Silent Paint Remover
April 4th, 2007
Today, the Man In Brown showed up, and dropped off some boxes.
They were for my wife. Damn!
Then he came back! And brought a box for me. Inside the box there was some flavorless edible packing peanuts (they dissolved amazingly quickly in your mouth) protecting a Silent Paint Remover.
This thing rocks!
I live in an 82-year-old house, which means it’s seen 82-years worth of styles come and go. That’s a lot of paint. Our shoe molding is all rounded over due to the many layers of lead, latex and who knows what else.
Point it at the shoe molding for 60 seconds and then give a good scrape. Truly amazing.
While the heating device itself is silent, the squeals coming from the scraper as 82 years of sea-foam green, buttermilk, white and teal come peeling off the wall are reminiscent of dragging a pair of cats across a chalkboard.
From reading online, the amazingness of the product made me suspect there was a high probability it could be a RonCo-esque product and a waste of money. Though, it probably can be used to cook a turkey nicely.
But then I found this guy, who explained the science and even provided a how-to about making one for yourself. I promptly set out to find the required space-heater of the appropriate type.
I quickly learned that asking the Helpful Friendly People at Lowe’s and Home Depot for space-heaters while you are wearing shorts and a t-shirt is a fantastic way to survey how different people express “what kind of nut are you?” with only their eyebrows.
Apparently space-heaters are a seasonal item, and April isn’t the season for them.
Due to the lack of parts to build my own, I punted and just bought the pre-made version. Tonight, with minimal effort, I stripped 8′ of base boards in about a half hour. Without any chemical burns or heavy metal poisoning.
I’d consider that a success.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Awesome. Our house is a little of 100 years old, and really needs to have various bits stripped. I’ve thought of one of these infrared-based strippers after seeing them on some home renovation shows. Good to know that they seem to work as advertised. :)
April 30th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I googled the silent paint remover and selected blogs your one came up first. i am so excited about this product but just want to make sure that it acutally does what It says it should. i’m glad you have had success and I’ll be sending my order for one shortly.
Yvette, New Jersey
July 4th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
hi there – we’ve got an 87-year-old place with painted trim all over. my question is this: did you strip your baseboards in place, or did you remove them first?
we’ve (successfully) removed all of the baseboards upstairs as we are installing a new floor and tearing down some useless drywall. but we’d like to avoid removing the door trim and would prefer to strip it in place.
thanks.
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 am
I GUESS I’M MISSING SOMETHING HERE. I HAVE THE ENTIRE SILENT PAINT REMOVER KIT AT A COST OF A LITTLE UNDER $2,400.00. AFTER 3 DAYS OF TRYING TO STRIP A 6′ X 7′ DOOR JAM, BURNT WOOD, SPRAYING WATER, COATING SURFACE WITH LINCEED OIL FIRST THEN HEAT, I HAVE MANAGED TO REMOVE ONLY 60% OF OLD PAINT. THIS TOOL IS A JOKE! OR I’M DOING SOMETHING WRONG. I HAVE A 1600 SQ. FT. LAP SIDING, 80 YEAR OLD HOME TO STRIP. AFTER 7DAYS OF USING THIS SYSTEM, I GUSESS IT WILL TAKE ME ABOUT 3 YEARS TO REMOVE THE OLD LEAD AND LATEX PAINT. HOW DID YOU DO IT?
September 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I too thought that i was missing something when i got this tool, after researching this tool and seeing many videos of this product i thought that this would be the cat’s meow, especially after i was used to using a heat gun to remove paint,and i must say that after much practice i am fast with a heat gun and usually do not burn the wood,but what a relief to actually have a tool that has some speed to it (removing a 4×8″ piece of paint in 40 seconds great) I purchased the Silent Paint Remover™
The Problem
Removing the paint from my 2.5 car 10′high to door redwood garage and painting it within two week, my solution Silent Paint Remover™
After getting the Silent Paint Remover™ i started on my little project after reading the instructions I extended the side shields all the way out and let i go for 20 seconds , the results not the greatest , the paint really was not bubbling up , so 40 seconds alittle better but still not that easy to remove, so 60 seconds 120 seconds and easy but seemed as the paint was melting into the wood NO GOOD. this tool was not right i could remove more paint faster with a heat gun than this
My First Solution ( The wrong one)
i am using this Horizontally and noticed that alot of heat was coming past the side shield perhaps that was the problem, i lowered the side shields and tried again,—— DON”T DO THIS———–
The Results (VERY VERY BAD)
Paint bubbled up very fast but also burned and to get down to bare wood
the wood would burn before the paint came off clean , and the wood got VERY VERY HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE SOLUTION THAT WORKED
MySilent Paint Remover™ was about a minute away of being returned i could buy alot of heat guns and hire the people to use them for what I paid for the Silent Paint Remover™ for some reason i didn’t i would give one more try. I am unisg a Sears 2.5 pull srcaper that works very very well and took the Silent Paint Remover to the wall one more time i left on for 40 seconds
but instead of removing it from the wall and scraping i just moved to the side just enough so i could get my scraper in to clean that three inch spot, and to
my amazement the paint was CLEAN OFF THE WOOD ALMOST EVERY TIME WITH VERY LITTLE EFFORD for me not removing the infrared was ticket , just keeping it on the wood WITH THE SIDE SHIELDS FULLY EXTENDED OUT left me with bare wood NO BURNT OR HOT WOOD. using the tool this way i
can strip very fast , much faster than a heat gun ,you will develop your own
way when it is right to slide the infrared to the next spot, i also believe the the type of wood that you are working on can effect the time that it takes
for the paint to come off
Good Luck
December 31st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Its New Years Eve! I’m home stripping wood in my home built in 1938 all wood is painted with 6 t0 7 layers after removing the paneling AHHH!! My living room I have a beamed and boxed ceiling what can I use while I’m up on the ladder?
Help Mike Passaic Park NJ ps I’m done with chemical strippers and soy strippers.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Im a painting contractor in Nor Cal. Im looking at aqn old house with redwood sididng that was last painted 40+ years ago. The owners want the house to be striped 100%. Does this tool work? I need help guys let me know please….
August 29th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Does anyone have experience with working on metal with the silent paint remover? I have a large number of metal radiator covers in need of a good stripping.