DIY Woodworking, Home Improvement, and Art Projects

So you’ve got to strip some paint or varnish off of a wood surface.  Right.  A fairly common task.  Well, if you live in an apartment, don’t have a lot of work space in your home, or you can’t tolerate the heavier, chemical smells of traditional mineral-spirit-based paint strippers, then Citristrip might be for you.  Even if you do have plenty of work space and the strong smells don’t bother you that much, then you’d still do well to try this product.  We tried it based on the recommendation of a friend and I’m passing that recommendation on to you.

This product does what it advertises to do…it’s a powerful all-purpose stripper that’s easy to use.  I will warn you now, it’s not like you’re just stripping paint with completely safe, gentle chemicals here.  This stuff will eat through standard vinyl gloves in no time.  It’s also a skin irritant and should be washed off immediately if it gets on exposed skin.  If you’re going to try this stuff out, make sure you have a sturdy plastic scraping tool, and several pairs of high-quality, chemical-resistant gloves.  Also, though the smell isn’t as bad as other strippers I’ve used, it still is pretty strong.  We applied the gel in the garage and could still smell it days later; inside the house we could hardly tell there was an odor.

We used the aerosol can applicator rather than get the larger size container.  In our case we had one cabinet door that I used to test different techniques and perfect my repainting system.  Unfortunately since I didn’t get it quite right, I had to strip it all down to the bare wood and start from scratch to get a consistent look to all the other doors.  So we set up two saw horses in the garage, placed the door on top, and sprayed a thick coating of the Citristrip gel evenly over the entire top and sides.  It says that within two hours you may be able to remove the unwanted paint or varnish.  I went out to the garage 2 1/2 hours later, put on my gloves again, got out the plastic scraper, and dove in.

I agree that within two hours it may work for you…but I had at least six or seven layers of primer, paint, glaze, and varnish on this cabinet: Two hours wasn’t going to be enough.  In my haste I kept scraping and scraping, trying to make it work.  The first time much of the paint did come off, but it was very messy, and the paint got very sticky and I was lucky I had thought ahead and brought out rags and a couple plastic bags to dispose of the paint remnants.  So I kept scraping, and spraying more gel, then scraping, then spraying.  I think I should have done one round of scraping, then sprayed another layer of gel and waited another two hours.

Because I was impatient it cost me the extra physical labor involved in all that extra scraping and washing.  I used an old toothbrush to help me get in the corners and then I used Murphy’s Oil Soap and water to clean off the excess Citristrip gel and paint bits.  So all-in-all it’s a great product as long as you plan ahead with your tools, can set aside an entire afternoon to apply it and then scrape it off, possibly more than once, and if you’ve got the proper gloves.  Give it a try, especially if harsh smells bother you, because this product has comparably low odor and was quite easy to clean up once I was finished.

Here are a couple product images with some bullet points from Citristrip’s website.

Minwax’s line of oil-based laquers and polyurethane finishes, and water-based finishes has a great reputation. You can find their products almost everywhere; in small hardware stores, paint stores, the big-box home centers, and at lumber supply stores. The point is that they have a wide variety of products to provide protective finishes over almost any existing surface imaginable. They also have tons of stains, waxes, oils, and wood repair products; I’ll get into those other lines of products later on.

Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish

Today I’m going to talk about the Polycrylic protective finish from Minwax. We got this in the gallon size, but I’ve also purchased it in the quart size for smaller projects. It’s not exactly cheap; at around $10 for a quart and $35 for a gallon; it’s worth it in my opinion. What you’re getting for the price is a low-odor, quick-drying product that is easy to clean up. Now those things may not seem like the most important aspects to judge a product on, but after you’ve used oil-based polyuerthane finishes, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I got my introduction to this product when I was doing some paintings a couple of years ago. These were fine art paintings on both wood panel and regular cotton canvas. I wanted a simple, fast clear coat finish that would dry quickly and be easy to clean up. I tried it both as a multi-coat step to add depth to my panel paintings, and also as a protective clear coat on top of a finished painting. It worked great and provided ease of use as well as an almost perfectly smooth, bubble-less finish. I usually get the quart size for my art paintings and the gallon size for home improvement projects.
Most recently I purchased a gallon for our cabinet refinishing project. We wanted to coat everything with two coats of clear finish. Since these are kitchen cabinets we needed a strong, wear-resistant coating that wouldn’t change the look of the decorative finish underneath. After all the time we spent on the painting and glazing of the cabinets we didn’t want to hinder the look by having to clear coat them. The Polycrylic did a terrific job of protecting the cabinet surfaces while being almost imperceptible. You can get it in both agloss, semi-gloss, and satin finish and they both work well depending on which type of project you’re doing. We used a semi-gloss on our cabinets.

The fact that this product has almost no odor and is easy to clean up were huge benefits as well. We only cracked a porch door during the application of the product and that was more to help me cool down than to relieve any strong chemical odor. I did use disposable vinyl gloves when I applied the Polycrylic for ease of clean up and convenience. I used a synthetic bristle brush to apply the finish. If you’re doing a lot of surface area at one time (one prolonged coat) then I would recommend cleaning out your brush midway through. The liquid can dry and stiffen your brush near the ferrule, where the bristles are attached to the handle, if you’re not careful. It’s not a brush killer, but you’ll ensure a longer brush life if you periodically use soap and water to clean them out during application of the Polycrylic finish.

I also used a wet rag to catch any drips along the edges of the surface I was working on. As long as you catch the drips quickly they won’t dry into a clear dimple on your floor or other areas where you don’t want little clear bumps. Like any clear finish you do have to be careful, especially if you’re applying it to a vertical surface, to watch the drying process so you’re not left with drips and accumulations of the finish in corners. If you just do little touch ups here and there with a brush or rag as you go you’ll ensure an even coating with little to no drips or imperfections.
This is what the Minwax site says about this product:
“Minwax® Polycrylic® Protective Finish is a crystal clear, ultra fast-drying protective topcoat for use over bare wood, oil- and water-based stains, paint and wallpaper. It has very little odor, is non-flammable, cleans up easily with soap and water and can be recoated in only 2 hours.”

Polycrylic® can be used on furniture, trim, doors, cabinets and paneling. Its clarity makes it an ideal topcoat over Minwax® Water-Based Wood Stains and any wood surface, especially light woods like maple, ash and birch. Polycrylic® also resists damage from abrasion, scuffing, chipping, water, alcohol and other common household chemicals.”

Polycrylic® is not recommended for use on floors because it would require more frequent recoating in high traffic areas. Instead, we recommend Minwax^® Super Fast-Drying Polyurethane for Floors or Minwax^® Water-Based Polyurethane for Floors.”

If you’ve used this product and have success or horror stories about it please let us know. We hope to create a resource of product reviews and actual user comments to help anyone that comes to this site. Thanks!