Machine Planing Painted Oak Boards

[John15]

A friend has asked me to plane some painted oak boards he has salvaged from an old stone-built building. I've said I'm concerned that the blades may be damaged by the paint.

Am I right to be concerned?

John

 

[Bod]

What does paint hide?

Bod

 

[MARK.B.]

The paint itself should cause no problems apart from a little build up of snot that is easily removed , but as Bod said what is lurking underneath the paint.
Tell your friend that should there be any nasties that damage the blades then he pays for new / sharpening.

 

[Finial]

I've found paint blunts tools very quickly.

 

[blackrodd]

Its a bad enough risk for you're own benefit of cheap timber, A borrowed metal detector would be usefull, As Mark B said make it plain who pays, and how much for grinding or replacing any damaged planer blades.
Watch out for old dried lead paint and the dust, keep you're extractor going!
Rodders

 

[John15]

Thanks guys. I'm in agreement with you. I'll tell him it's too risky. He'll understand OK.

John

 

[Jacob]

Basically a PITA..
Old paint blunts planer blades really quickly. Some paints worse than others.
It helps if you emulate the "scrub" plane and take a deep cut into the clean wood underneath; one pass rather then taking paint layers off progressively.
No help with nails though - if its painted its almost certainly been nailed at some point and it only takes one to spoil a blade.

PS if you haven't a lot to do then hand planing with a scrub might be viable. It'll rip off the paint and take a few nail nicks before it needs re-sharpening. Get your friend to do it himself - for you to finish off with a planer

 

[No skills]

Get him to plane the boards with a real cheap electric planer first, the blades are dirt cheap and if he hits something really nasty with it and writes off the planer his only down £20 or so.
If the boards seem ok afterwards then he can bribe you to run them through your machine.

I do the cheap plane trick myself, I'm at the point though where I've had enough of the work required to sort out reclaimed timber into useful stuff and will start buying in timber for projects to save time and grief. I'll only be putting my self out for something special.

 

[deema]

Belt sander, drum or wide belt sander are best for this type of job. I belt or drum sand stuff I need to reclaim before they go near anything else with either a full face respirator or really good extraction, preferably both. Paint is not nice especially if it's old and Arsenic based!

 

[adidat]

Grinder with sanding discs this will hog of the paint in seconds and shine up any metal imbedded! Makes a mess though and still have a big hole in my finger from doing this 4 years ago. So be careful.

Adidat

 

[John15]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions. I'm not taking the risk with my planer blades.

John

 

[Rorschach]

I would use another method to remove the bulk of the paint first. Probably an electric hand planer or a scrub plane if I had one. Once the worst of it is off and any nails have been located and removed, then I would run it through a surface planer to give a good finished surface.