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I have some redwood boards that have been painted. Does planing painted boards present any special problems?

The only thing that crosses my mind is - You don't want to inhale the chips or dust. Especially if it is a lead based paint.

Welcome Dwalt41.
What Chuck said AND you should make sure there are no nails, brads, staples, etc under the paint. That kind of stuff is a little hard on blades.

Just the paint alone will dull your blades faster than just wood. Be prepared to sharpen blades if you are doing very much.

,dwalt41,
How thick are the redwood boards? Are you just trying to remove the paint or are you trying to plane the boards down significantly? If you are just trying to eliminate the paint, use a paint stripper, or you could sand it off (but like charlese said: use something to protect your lungs). If it fits for you, one solution may be to resaw the boards on a bandsaw before planing them. If you can saw a thin portion of the board off, you will eliminate most of the paint dust that you may get with planing or sanding.

I also am going to reinforce what dusty said; I, too believe that the paint will dull your blades.

And what curiousgeorge said; use a metal detector to find hidden metal. If you have a "stud finder" that uses a magnet to locate the studs, you can use that to locate metal in your wood also.

Hmmm! Didn't think paint would dull blades faster than wood!


wonder what is in paint that would cause that?

Paint has dirt, sand, and other such components in it. They are ground up very fine, but still they are harder then wood. And don't forget, the old paint with lead in it. Lead is a metal, soft metal, but a metal none the less.

I imagine the fine sand and dirt would be no more than the residual sand on/in sanded plywood. Pretty small amount!

As for lead - other than being a respiration problem, there shouldn't be a problem with HSS blades. When roofing for several summers with my Brother's company, we used lead caps for soil stacks and some flashings. We cut the 1/8" lead sheets with household scissors and knives, with no apparent problem to the tools. Also, when a kid, we melted and poured lead soldiers. (using molds from toy from toy maker -The Gilbert Co. - Erector sets, etc.) We used our knives and hand saws to cut smaller pieces of lead from the larger blocks we could buy locally.

Considering today's standards - myself and all my friends should either be dead or have become brain dead. Duhhh!

You may be right, charlese. Maybe there wood be little to no effect. I really do knot know. I do know that there are components in paint that are harder then wood, and therefore, theoretically, dull the blades faster then wood will. Here is a link to some interesting paint component information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint#Pigment

a1gutterman wrote: I do know that there are components in paint that are harder then wood, and therefore, theoretically, dull the blades faster then wood will.

You are right on there, Tim! Silica is hard stuff!

Thanks for the reference to wikipedia.