We live in a big old house. Well the front porch was looking shabby so we decided to paint. We tried scrapping the rail spindles because they have a ton of thick paint on them. It was tough and they looked like shit. The tip is if you have a grinder put a wire wheel on it. Take the spindles off and then just use the wire wheel but don't push to hard or stop moving or you'll screw with the wood. Some paint was over a 1/4 inch and some globs 1/2 inch high. I took 4 down to bare wood and even touched up the ends. They'll look great when painted with the proper amount of paint now. this saves a lot of effort and gives a much better job overall even though you have to be patient and take you time. I treat the work like a restoration personally instead of just removing old paint. Gotta take pride in you labours especially for your place of residence since it's for the future and it'll look a ton better than a quick scrape.