Paint stripping

I have been laboring away trying to get my newest "prize" up and running ( Wells Index 847 vertical mill)
The basic machine is in very good condition, but it has been "killed with kindness". The painters at the place I bought it from, apparently would come by once a year and paint anything that wasn't moving. The result is that controls, adjustments and labels/placards are all under about 10 coats of very high quality industrial paint. ( it's ugly)
Anything I have touched so far requires considerable chipping of paint to get at the bolts.

So the question is... what should I be using to remove the bulk of this "crap"? The machine is going to have to come apart into big bits for cleaning anyway ( 30 years of dried oil and petrified grease) so I may as well clean it up nicely while I'm at it.

Has anyone ever used a needle scaler on big castings like the column or knee? I'm not to interested in sand blasting as trying to find someone to do it without damage is challanging.

Has anyone got other suggestions??

Cheers
Pete

It'll depend on how far apart you're willing to take it, but I used a pressure washer.

I just got in an older Nichols horizontal mill, and here's what it looked like when it arrived. There was at least one, possibly two coats of gray in addition to the factory gray (and thick filler-primer) and then a particularly poor (and sloppy) top coat of red. All of which were chipped and peeling badly.

I disassembled it almost completely, and stripped it with a biodegradable spray-on paint stripper. The stripper softened it, and then the pressure washer just blew it off. (Check local laws though- usually dried paint isn't considered toxic waste, but you never know.)

It took about half a gallon of stripper, and several soak/blast/dry/soak-again cycles before it was down to just some of the primer/filler. Once dried, I zapped that off with a small loose-bristle wire brush in a 4" angle grinder.

It was actually pretty easy; I'd spray on the stripper in a heavy coat, go do something else for about 20 minutes, come out, fire up the mongo gas-powered pressure washer I was using, blast it clean, shut everything down, and let it dry for another 20 minutes or so. Lather, rinse, repeat.

You tend to get really messy, though. Wear goggles and old coveralls. Don't blast while your shiny new pickup is parked nearby.

Doc.

I use a needle scaler all the time it is brutal work but it will take off all the paint it will go right down to the raw casting, you could do a mill in about 2-3 hours and you wont be able to feel your hands but hey it will look great. If you look up big nasty shaper you can see what I did with a cincinatti shaper that was in similar condition. If you have apressure washer that works well too but it is pretty messy especialy with the stripper, either way you will be working on it for a long time.

Yup, needle scaler is the ticket. One thing to avoid the numb hands is to turn the pressure down. The needle scaler is just as effective removing paint at 50psi as it is at 150, but doesn't beat you to death. Earplugs.

Just keep the scaler off the polished surfaces, ways, and placards. Greased Lightning will dissolve the heavy paint off the other parts if you'll give it a soak. Beware aluminum in this stuff, it contains lye and will eat aluminum if left too long.