PinballPimp uses acetone to remove paint. The advantage is that it won’t remove any of the wood grain. Downside is that is very caustic and flammable. You need to buy good protective rubber gloves. I remember seeing a video so check YouTube.

One way or another get it down to bare wood and start your work with a fresh canvass.
-Mike

I’ve seen this.

I always just sand the cabinet. It needs sanding anyway. Yes - it takes longer. But IMO it comes up better.

I had to use stripper and then Acetone on a Stars cabinet a few weeks ago, as it had been painted with a few different layers of paint that had fused into some unsandable mush.

The downside is that the plywood gets wet.

As a woodworker, you know you want to keep wood dry, or else it raises the grain (and in this case, the plys)

The acetone method definitely worked as described. However, where I used it I noticed the crappy Stern plywood plys separated probably due to the moisture. That created more work as I then had to sand and fill all the cracks.

I appreciate it is an easier method.

However for me, I’ll just spend the 2 hours sanding the cab.

rd

I haven't done that many, but I just sand it smooth with 150 grit to give the primer a good bite. If there's some artwork left after the sanding then so be it. It's been there 30+ years. It's not going anywhere.

Taking it down to bare wood IMHO is just a waste of time unless there's a good reason to do so.

-Paul

I take it down to the bare wood. Start with 60 grit on the random orbital sander. Then 150 grit. Then bondo. Then 150 grit and 200 grit.
Prime. Light sanding. Prime again if necessary. Light sanding. Then paint with stencils.
Comes out beautiful every time!

Depends what you want.

If you just want the standard Pinside “wow, look at my restore thread. I painted the cabinet with rattle cans!! And there’s marks and cracks all over the cabinet that I never filled and they look like shit!!” then the less work the better.

If you want it to be an A-Grade restore then it wants to be as flat as possible, filled, sanded, filled some more, sanded some more, etc etc.

Then you want to prime and paint the cabinet in a booth in 2k.

These days, if I’m gonna spend 10 hours doing a half ass job, I’d rather spend 12/13 hours and make it a mint job.

rd
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So you're saying it can't be perfectly flat if there's some of the original artwork left?

-Paul

No - it can be, of course. Depends on the machine, and the condition of the original paint.

The machines I’ve restored were generally so beaten that by the time you’ve finished sanding it smooth, there’s no old stuff left.

rd