Sanding is the worst way to remove paint.

Most paint doesn't sand well and it will tend to melt rather than turn to
dust so it will gum up the paper very quickly. Also, you will round off all
of the edges.

If there is allot of paint I generally use a heat gun first and then a
chemical stripper and then sanding just to get the last little bit of crud
off.

If you are thinking of staining and varnishing the piece, its probably twice
the work.

As for using "safe" or "non-toxic" strippers, I have found that they don't
do a very good job(unless they have gotten a hole lot better in the last few
years).

If its paint I use a meythalene chloride (sp?) based stripper. For varnish
one with out MC but still solvent based gel works well.

The brand I like I think is called stripeze and comes in a metal can with a
spray bottle applicator. The spray bottle applies a nice even coat.

I have seen the infomercial strippers I can only think that the paint that
they are striping was applied just hours before so of course it going to
"just peel off"

wrote in message
...
i wasnt sure where to ask this question, so if this is the wrong group i
apologize in advance.

i have a 4 drawer dresser chest....and it has at least 2 layers of paint
on it.

my question is, what is the best way to remove the paint....
would using a random orbital sander be best?

or some type of paint on stripper? if so what kind?

i live in an apartment so i would have to do this outside and dont want
to risk killing the grass with some type of stripper. but also i dont
want to use a sander if it wont work

thanks in advance everyone