Removing thick poly without a heat gun?

[Nickosaurus]

Hey guys,

My first guitar was an el cheap-o stratocaster copy (more squared-off shape to avoid copyright I'm assuming). I played this thing to absolute DEATH and it is looking pretty ordinary. The body is hammered. As I'm finishing up my surfcaster I'm thinking about refinishing this one in my second choice of colour sonic blue with some leftover wudtone hanging about.

I've googled and apparently there are three options to remove thick poly - stripper, heat, and abrasives.

Heatgun is out because I simply can't afford one. This leaves stripper and abrasive.

I'm not too keen on stripper purely because of the fumes/toxic nature of the stuff. Is stripper viable without a respirator? How do you dispose of the crap that comes off the body/by products?

Could I strip poly with a belt sander (only power sander I've got)? Or just hard yakka with a block and my arms?

Trying to make this as cheap as possible (how unusual...).

Cheers guys.

[dingobass]

Which ever way you decide to go, it is IMPERATIVE TO WEAR APPROPRIATE RESPIRATOR GEAR.... I cannot emphasise this enough.
Poly dust, fumes etc is highly toxic...
By appropriate I do not mean those el cheapo useless paper masks, rather a good quality cartridge type.
Also wear a beanie and cotton clothes that you can remove out side and hose down or drop into a bucket of water before taking them indoors to wash.

The safest way to remove it is to scrape as much of it off with a cabinet scraper as this will leave shavings rather than dust..

If you do decide to sand it off, make sure to do it outside with a good breeze blowing or set up a fan..

[Nickosaurus]

Cheers for the info DB. It might be cheaper to buy an ST1 kit since I need a neck too :P see what happens!

[andrewdosborne]

This very same question actually got me started on Pit Bull Guitars! My daughter dropped by MIM Tele on its bottom and knocked out a massive chunk of poly along with nasty dent in the body. Tried various techniques to remove reminder of the poly but ended up using a small paint scraper and hairdryer (still owe shoes to the wife...). To cut a long story short the remaining poly was removed in large chunks in approx 40 minutes. Then, a lot of sanding to strip back glue and other deposits on wood. I used Wudtone as an alternative finish (actually looks ok). and my daughters ST-1 is nearly complete