refinishing frustrations

[pianolac@bestweb.net]

With all due respect to Chris and Mark, the size of one's shop should not
dictate whether you use an environmentally responsible, efficient,
effective and non-toxic material for stripping the finish off of pianos.

There aren't any "waterbased" strippers.  There are various water soluble
strippers that use relatively benign chemicals to do the stripping.  Dyna 2
is essentially a hyper-soap.  It wets the old coating to the bare wood, it
does it in one application, and because of that fact, it is the least
expnesive way to strip a piano.  The highest cost input for this job is
labor.  If you can save one or two applications of stripper, you're saving
a lot of time and money.

There are side benefits of using a stripper like Dyna 2.  There's no wax in
it, yet it forms an exterior shell that prevents evaporation.  If you fail
to remove all the wax from a methylene chloride stripper, you leave
yourself open to craters and fisheyes.  Dyna 2 is also an effective
silicone emulsifier, so it grabs furniture polish that penetrates into the
pores.  Doesn't always get all of it, but since I've been using it, I
haven't had one instance of silicone contaminated wood.

I also like the idea of not burning my hands and arms and not spewing forth
toxic fumes in the air, and toxic waste into our environment.

Arthur Grudko
www.pianolac.com


>Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:The methylene chloride (I think
that's right) type with the layer of wax that forms to minimize
evaporation?
> 
>Yep.  Works in 15-20 minutes.  About 2 1/2 gal. to strip a typical 5ft.7"
grand.  A good fit for small shops that don't have room to lay out all of
their parts for the several hours/overnight time frame required by the
water-based strippers.  Yea, it's nasty - so precautions are in order.  I
still prefer it to the water-based strippers for efficiency in my shop. 
And remember, I am a LONG-TIME water-base finisher, and do try to avoid the
stronger solvents when there are  alternatives that work well with my
workplace.  
> 
>Mark Potter
>
>
>