I used the paper with Peel Away 6 and left it over night. Today I lifted the paper and it was almost dry. A lot of the varnish came off with the paper but there was still a good deal left on the wood. It is slimey-pasty. It’s hard to get off. Peel Away 6 says it contains no water and doesn’t raise the grain of the wood. But you are suppose to use a damp cloth or sponge to clean off the left over residue. It took a lot of water to clean it off and it did raise the grain because of it. I also tried spritzing it with vinegar water. It helped a little. I tried the damp sponge mixed with a little ammonia and that worked a little better than the vinegar, I thought.
I have used the very strong strippers and the Peel Away 6 is just as much work, in my opinion. But it has such a great advantage in the fact that it is safe and doesn’t hurt your hands. I love that part! I used to get light headed working with the other stripper. This one has almost no smell and I feel safe using it around the animals.
I have a little left to do on the big picture window. I’m going to try mineral spirits as a clean up and I’ll try denatured alcohol if that doesn’t work. Alcohol may be the best since I’m taking off what seems to be shellac covered by a varnish. Once the top layer of varnish is gone the shellac should readily dissolves with alcohol. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use anything stronger than water. It looks like there is no “magic” way to strip wood.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Patricia in Jackson // May 3, 2007 at 6:24 am
Denautred alcohol. This is what I used to clean off the PA 7 and it worked like a charm, it won’t raise the grain and it cleans up the residue well.
PA 7 was great, it was easy on the hands, not caustic, didn’t discolor wood, and I learned to really appreciate that after I melted a hole in my finger with PA 1.
You can try the tin foil on a very small section, it really did work well and kept the stripper wet so that it could work.
2 linda // May 3, 2007 at 7:28 am
Patricia, thanks for the tips. I looked up Peel Away 7. It says it is for architectural paint removal. Removes latex and oil based paint. It doesn’t say it is for varnishes like Peel Away 6 does. I wonder if there is a difference or just a different label to get you to buy the stuff. I’ll use the alcohol for clean up today. I’m not going to let it sit so long this time and see how easy it is. I think I left it on too long yesterday. I’ve thought of using wax paper but the Peel Away paper was pretty cheap. Still, it is a lot of work. But what a difference it will make to have a nice finish around the window when I’m done.
3 linda // May 3, 2007 at 6:08 pm
I didn’t leave the paper on as long today and it came off pretty good this time. Still left dissolved residue. I tried denatured alcohol and it took it right off. I don’t like using the solvents but sometimes you have to in order to get stuff done. I’m pretty happy about using Peel Away 6 now that I can get the residue off pretty easily with alcohol.
4 JArnoldy // Oct 24, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I am in the middle odf stripping a built in hutchy from the 1860’s. i had a heck of a time with the drawers due to the non specific directions on the pail. i wish that the peel peeps would mention that you can use paper with the peel away 6 edition im sure that it will go better after reading the posts
5 Steve // Nov 18, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I have two kitchen cabinet doors that I am about to use Peel Away 6 on. The doors have the factory finish of varnish and stain. The container says to leave the product on from between 2 and 24/48 hours. Has anyone done a similar project and how long did you leave the stuff on. I also was not going to use paper. Is this a dumb move?
6 Linda@This Old Erie House // Nov 18, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I found that the product dries out if you leave it on too long. That’s really hard to get off if that happens. You just have to do it over. I put freezer wrap on it once and it worked OK. The stuff works but it takes a long time on some finishes. It works really fast on shellac. Like about 30 minutes. Sometimes you have to redo it to get it really clean. But you don’t need to wear gloves and it is safe. That alone makes it worth it.
7 Annie // Mar 21, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I just sent back an order of Peel Away 21 because it dried almost immediately and there was nothing to peel! I’m exchanging it for PA6, which I used two years ago with good success, stripping multi-layered paint and varnish from 100-year-old woodwork and drawers in our “Old House.” I did have to reapply several times on some surfaces, and ended up scrubbing with soft brush and water on others, which did temporarily raise the grain. Glad to know of the success with alcohol, I’ll try it if I need to this time.
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