Anyone that has taken on the task of stripping paint from furniture or woodwork knows that it can be a daunting and sometimes messy task. Commercially available paint strippers can also be expensive.
There is a huge array of paint strippers on the market that range in cost from expensive to very expensive.
It is easy to make your own home-made paint and finish remover with common ingredients that cost next to nothing.
To make your own stripper all you need is:
- 1-pound household lye
- 2-4 boxes of common cornstarch
- 2 gallons of warm water
- 1 five gallon plastic bucket
- a long sleeve shirt
- eye protection
- thick rubber gloves
- a long wood stir stick
Before working with lye please make sure that you have on long sleeves, rubber gloves and eye protection. You do not want to splatter this stuff on you. If you do make sure you immediately rise off any skin that has come in contact with the lye mixture.
Use a five gallon plastic bucket. Not that you are going to make five gallons of stripper its that you want to make sure you have high sides and enough room between the top of the mixture and the lip of the bucket so as to reduce the chance of spill or splatter.
Using a clean plastic five-gallon bucket (do not use anything metallic), pour in 2 gallons of warm to hot water. Very carefully dissolve the lye. For two gallons of medium strength stripper you should figure on starting with 2 oz of lye per gallon of water. For a stronger stripper carefully dissolve additional lye 1 oz at a time and test for effectiveness.
If you would like to thicken the mixture you can add cornstarch.
To thicken with cornstarch – using a separate pail of water, dissolve enough cornstarch until the water is milky. Slowly and carefully add and blend the cornstarch to the lye mixture until you have the desired consistency.
Be sure to test the stripper on an inconspicuous area as this type of stripper can darken some hardwoods. Be careful as you apply and make sure to wear protective clothing and eye-gear.
Use a natural bristle bush to apply. Apply and let set – it shouldn’t take long for the paint to begin to lift. 
Rinse the area thoroughly before refinishing.
