tip for removing old varnish

Posted by Awakening Chi (Awakening.Chi@…>)

I receive this newsletter in the digest form, so I am sorry if I am
sending this to the wrong email address, for current posting. I see
that it is for 2003 and not 2004. That being noted, I would like to
address my subject topic of removing old varnish.
My husband and I purchased a fixer-up Freedom 33. We have renamed her
L’Audace, though we have yet to hold a formal ceremony. In her
“intensive make-over” the removal of what is left of the peeling
varnish has fallen into my area of responsibility. One of our
“professional helpers” shared a method that I found to expedite this
chore and thought I would share it with you all. It requires a proper
heat gun (not a hair blow dryer) and a paint scraper with a curved edge
blade. One uses the heat gun to soften the old varnish, then gently
scrapes it away with the paint scraper. The metal nozzle of the heat
gun gets REALLY HOT, so remember not to rest it on anything that can be
damaged by heat. I carried around a scrap of plywood and set the gun
on it when I needed to relocate to the next area needing de-varnishing.
This may be old news to some, but for me it is a gift worth sharing.
Happy New Year.

Heather
L’Audace in San Diego

Posted by lance_ryley (lance_ryley@…>)

Good tip, Heather. I used a water-based stripper on my cockpit table,
and that worked ok, but needed several coats before I’d really
removed everything. I’ll try your method next time around. Did you
have any worries or problems with charring the wood at all, or does
the heat gun stay under that kind of temperature?

Lance
Bright Star

— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, Awakening Chi
<Awakening.Chi@v…> wrote:

I receive this newsletter in the digest form, so I am sorry if I am
sending this to the wrong email address, for current posting. I
see
that it is for 2003 and not 2004. That being noted, I would like to
address my subject topic of removing old varnish.
My husband and I purchased a fixer-up Freedom 33. We have renamed
her
L’Audace, though we have yet to hold a formal ceremony. In her
“intensive make-over” the removal of what is left of the peeling
varnish has fallen into my area of responsibility. One of our
“professional helpers” shared a method that I found to expedite
this
chore and thought I would share it with you all. It requires a
proper
heat gun (not a hair blow dryer) and a paint scraper with a curved
edge
blade. One uses the heat gun to soften the old varnish, then
gently
scrapes it away with the paint scraper. The metal nozzle of the
heat
gun gets REALLY HOT, so remember not to rest it on anything that
can be
damaged by heat. I carried around a scrap of plywood and set the
gun on
it when I needed to relocate to the next area needing de-varnishing.
This may be old news to some, but for me it is a gift worth sharing.
Happy New Year.

Heather
L’Audace in San Diego