Higgs Boson wrote:

All this has been VERY interesting and educational -- for future
projects. Large thanks to all who contributed.

On my porch paint project, I have to report that hand stripping is a
no go.
To strip an area approx 3x3', I put in so much effort AND SO MUCH
EXPEN$IVE $TRIPPER that, extrapolating to the full job, it would cost
so much just in stripper, with no guarantee of a good job, that it
becomes a loser's game.

Will just have to bite the bullet: locate a handyman capable of
running a grinder and get that *&&%$$%^&* job finally done. In
retrospect, this is a classic "penny wise, pound foolish"
calculation, but in my defense, I do like to see if I can do
[project]-- but enuff is enuff.

Again, thanks to all for valuable info.

HB

In case it helps, here is a link that shows two types of concrete surface
grinders that Home Depot rents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drgB7J-ckbA .

They also rent a smaller hand-held concrete surface grinder.

How big is the area? And, it would really be great to see a photo although
I know you tried that once but it didn't upload correctly. I mentioned
earlier that I have had good luck uploading photos with http://TinyPic.com .

Good luck.