paint Strippers

[GibsonGM]

That's the truth. Most of them wouldn't know lead from brass. Kind of like the people coming up with unachievable vehicle emission standards, yet none of them have a clue how an internal combustion engine works. Bureaucrats at their best (or worst, depending on how you look at it). And I can just about guarantee that none of them have ever tried to put any of their baloney into practice.

Boom, you nailed it Revival. Full of tons of gray, unexplained areas* so the people in the field 'do their best'. The RRP program actually DOES help contain the spread of lead dust, helps to prevent kids from being exposed. Just that...the way it reads....man. That's why I got out of environmental work, LOL. You need training to interpret it (most do, those of us with 'may' and 'shall' history can piece it together). And they don't let the public know they HAVE to have their lead paint work done this way. They really dropped this ball, hard.

The biggest part of it is the licensing, to obtain $$ for pet projects...that's all it really is. It's hardly even enforced....and almost SOLELY on those who chose to get the license!!!! By internal audit. That burns me up. Unlicensed ppl are doing houses for $1500 less than I am, getting lead chips all over...but scot-free, since nobody knows to go looking for them. I TOLD the fed gov where to look by 'joining in'. Nice. Rant off, LOL.

It's not that bad, and if you serve a certain class of client, the RRP is just there, they'll pay for it happily. At least it's clean; no junk on the ground after, which I really like.

* great example, OSHA...must wear a harness that's anchored overhead after so many feet high on a ladder. But - HOW do you get the anchor mounted on the roof, without being off-anchor while doing so??? A crane that costs $5k per day? Ha ha. Lunacy.

[phil]

you can throw a rope over the house, tie off and climb to the peak to install the hook but yea.. I get it. Ive been using the roof brackets and walking boards and so with those around I can hook up to any of those and they make a suitable anchor point. I do that to prevent swing falls more than to actually tie off to. saves moving the rope hook location. I know what you are saying though.. i tie up my ladder and fel ok going up over 10 feet like that. your senses tell you what is stupid ,, well usually they do.

Just yesterday my girlfriend went out for a smoke from work.. the building maintenance guy said she was too close to the gas meter.. Yea whatever , she moved a few feet to make him happy. Just then this guy who was window washing dropped his keys and his cell phone from 6 stories above. the phone smashed to bits on the meter right where she was before she moved. we had a talk about how he should have taped off the area when working above at such a height. he had some sandwich board sign. If she hadn't' moved she might not be alive today. the accident should probably be reported so the guy can buy a hook up for his loose tools and phone etc. he has a responsibility to report the accident but surely he will not. It is still an accident when stuff like that happens even without an injury.

at work its like that. someone wants to mount something on the wall then they do an investigation to determine if it is OK to break the paint, they are that crazy about it.. it can get really silly.

as kids we had a lead soldier kit, you melt the lead and make soldiers then paint them with leaded paint. My brother even had a set with soldiers with cigarettes. it came with special cigarettes that you put in the soldier's mouth and lit then they would burn quite a while..
now they fret about lead paint on kids toys.

I often work on old radios all lead solder of course. I tried no lead solder and decided it just doesn't work. the plumbers use it but they are not re-soldering they use new parts.

even auto body was done with lead before bondo came into flavor. worked in printing and we used a lot of crazy bad solvents and chemicals, no gloves the boss would plug the fan vent to prevent heat loss. i got exposed to a lot I probably shouldn't have and it does accumulate. I got away from that industry as things were changing a lot.

[phil]

here is a document about making your own. You can probably save some money if you are so inclined.
https://makezine.com/projects/infrared- ... emover-v2/

[Gothichome]

Gibson, you cannot use a crane as personnel lift or a tie off point unless the crane has been certified for the lifting of people. Unless of course you use a certified engineered man basket on the crane, even then, technically you can only tie off onto engineered points on said cage. A bit crazy but that’s how the rules are written. Oh one other item, that rope you throw over the roof has to also be a certified climbing rope, and it can not be anchored to your trucks bumper, it is not engineer certified as a anchoring devise. I just don’t know how any thing would get done if left to the rule makers.

[mjt]

Many rules exist because some moron did it that way and got nominated for the Darwin awards. E.g., using the bumper of his truck as an anchor. Co-worker then gets in the truck and drives off dragging aforementioned moron over the roof, down the driveway, and across town.

It then gets listed as a specific case in the safety regulations because Darwinism isn't what it used to be; too many stupid people are surviving and procreating.

