Metabo LF724 6.4 Amp 3-1/7-Inch Paint Remover - Hitachi Grinder ...
If you are removing paint on a significant amount of wood or on a home with very much wood siding, I would suggest you purchase the extra 10 piece blade set ). Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase of this tool. I can't imagine the Porter Cable paint remover doing a better job than this tool and the Metabo being about 3. In protected areas, the old paint is stubborn, but this tool has done a great job, and the best job of anything we've tried, of removing these layers. I have owned this tool for about a year and have used it to strip 108 years worth, or approximately 15 layers, of paint off my home. I purchased the Metabo paint reomover about 2 months ago. In the end, I feel this tool easily saved me money because a paint contractor would probably charge me a small fortune to take all of my homes fascia boards down to bare wood before repainting. My home was built after paint containing lead was banned so I opted not to use the dust collection built into this tool. Also, hitting those nailheads may cause the tool to kick back, and if those rabbet covers are gone, you want TOTAL control over the tool. And when they do, you're staring right at the exposed edge of the spinning disc with two very sharp carbide blades - something you will have to watch out for as you complete your paint-removal task. It does leave some old paint on the "lap" edge - the blades on the edge can't be adjusted to take off more of this material. Of all the tools available to strip paint, this is the best I've used. I rigged up a pulley system with an eye hook in the overhang of the roof, a rope, and a bungie cord on the end, which hooks to the side of the stripper - picture an upside down "U". Since I was working on scaffolding, I tie off the end of the rope... This tool does a fantastic job of stripping paint. I used it to remove about 6 layers of paint from the fascia boards on my house. It will easily strip layers of paint off, and gouge the wood if you're not careful. In my opinion, safety goggles, a full face shield and respirator (approved for lead-based paint removal) are mandatory, not optional. One coat of primer and two top coats of paint and presto, my home looks great. Because of the faulty doors and the paint left on the lap edge though, I rate this as 4 stars intead of 5. If you're not careful, you WILL remove more than just paint - but the same is true for grinders, scrapers, brushes, chisels, etc. When all of the paint was removed, i gave the fascia boards a quick once over with a random orbit sander. It does what it was brought to the party to do which is remove paint. One gripe is that I broke one of the small tabs on one of the plastic blade covers within 2-3 hours of use. Most of the paint is lead based oil. The carbide blades that are used with this tool are semi-pyrimidal shaped in that they have a bevel (edge) on each of the 4 sides. So, you end up removing what is left by hand, if you choose to. You can adjust the depth of the main cutting surface to control the tool better. Only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the rabbet cover issue and the fact that the on/off switch can be turned off a little too easily when really gripping the tool up far on the housing. This tool will send nailheads flying and often times right at your face (hence face protection). Anyone who is familiar with power tools (especially those in the grinder/planer family) knows that you have to exercise some caution when removing anything from wood. This tool works amazingly well and is very easy to use. Initially I was very skeptical of how this tool would work as well as the seemingly steep cost. So, you have to adjust the rope every few feet, but its the only way I've found to work with this thing for 6-10 hours in a day without your arms, neck and back feeling like jello at the end of the day....