Edwardian mouldings and the Space Shuttle...

[Eric The Viking]

Give me a truly nasty and boring task and my mind wanders.

The skirtings are only just Edwardian, probably 1905 or thereabouts, but they're 9" tall with about 5" being horribly intricate mouldings..

Yup I'm hot-air stripping paint off metres (feet) of skirtings. I'm doing it out in the fresh air, as it's mostly lead paint, using a low heat, and catching all the little flakes so they don't reach the veg patch.

So I finished the first one, and took it back upstairs thinking, "I'm sure it was a lot heaver than this when I took it outside. Must be the paint." It was only a short one, about 2.5m, and I've been collecting the burned off paint in one of those big floppy builders' buckets. It didn't feel especially heavy.

So now, days later, I've finished the third one (only one more to go, yippee!), and the bucket has definite mass to it. I've now done two long ones (about 4.2m) and the stripped ones are very obviously lighter in weight than the painted ones.

Before starting the last one I got the D.C.'s digital bathroom scales out onto the trestles (sssh! She doesn't know). Here's the scores:

Unstripped one: 4240mm, 10.1kg
Stripped one: 4410mm, 7.6kg

So the painted one is approx 2.38kg/m, whereas the stripped off one is only 1.72kg/m. That's around 0.66kg/m of paint!

Space shuttle? Its external fuel tank (the big sausage strapped to it at launch) was originally a bright white colour. Some bright lad at Lockheed Martin, who made the tank, realised that, if they didn't paint it but left it the natural foam colour (yellowy-brown), it could be a lot lighter in weight at launch. This meant either fuel saved or a bigger payload than previously possible.

According to Wikipedia, the weight saved was a surprising 272kg. And the Shuttle's tank only had one special anti-UV coat, not the seven layers of (mostly) lead paint on my skirtings!

Makes one think.

E.

PS: I'll weigh the bucket of scraped off gunge at the end of the job too, just to see.

 

[No skills]

Eric, have you been sniffing the fumes while you work?

 

[Racers]

Can you weigh in the scrap lead?

:wink:

Pete

 

[finneyb]

Also moisture content may have changed with using the heat gun, if the stripped paint doesn't fully compensate for the weight change.

Brian

 

[Eric The Viking]

I'm most certainly weighing in the gas pipe that came out of the floor and walls!

I don't think it changed the moisture content of the wood much. I have a gun with a two-speed fan and separately adjustable temp, and I set it so it's only just hot enough to melt the actual paint I'm scraping, as I hate scorching the wood - different settings for diffferent bits of the profile. It's only on each bit of wood for a few seconds. I didn't even melt off the knotting patches the original decorator must have put on - 110 years old but it looks as if I did it!

I didn't weigh every board, either, only two that were almost the same length. So the final tub of residual crud will be divided by the total length, I guess.

Isn't it exciting... ?

E.
(I find counting the growth rings helps calm me down a bit, but of course I have to scrape the bl--dy paint off first).

 

[Steve Maskery]

Eric, have you been sniffing the fumes while you work?

I think that it is the phlogiston that's given off that's doing it.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Eric, have you been sniffing the fumes while you work?

I think that it is the phlogiston that's given off that's doing it.

Aye. Often thought that.

These boards are the mankiest, nastiest lot I've come across. They've got the most fiddly mouldings going straight across HUGE (and tiny) knots, and grain going in all sorts of directions you don't expect. It must have been run on a spindle or similar, as you'd never get a hand plane to work nicely on that grain, however sharp it was.

And what bright spark thought it was a good idea to put a 3/8" bead, immediately followed by a 1/8" groove that's around 1/4" deep, and at least 1/8" deeper than the ground on t'other side? Full of paint, it's almost impossible to clean out without scorching the wood, or digging in with a scraper. I can just hear the machine operator thinking, "They'll hate this one in 100 years, time, but heck, if that's what the customer wants..."

Then there are the bloomin' quirks. Don't get me started on the quirks. That's an extra hour, per board, right there.

It's only Baltic pine, or it once was. At some point it must have been accursed, and mutated into The Softwood From Hell.

The good news: being out in the garden, I now have sunburned ears, but at least I get to see a bit of wildlife. There was the dead mouse on Monday in front of the garage door (teenage daughter and her mother: "Ooh, isn't he cute. He's not moving much though..."), and quite a few dunnock and blue-**** on the feeder.

I never realised birds could giggle. I'm sure one actually fell off, laughing at me. Our 'pet' robin has given up in disgust and won't come anywhere near me (I think I probably smell a bit rank by now, nightly baths not withstanding), but the fumes do keep the wasps away.

Mind you, there's next-door-at-the-back's painter, with whom I used to be on fairly friendly terms. He's up their scaffolding most days, but insists on WHISTLING CHEERFULLY most of the day. He can't quite see over the fence but he must have smelled what I'm doing, and I'm convinced he's being extra cheerful just to wind me up.

One more short stretch of moulding to go, then I get out on parole*...

E.

*You can only get life licence from decorating. Sooner or later she'll say something like "Don't you think the (insert room) is looking a bit scruffy..." and you're back in irons again. I've even tried filling the spare room with junk, but that's only made her more determined.

 

[dickm]

="Eric The Viking"
The good news: being out in the garden, I now have sunburned ears, but at least I get to see a bit of wildlife. There was the dead mouse on Monday in front of the garage door (teenage daughter and her mother: "Ooh, isn't he cute. He's not moving much though..."), and quite a few dunnock and blue-**** on the feeder.

I never realised birds could giggle. I'm sure one actually fell off, laughing at me. Our 'pet' robin has given up in disgust and won't come anywhere near me (I think I probably smell a bit rank by now, nightly baths not withstanding), but the fumes do keep the wasps away.

Try doing that in Scotland this year - no danger of sunburn, but serious chance of rust.

W.R.T birds' sense of humour, noticed a line of rooks on the electricity overhead wires one morning and realised that one bird was hanging upside down from the wire, where all the rest were perching on top. Thought it must have died and the perching reflex was keeping it there, but a few moments later it just dropped down and flew away. Swear it was laughing at me.

 

[Racers]

Probably an Australian rook.

Pete