[phil]

in the articulating boom lifts, you wont want to be in there without a harness. if the driver runs over a stick or a 2x4 or something that can shake you out of the basket.
In the scissors lifts I think it was necessary only if you lean out of the basket but being a little afraid of heights Id rather be tied off in those too. I worked at one place where they made their own corporate policy that we needed to wear them all the timeeven in the scissors lifts. If I do it myself I dont go driving the things around when I'm way up there but it is possible to. my ticket expired so usually I just find a driver who has the ticket in order to conform. some of the ones they use on construction sites with rubber tires, rough surfaces and a very high reach are simply too scary for me. Ive seen some doing questionable stuff like using a pallet on a forklift to go up and change out lights. there are cages that are approved for it. I think if you move people in a crane you may be able to use use a cage engineered for that, but this would be a situation where you have a safety meeting and consider it a critical move so everyone involved gets informed exactly what will happen and the code and procedures as well as any special risks would be discussed then. Its not a normal occurrence for sure. something like a lift using two cranes is called a critical lift and there are similar procedures but you dont just go ahead and do it. Critical lifts need planning prior to. I'd consult with the authorities before I did anything like that.
I did report the window washer that dropped the phone since after dropping his keys he resumed doing the same and that could easily have killed someone. I'm not sure what happened but I'm sure it prompted some conclusion as to what he can or can't do. If we work overhead we need to use yellow tape to create a safe zone below but window washers may have some different rules. Rather than wearing a fall harness he is actually depending on the harness for his work so they said the rules are a bit different. They dont have to report back to me. I'm pretty sure dropping your keys and phone from 6 stories to the public sidewalk below with no safety zone is a is a no no I don't like reporting stuff like that but in this case it was pretty obvious he was truly endangering people walking below who were totally unaware of him even being above them.
I had to consider it for a while but then I realized that if someone else got hurt or killed by it I would have been partly to blame for not saying anything. I would have never gotten involved if I didn't feel it was the right thing to do.

just a couple weeks ago I was trying to speak to someone in a scissors lift. he had accidentally unplugged a sensor so the dust vac wouln't turn on for one machine. he was right near a staircase so I wanted to walk up the stairs so I'd be closer to communicate. I was glad I didnt' because he dropped a big cast iron elbow just then. It fel about 30 feet and hit the metal staircase and bounced down near me. you can imagine how loud it was. I just said ouch ! He did rope the area off. I felt lucky I didn't enter his marked area. as I was just about to. often its ok if I just get permission so they know I'm there. its easy to move and accidentally kick a tool from the floor of those things. They are intended for lifting people but what do you do when you need to lift something like a piece of 6 inch pipe, then the next thing some guy is balancing the pipe while the other guy drives. In some cases that's ok but in some cases it can be risky since Its not really meant to be a crane. common sense often tells you if what you are doing is stupid and dangerous. the outward reach is limited by the amount of weight in the basket.
what often happens is people are holding the railing and the operator pinches then against something. the controls can be really touchy especially when it is extended a lot.

[HB2]

One trick to using the infrared systems is to prep the painted area to be stripped ahead of time.

I’ve used mine to do several floors and it always works best if I paint the floor 24 hours in advance with a 50/50 solution of turpentine and boiled linseed oil.

Softens things up a bit and reactivates the old paint so that it bubbles up better. If the paint is too dried out, all you get is dust from your scraper.

Good Luck-

Hb

“The lord hates a coward”

[phil]

I usually use two heat guns taped together both on high, two extension cords.
to control the heat I just turn it to the side. If it's fiddly stuff like windows that's too much but for baseboards and stuff.. I try not to blacken things I just use the minimum I need to, to get under the paint. if you burn the wood you cant' really sand it out easily.

but it depends a lot on the paint they type how many layers etc. How wide the blade is. I use a coffee can to scrape my knife on. I think it depends what you are scraping though. I'm mostly working on trim I removed. my aim is to move continuously heat in one hand putty knife in the other. If I stop I loose my preheat. what usually stops me is that the knife got full of chips and needs to be cleared. then I need to shut off the heat guns to put it down and use two hands to deal with the buildup. I sort of put continuous pressure on the knife and then when its hot it moves. I try to get most off the first pass because if you don't have the paint there as an insulator then the wood can burn.. but most of mine is shellacked under the paint. some is a lot harder I know.

I find it easier to just point the guns away then turn back to the work, than play with the switches.