We&#;re sharing the pros and cons that we discovered after using the Speedheater , an infrared paint stripping tool. Is it right for you? Let&#;s talk about it!
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Even though we&#;ve decided to hire out the installation of all new millwork and trim at our ongoing Two Flat Project, we still plan on restoring the original wood doors and built-in hutch! We first purchased the Speedheater , an infrared paint stripping tool designed to safely remove paint from wood surfaces, to revive the millwork, but we think it will come in handy for doors and various projects down the road. When Kim shared the Speedheater in Stories, her DMs quickly filled with questions! We had a hard time finding personal reviews of the tool online, so we wanted to throw our experience into the ring, in the hopes it could help you if the time comes.
The (pictured throughout this post) is the bigger of the two available sizes and is designed to remove paint from large surface areas like trim, doors, and siding. The &#;s little brother, the Speedheater Cobra, works similarly, but in a smaller handheld package that&#;s designed to remove paint from windows and furniture. We&#;ll focus on the Speedheater here, as the units are functionally identical, but each likely has its own benefits.
The Speedheater is a very specific tool for a very specific job. If there is a large quantity of paint to be stripped from a large surface area, it&#;s rated to be among the best, which is what attracted us to it. Here&#;s why:
1| Safety
The Speedheater uses infrared technology to gently heat and soften paint so that it can be easily scraped away using standard paint scraping tools. The benefit of using infrared heat as opposed to a heat gun is the lower temperature at which infrared heating is effective. If you&#;re dealing with lead based paint, this is extraordinarily important! Lead paint vaporizes at 752 degrees Fahrenheit and produces poisonous fumes. The Speedheater works at much lower operating temperatures than lead&#;s vaporizing point, so is a significantly safer option than a heat gun or similar tool. That said, we still took lots of precautions during use and placed disposable drop cloths around our work surface. We also kept windows open for ventilation and wore gloves, masks and glasses while we worked.
Lead paint vaporizes at 752 degrees Fahrenheit and produces poisonous fumes. The Speedheater works at much lower operating temperatures than lead&#;s vaporizing point, so is a significantly safer option than a heat gun or similar tool. That said, we still took lots of precautions during use and placed disposable drop cloths around our work surface. We also kept windows open for ventilation and wore gloves, masks and glasses while we worked.
2| Speed
The Speedheater heats an area of 3&#; x 11&#; in 20-40 seconds depending largely on the age, quantity and type of paint being removed. The nice thing about using the larger unit for trim and millwork is that one area can be scraped while the next area is being heated, and so on. That was a huge selling point for us! This &#;leapfrogging&#; techniqe nearly eliminated down time between patches and makes for quick work. We were able to remove the vast majority of paint from a roughly 5 foot trim board in 2-3 minutes. Our trim will eventually be painted, so we weren&#;t concerned with total perfection. If wood will be restored to stain-grade, we&#;d estimate the time would double.
3| (Relative) Cleanliness
We have used and loved gel strippers like Citristrip in the past but, man, are they messy! Where gel strippers liquify paint into a sticky slurry of gloop, the Speedheater allows paint to be scraped off cleanly with virtually no dust. The paint from our millwork shaved off and gathered on the floor, where we had previously laid a drop cloth. Tip: This scraper was our best friend.
While the Speedheater certainly has its benefits, stripping paint is rarely a perfect science. Below are our thoughts on the drawbacks to using this clever tool on your next project.
1| Expense
The Speedheater kit costs $599 from their only US distributor, Eco-Strip. We absolutely understand why the tool costs what it does, but we felt that we simply wouldn&#;t use it enough to justify the cost. Instead, we went on a hunt in which we scoured Craigslist, eBay and Facebook Marketplace to find a secondhand Speedheater to minimize the initial investment. We couldn&#;t find a unit locally, so we widened our search and found a perfectly functioning unit in Louisville, KY, in which the seller agreed to have it shipped to Chicago with insurance.
We&#;re hopeful that we can use it while restoring the Two Flat and break even by reselling it when we&#;re done. From what we can tell, the current going rate for the unit in good condition is around $250 &#; $350 before shipping. Speedheaters do pop up on eBay from time to time, so make sure to keep an eye out. Happy hunting!
2| There&#;s a learning curve
This is the case with anything, right? We read a lot of articles before starting, and truthfully, we&#;re still a little unsure of how to use The Classic Arm that came with ours! At one point, the Speedheater was left on a few seconds too long, and a small section of board caught flame. (It was blown out easily and quickly, but it gave us a scare!) It took us several passes to learn how long to leave the Speedheater on each section of board, and once we figured that out, the next challenge was getting down our scraping technique.
