Had to pick between a $60 heat gun and a $300 IR rework station for stripping old paint off a vintage medium format back

I needed to strip decades of crusty black paint off a 1950s folder I'm restoring. The heat gun was cheap but I was worried about warping the thin metal. The IR station seemed safer but that's a lot to drop on one job. I went with the heat gun and kept it moving on low. It worked fine but I did get one tiny ripple near a corner. Anyone else tried IR for this kind of work or am I overthinking it?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy97527d ago

My buddy tried an IR station on a old camera body and it worked way better than he expected. He said the heat was so controlled he didn't even have to worry about the thin metal at all. But yeah, that price tag is rough unless you plan on using it again for something else.

charles67827d ago

Wait, he didn't have to worry about the thin metal at ALL? That's actually INSANE because I've always heard those old bodies burn up easy with a regular iron. I guess the IR is just that much more precise then.