How to Remove old stain from wood windows

Remove all stain from windows, so you can either apply new stain or a clear coat wood.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• One hundred grit sandpaper, this is a good middle grit, lower then that will not remove the stain but polish it. Courser such as 80 will leave scrape lines in the wood. Wire wool, a paint stripper, gl

1. 
   masking off window from wall

   Mask off wall around window and tape window glass to reduce scratches and damage.

2. Step one is to test the toughness of the old stain by using some 100 sandpaper on the wood. If the stain powders off with some easy, continue with sand paper .Sand all areas that are not flat with folded sand paper, grooves and profiles in any molding.

3. 

   Second step is to sand all flat areas with a electric sand that you have , square sander, or a orbital with a lit touch use a 100 or finer sanding paper/disc.
   • At this stage most of the stain that is easily removable will have come off with a lot of elbow grease, remember that the process of removing.
   • What stain that is remaining will be the difficult parts, to save time another method has to be used before a return to hand sanding.

4. 
   steel wool , tear off a small piece.

   • Option one is to use a chemical paint softener, Such as GREEN'S LIQUID PAINT, VARNISH & LACQUER REMOVER
   • Use a product that you feel comfortable with be it a traditional paint remover or a newer orange or soy based paint remover., apply to touch areas of window that, work with instructions, but generally once stain is soft use #1 medium steel wool, as the many steel fibers will collect up the stain when it is soft, at this point sandpaper will clog up and it not as effective at a medium #1 Steel wool.

5. 
   very sharp scraping tool

   • Scraper that is very sharp either a flat blade or a profile can be used on tuff parts of the molding,I use a Bahco 625 Ergo triangle hand scraper, they cost about $25

6. • Next in area that refuse to be cleaned of stain, and are black, these maybe water stains, or marks from the chemical reaction of the metal in the nails, treat with wood bleach, may not be worth the effort as stain my be too deep or if using a medium to dark stain , will be hidden anyway.

7. When you are done sanding the last bits of stain off or give up, vacuum , or brush off wood.

8. 
   no more stain, just bare wood.

   Now you wood will be 99.9 percent clean of old stain if all goes well. Look something like picture if you wood is in good condition, this window is Fir with oak casing around window

Tips & Warnings

• Newer types of paint removers my work slower, but are not as "smelly and dangerous" but some time you need a industrial paint remover. This will take time, I logged ten hour per window.
• Dust will get all over room. Steel wool leaves small pieces off itself, clean up well. The scraper will cut wood, its very sharp, watch for walls , also tape the windows or you will leave hundreds of scratches on the glass.