Radiator paint removal

[idlehands]

My house has a pile of hot-water radiators(i suspect the system used to be a steam system, not sure if that makes a difference).
They have been painted white at some point(house is from 1920s, and i think it only had one previous owner and when we moved in it seemed everything had a coat of white paint on it).

Now the paint is flaking off the radiators, among other things in the house(ceiling, molding,banister,windows...)

With a new born in the house I'm trying to clean all this up and I have ideas on how to fix the other paint issues, but the radiators seem like a huge project to do with stripper and wire brushes, anyone have other ideas? I've heard about sandblasting them but i guess that doesn't fall in the diy area as teh equipment for sandblasting is quite pricey.

I have seen one post by someone claiming to use oxy-acetaline to burn the paint off. I can get ahold of equipment from my uncle to do that i think and even get gas at cost, assuming he gives me a discount, has anyone tried that? Maybe that's a bad idea. Sounds fun and dangerous though hahah.

Thanks for the help people.

 

[rjm2k]

Unless they are feature radiators which you want to keep have you considered just replacing them?

 

[breezer]

.........have you considered just
replacing them?

He did say

(i suspect the system used
to be a steam system, not sure if that makes a difference).

So, I suspect they look like

 

[idlehands]

They look like that, except for the inch or so galvanized pipe that go to them, instead of the half inch copper in that picture. I assume thats half inch copper at least.

Is the suggestion to replace them with other radiators or a baseboard heat? Baseboard heat would require quite a bit of re-plumbing i think

I live near Woodstock so I feel like i should reuse the existing radiators instead of getting new. That whole "greenish" lifestyle i guess. hahah.