3| It&#;s a one-trick pony
The Speedheater is a bit of a one-trick pony. It performs its one intended function incredibly well &#; removing paint from wood. What it (supposedly) doesn&#;t do as well is&#; anything else. Per the manufacturer, Speedheaters &#;quickly heat varnish, oil-based, latex, acrylic, or plastic paint. They do not work on shellac, milk paint, or stain.&#; Apparently, there are methods for utilizing the tool for removing paint from brick, marble, concrete and fiberglass, but with significantly more time and effort involved. To us, $600 seems like a lot of money to spend on a tool with such limited uses.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website pre-stripping machine.
This is the question we asked ourselves for weeks before taking the plune. Here&#;s our take: If you have a large scale wood restoration project in your near future (or restore wood frequently or professionally), the time that the Speedheater or Cobra could save might make for an incredibly worthwhile investment.
The Speedheater allows for nearly instant paint removal when compared to a gel stripper like Citristrip, which requires wait times of up to 24 hours, depending on the type of paint you&#;re stripping. That said, the 24 hour wait times don&#;t mean 24 hours of work. It&#;s inactive waiting, while the Speedheater requires constant repetitive work.
All that said, the Speedheater might be the perfect addition to your tool arsenal if there is a lot of paint removal in your future, but not if you only have one project in your queue, or don&#;t see continued use in the future. If you fall in the latter, the expense might not make sense. The great news is that Speedheaters can be tough to find on the secondhand market (perhaps a testament to how much Speedheater owners love theirs?), so fingers crossed you likely wouldn&#;t have a hard time reselling it when you&#;re through!
Have you used a Speedheater, and if so, what was your experience?
Anyone working with, or around machinery needs to be alert to potential dangers at all times. As machines continue to become more high-tech and complicated, we must also keep up to date on new advances in Industry 4.0, and how best to protect ourselves. For this reason, you should make sure that all your staff and employees are familiar with machine safety rules, and hold regular training sessions to update and reinforce them.
The following are our top ten Machine Safety Rules:
There are many rules and regulations governing machine safety and the installation of proper safeguards. Where machine operators are concerned, it's the responsibility of a business owner to follow these, and also to ensure that all employees who are working on or around machines do so in complete safety. Machine operators should know how to recognise the required machine safeguards, and how to tell if there's a problem with them. Training programmes should emphasise that all legally required safeguards must be correctly installed and adjusted before the equipment can be operated.
It's very tempting for a machine operator to remove an annoying safeguard, or attempt to bypass it, if it's preventing them from getting on with the job. This is one of the most dangerous things to do around machinery, since the safeguards are obviously there for a reason and should not be removed on any account.
It's also possible that unauthorised safeguards may have been installed that don't comply with existing regulations. Machinery should not be operated in such circumstances, or where the properly authorised safeguards are in a damaged condition.
Machine operators must immediately report any damage or safeguard failures to a supervisor, whose responsibility it is to resolve any safety issues. Only when all problems have been resolved may operation of the machinery be resumed.
Some machines can be accessed for lubrication purposes without removing their safeguards, via oil reservoirs that may be located outside the guard. If access is not possible with the safeguards still on, the machine must first be switched off and locked out before guards are removed.
If the safeguards need to be removed for any reason, such as maintenance or replacement, this must only be done after lock-out, tag-out or isolation of the equipment. This applies also to all machine maintenance, whether scheduled or reactive.
Hazardous pinch points are likely to be found around various types of roller and gear assemblies, couplings, flywheels, spindles and drive drums. Junctions, terminals and convex curves on conveyor belts offer nip hazards, as well as locations near skirt plates, feed hoppers and tracking. Any object that is intentionally or accidentally dropped into a machine may also create a new pinch point. It may also cause damage not only to the equipment itself, but possibly also to its operator, from, for example, a ricochet.
A pinch point may also be defined as any point where the whole or part of a person&#;s body is at risk of being caught in machinery. This doesn't only mean between a machine's own moving parts, but also between its moving and its stationary parts, and between any part of the machine and other materials. These include falling objects, or materials attached to the machine operators themselves.
Loose clothing, long hair or dangling jewellery also, therefore, constitute a nip hazard, as these items might be caught up into the machine's moving parts and so cause additional safety hazards. Employees must always wear the required PPE in the workplace, including where necessary masks, gloves, glasses, aprons, boots, and hats.
It's important to demonstrate during employee training that a machine is not necessarily at rest just because it's been switched off. Some parts continue to move, such as fans, cooling elements, rollers, gears and rotating parts, and may constitute a hazardous pinch point. No machine should be left unattended while there is any part still moving.
Machine operators who are in any doubt about the safety of a machine, or who have questions regarding its safe operation, must always refer these concerns to their supervisor immediately. They should not in any circumstances attempt to deal with the issue themselves.
These top ten machine safety rules are designed for the protection of your employees while working around machinery. Machine safety is a wide-ranging and important topic, however, and embraces many aspects such as health and safety at work and prevailing standards. You can read more about those here.
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