I am not sure if I am alone here but I think there would be many that may agree with me, sanding furniture is a long monotonous task that sits at the top of the jobs you want to avoid.  It is dirty, dusty and no matter what safety gear you have on it feels like the dust and paint and dirt is filling every pore in your skin and from the time you start you just want to get to shower time!

It is one of those things that I am constantly trying to find a solution for to speed up the job.  I have used paint stripper in the past and some of the strippers are so toxic it did not sit well with me and also it can be tricky to not end up taking longer if it sticks to the timber more than it takes it off.  So I found the heat gun solution.

I am still getting used to it and it does take a while to work out the distance you need to hold it from the timber and waiting for the bubbles to appear.  In comparison to using the sander alone I think that it cuts the time on the sander in half, bonus!  It still takes time to strip the paint off and there is still the sticky residue to get rid of but the layer of paint is generally gone after using the heat gun.

The heat gun is definitely worth the $70-$150 for a basic heat gun.  It saves time and ware on your sanders and of course the sanding sheets.  A big yes from me! Heat gun and sander combo is the only way to go from here.