Shopsmith Forums

Any words of advise before I start stripping the painted surfaces on my greenie? I was planning on using a spray citrus paint remover I got from Lowes that worked quite well on a polyurethaned door I used it on. It is neutralized with mineral spirits.

Mike - i use a pressure-assisted sandblaster with coal slag as grit that strips the paint right off. Once I get all through this material, I'll probably switch over to glass beads as it will leave a better finish on the bare aluminum parts.

When I restored mine I tried many different ways. The ones that was the most effective was. Sandblasting, by far the easiest and quickest but if you don't have access to a good one then it wont work out for you. Don't waste time or money on Harbor Freight hand held blasters.

Another way that worked good for me on the legs and a few other parts was a 25/75 mixture of simple green and water. I let parts soak for 3 days and the paint will peel right off. No hard work at all. Hardest part is not messing with it. Make sure you get aluminum safe Simple Green if you use it on aluminum.

A die grinder with surface prep pads. I mainly used this before primer and paint just to be able to get a good bond.

Either way good luck with your adventure. I know I enjoyed mine.

Here is the link to my before and after photos and a few other things that helped me at the time. http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... ght=regnar

regnar wrote:When I restored mine I tried many different ways. The ones that was the most effective was. Sandblasting, by far the easiest and quickest but if you don't have access to a good one then it wont work out for you. Don't waste time or money on Harbor Freight hand held blasters.

Another way that worked good for me on the legs and a few other parts was a 25/75 mixture of simple green and water. I let parts soak for 3 days and the paint will peel right off. No hard work at all. Hardest part is not messing with it. Make sure you get aluminum safe Simple Green if you use it on aluminum.

A die grinder with surface prep pads. I mainly used this before primer and paint just to be able to get a good bond.

Either way good luck with your adventure. I know I enjoyed mine.

Here is the link to my before and after photos and a few other things that helped me at the time. http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... ght=regnar

Your before and after pictures looked GREAT. Very nice job.

You mentioned using a simple green solution to soak the parts. You also mentioned to get "aluminum safe" Simple Green. Do you recall which one you used? I ask becasue I went out tho thier website and in the FAQ section, searching for "aluminum" they say:

Aluminum - Is it safe to use Simple Green® on aluminum?
When used with caution and according to the instructions, Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner has been safely and successfully used to clean aluminum. Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner, Crystal Simple Green® Cleaner/Degreaser, Simple Green Pressure Washer Concentrates, and Pro Series™ Simple Green® Automotive Cleaner have been used on aircraft, automotive, industrial and consumer aluminum items for over 20 years. However, caution and common sense must be used: aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner can accelerate the corrosion process. Therefore, contact times for unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green® product residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation.

That statement obviously made me hesitant to give 'em a 3 days soak.

DONT soak the aluminum for 3 days. You will hate yourself for doing that. You can do this for the legs, motor pan, backside. The paint on the aluminum will come off with a brass brush and simple green on it for 5 to 10 minutes. Dont ask me why it works so much quicker on the aluminum than the steel. As you can see alot of my parts the paint was already coming off. You will be amazed on how well it works.

I believe the it was the industrial grade. You can usually find it at Home Depot or Lowes sold in 3 Gallons. The stuff that is sold in the squirt bottles and pints is usually not the safe stuff.

We use to clean our Aircraft parts with this stuff until we figured out that most of the corrosion was coming from it. With a little bit of scrubbing it will take off epoxy paint!

I'm not sure how safe it is but I stripped mine with acetone and steel wool. Paint came off easily. Wear gloves.

As an update, I stripped all the sheet metal pieces yesterday with the spray citrus paint remover I got from Lowe's. It worked fantastic. I left it on for 30minutes and wiped with a stripping pad and it was easily down to bare metal with absolutely no effort. No harsh fumes or any issues.

The was a considerable amount of surface "stuff" happening under the paint that was visible before paint was removed. There was staining and rusting that I am going to remove with the electrolysis process. I'll post before and after pics under the thread:

http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=3078