Still Scraping Along

Finally!!!! Today we dropped below the three digit mark!!!

SWMBO even took the day off and we got about six hours of scraping in.

Believe it or not your not having a bad trip, this is me and yes that is a tie-dye shirt!

I'm using the Paint Shaver Pro. This handy tool sure saves us time. Unfortunately the moulding makes up for the saved time due to hand scraping.

Do you see the section between the 2nd & 3rd columns to the right? This is all we got done today, along with about two feet to the right of column two.

At this rate it will take another week to get the rest of the porch soffit done.

Take a close look at the picture and you'll see a red arrow pointing to a red circle. Inside that circle is a hole that goes all the way through the soffit and it's been somewhat of a mystery.

Here's a better view of the 'mystery hole'.

Like I said, we're not sure what it is exactly but we're about 90% sure it's an opening for the original gas line that went into the house. On the other side of the soffit you can see a paint scar, along the porch ceiling, that goes from this hole to one in the ceiling where it meets the east wall.

If it is where the gas pipe came in then this is the first time I've seen it enter a building this way.

Oh well.

Before I forget, we found a potential 'problem' we weren't expecting. I'll find out more about it tomorrow.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~

The A-Bomb of Paint Scraping

Hey Everybody!!

I promised I would tell you about the 'Nuclear Warhead' that was on it's way as soon as possible. Well, the A-Bomb arrived Saturday morning!! Unfortunately it wasn't until Sunday before I could try it out.

What is this nuke that lays waste to paint you ask? Well let me tell you about it.

This bad-boy of the power tool world is called the Paint Shaver Pro. You can find all the info about it here.

Go to the page and you'll find three video links a little from the top - they are well worth the time to watch. Another excellent video is on YouTube and was made by Scevoli Painting, and can be found here.

This is a general picture of the Paint Shaver Pro I got from the web. It gives a better view of the business end than I could produce.

You should be able to see the round head with the cutting blades. The blades are three tiny carbide triangles with rounded angles.

Wicked, and vicious, looking sucker ain't it?



This is the one I got.

It came from a couple just north of us here in Kansas. They bought it from a guy off eBay but listed it on Craigslist when it became apparent they didn't have time to strip and paint their house.

We will not discuss they cost... Let's just say these things are so pricey that there is a thriving secondary market out there and even these are not cheap.

Let's see what this monster can do to our paint here at the Folly!!

Here is a section of wall on the east side of the porch, just south of the dining room's bay window.




Nice, grungy, and nasty!

And here is a section from the same spot after the Paint Shaver was used.

This took a little over 2 minutes!!


After using this tool you do have to sand the boards because the planning leaves it rough. You should do this anyway so that wasn't a big deal. Also, if you are not careful you can really mess-up a board or create deep gouges in it.

One does need to practice some before using the tool, which I did on some old painted doors, and adjust the cutting depth to what's needed. Due to the various thicknesses of paint on the house this will need to be done periodically.

Oh yeah - another cool thing is that the paint Shaver will remove the paint from the underside of the top lap at the same time. this takes practice, and adjusting as well.

One major, MAJOR, caveat is safety. One should play it safe when using any tool, especially power tools, but this one is different. Let's just say that if your not careful, and your fingers get in the way...well, do you remember that scene in 'Fargo' where the guy fed the other guy into the limb shredder?

SWMBO cringes at the thought.

All-n-all this bad-boy is well worth the investment. I can't wait to see how fast I can get a side knocked down. I'll keep you posted.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~