Needle scaler for paint removal

[jwmay]

Does anyone have a strong opinion for or against the use of a needle scaler to remove old paint on painted cast iron surfaces? Being a rough surface, I’m doing a lot of digging with a pick, so this just popped in my head.

 

[Richard King 2]

When I paint machines I just wipe clean, scrape off any loose paint and then feather sand them. prime them before painting. If you strip down to the casting you will need to Bondo the bad spots. I would think the scaller would work,may help relieve some stress too. Rich

 

[Hukshawn]

I think a scaler would be fine as long as you stay away from any areas it can damage, such as ways or slides, etc. Also, be careful around areas that are thinner if your scaler is of the larger and more powerful variety. In factory, I used to use the scaler on a slight angle, worked better to chip rather than pound. The maintenance guy used to get ****** cause it would make all the needles pointed. Apparently he didn’t like that.

 

[dlane]

I used a HF scaler on my lathe in the small places that were hard to get with stripper and scraper , worked good but uses some air

 

[Crank]

I used an HF needle scaler on my Takisawa and it made short work of digging the oil soaked Bondo out of the nooks and crannies. Be careful around any precision surface and you should have no problem. As Richard stated, if you don't need to strip to bare casting, DON'T!!! as it adds a lot more work. Unfortunately my lathe was pretty bad and having to re-apply filler was a less than enjoyable task.

Mark

 

[Uglydog]

I've used one when cleaning up old machines. Seemed to work well.
I got the paint dust and other detritus all over everything and everywhere.

Think about what the vintage paint and etc is made from and where it is blowing/settling.
In your lungs? On your clothes? Where will your clothes be washed? Will the grand kids be playing in the dust pile next weekend. etc
I'm not suggesting that it is a bad idea. Merely that you make informed decisions and consider the long term consequences.

Daryl
MN

 

[benmychree]

It is not a good idea to remove paint and filler when it is adhering to the castings as it should, remove paint and loose filler as needed, degrease and add new filler, sand things down smooth, re prime and paint. As stated, removing all the paint and filler is not necessary and makes a lot of miserable work necessary to bring back a decent surface; this was the advice of Mel Heinz, a used machinery dealer in Berkley Ca. who I bought many pieces of used machinery from.

 

[mhooper]

I am currently using a needle scaler to remove multi layers of paint and a very old asphalt base coat on cast iron (gear hobber).
I had tried several types of paint removers, solvents, wire cups wheels on angle grinder and sand blasting. The needle scaler seems to work the best.
I found that the colder the paint and asphalt, the better the needle scaler works removing the paint and asphalt ( less than 20 degrees F.).


M Hooper

 

[woodchucker]

I have used a needle scaler, it works well.
I also have used Citristrip, and I have boiled off the paint in a pot using water and tsp. It comes off very nicely in sheets that just peel off.
All have served me well. I avoid sanding to remove paint.

I don't bondo when I paint it. I just prime and paint. It usually is good enough.

 

[cjtoombs]

Needle scrapers are great, if you want to get down to bare cast iron. I also use them on things like angle iron to remove most of the mill scale. One thing to be aware of on the more modern machine tools is the smoothing coat. They bondo up any really bad casting defects and then shoot the whole machine with a coat of "leveling primer" which is basicaly just a spray version of body filler, usualy to a depth of 1/16-1/8". If you take this off, the machine may not look quite right, unless you want to smear it back down with bondo and sand it. My recomendation on machines like that is to just sand off the top layers of paint, bondo up the scars that you feel you can't live with, and paint it. I work on a lot of antique machines, so they don't have this to begin with.