Sanding alternatives

[Jillby]

I found two lovely bench seats in the council cleanup and I'd like to paint them white. I had a go at sanding one of them with an orbital (round, flat sanding attachment attached to hubby's drill?) and only did about one inch before I realised it would take me YEARS! It appears that the bench has been painted several times. It's current colour is a light yellow. Is there a way I can paint it white without having to sand it? I am just going to use it as an outdoor bench for the kids to sit on - it does not have to be a perfect finish ... rustic is good!
I did use a product a couple of weeks ago ... fellow at the Hardware said it was paint that would stick to glass. It didn't! I tried to paint a metal frame and it all peeled off.
Is there stuff like metho or kero that I can use to strip the existing paint off ... or should I just give it a bit of a clean and whack the white paint on (given that I don't mind a rough job). If it peels off I can just repaint.
Thanks for your help ...
Jill

[artme]

Jillby it sounds as though you might have to strip back to bare timber> What a bugger of a job!!!

Several methods available :

Paint stripper, which can be tedious

heat gun, almost as tedious

Sanding with a suitable disc, not really preferred

Take to a powder coater and have it stripped in a caustic bath.

Sandblast, then sand smooth.

Otherwise you could more or less leave as is and sand back enough to give a key for the new paint. I will then look either rustic or crap.

[Jillby]

Thanks for the post Artme.
Appreciate all your advice ... think I might have to get "he who CAN be bothered" to do some sanding for me and then I'll give it a lick of paint and pass it off as "rustic", "weathered" and "shabby chic"!
Thanks again ..

[Manuka Jock]

You could get it lightly sand/shot blasted

[Harry72]

Is it a slat bench with concrete/steel legs, if so pull it apart and get someone to run the slats through a thicknesser... it'll look brand new again and be done in mere minutes

Run a metal detector over 1st to save wrecking the machines blades.