Best paint remover, ever !

[Bob Perry]

No wires to connect. No slimy mess, no chemicals. Will take just a few minutes of your time. No sand or abrasives to buy. And no expense at all.

And this method will even make lunch for you. And heat your shop on a cold day, too.

Oh and get rid of all the waste paper, cardboard, pieces of wood, etc. that you've been tripping over.

And while all that's being done, I'm on the internet, while my work is being done for me!

Sounds impossible ?

Fire! Yes, just get a good fire going in the 'ol woodstove, and throw in whatever you want. Today, I did 2 batches: Heavy stuff like snow-plow frame parts, various steering pedestal/gauge and switch panels from an H, some motor mount brackets from a old truck, baked for a couple hours. Then the second batch was lighter stuff like sealed-beam housings, oil-bath air cleaners, a Cub dash, etc. Even some handfuls of various nuts and bolts.

I have a large magnet which will suck up anything small out of the ashes.

My stove is 36" deep and has a big door.

Just wonder what the people driving by thought when they saw the smoke from the chimney on a day when it's 70 degrees!!!

[ScottyD'sdad]

I'll be watching, from a good distance, when you do a cub hood and fuel tank, that I do in my E-tank! Good luck fitting it in, too! Getting it out will be fast, REAL fast! Ed

[Bob Perry]

I usually leave a couple gallons of gas in it, for more heat.

(That was a joke.)

[Chris D]

Gotta be careful not to take the temper out of the metal. Sometimes heat will weaken the parts and they bend or break easier. I won't buy any parts that have been involved in a fire....

Edit: also seems like once a part is burned it rusts a lot faster than a non burned part. Wether painted or not it will rust faster.

[Bill V in Md]

I would be careful because some of those fumes could be quite toxic.

[Bob Perry]

Gotta be careful not to take the temper out of the metal. Sometimes heat will weaken the parts and they bend or break easier. I won't buy any parts that have been involved in a fire....

Edit: also seems like once a part is burned it rusts a lot faster than a non burned part. Wether painted or not it will rust faster.

It's how they made all your truck bodies, farm implements, trailers, and everything else, any steel I ever bought came from heat, and when I weld it gets a heck of a lot hotter than my woodstove (or else my woodstove would have melted) so if properly primed and painted, a little heat ain't gonna matter (I am not talking springs or castings or other specialty stuff) The things I clean with fire are mild steel that would be exposed to welds, etc., and I have used this method over half a century and it has worked fine, in fact my woodstove is made of 1/4 inch mild steel, and it's over 30 years since it was built and it's doing fine.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

You are right Bob, but they were all made in a controlled environment with amount of heat, time, etc closely watched, and many were tempered afterward.

[bob in CT]

I am not crazy about this. Annealing can be done as low as 700 degrees. Grain growth weakens the steel. But most of all is the robbing of carbon out of the steel, or decarburization. This is why it will rust easily later. keep in mind that much of the welding uses a shielding gas (or even a layer of flux) and many welds should be passivated to avoid corrosion later.