How to Take the Paint Off of Cans

Regardless of the type of paint or the type of can, paint removal has become easy with the common availability of chemical paint strippers. Use a stripper from your local home improvement store, or for tougher jobs, find paint strippers at automotive stores. It is also possible to use sandpaper or sandblasting to remove paint from cans, but these techniques tend to be more labor-intensive, and a sand blaster is expensive.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Chemical paint stripper Putty knife Paint brush Old newspapers or drop cloths Rubber gloves Rags or paper towels

1. Lay a good quantity of old newspapers or a drop cloth where you intend to work. Prepare your work space outdoors or in a garage with the garage door open for proper ventilation.

2. Set the cans needing to be stripped on the newspapers or drop cloth.

3. Put on the gloves and consider wearing safety goggles. Wear clothing you don't care about; paint stripper is nasty stuff.

4. Apply the paint stripper with a paint brush to the can.

5. Wait at least five to 10 minutes (or whatever it says on your paint stripper instructions). Once the paint begins to lift and bubble, use the putty knife to scrape the old paint off the can.

6. Use rags, paper towels or more newspaper to wipe the putty knife off between scraping strokes. Lay the rags or paper towels on your protective work surface or throw them directly into a plastic trash bag.

7. Continue to alternate scraping and reapplying paint stripper until your can is clean. Use a rag to remove the bits of paint residue once the bulk of the paint has been scraped off.

References

• Removing paint from metal