[mszlasa]

Hello everyone,

My name is mike, I am trying to strip the white paint from my kitchen cabinets down to bare wood. So far I haven't had much luck with the paint layer under the latex. My house was built in the 50's and the undercoat has a yellowish tint to it (not sure what kind of paint this is) i have tried citri-strip and Kleen strip KS-3. A heat gun and infared heat. The only thing that works at all is my heat gun and a lot of scraping. Is this just the nature of the beast or do you know of something that will soften it up even a little?

Thanks for all your help
Mike

 

[Gymschu]

Welcome to the joys of the painting biz. Stripping paint ranks right up there as the absolute WORST. If you use chemical strippers you really need to let them marinate for a long time. To keep the surface wet with stripper, you can lay some plastic over top of the stripper to keep it working LONGER. A nice sharp carbide scraper helps you in removing the softened paint. If you have a furniture refinishing business close by, you can take the doors there to have them dipped.......it will be the best money you ever spend.

Heat guns work, but, as you have found out........they take forever. You likely have run into an OIL-BASED finish underneath all that latex. Those old oils really soaked into the wood and are a bit** to remove. Keep doing what you're doing, it takes time especially with the environmentally safe strippers they make today.

 

[info2x]

+1 to the oil comment especially since the OP said it had a yellow tint.

I'm sure if with the proper primer painting over the oil based paint wouldn't be a problem but someone else would have to verify that since I'm not 100%.

 

[mszlasa]

Thanks for the help. I forgot to mention that I am trying to strip them down to bare wood so I can stain them. Looks like a slow and steady wins the race mentality will get this job done.

 

[Windows]

I would test one door all the way through to completion to see if you like it before you start stripping the other doors. Often results with stain on previously painted wood is less than optimum.

 

[chrisn]

As windows said , staining previously painted wood is next to impossible, you will never get ALL the paint off.