My parents still have the old swing set and jungle gym I had when I was a kid. I want to clean them up and let my kids play on it. The swing set is made from drill stem pipe, pretty heavy with about 3 coats of paint. The jungle gym is made out of 1" round tubing with like a 3/16" sidewall, pretty thick stuff too, but it has like 5 coats of paint on it. Both with various stages of minor rust and peeling layers of paint.

To wire brush or sand down the jungle gym would take an eternity, even with power tools. My dad suggested I use paint stripper. He had two different types. Neither worked very convincingly on the swing or the jungle gym.

So I'm trying to figure out how to remove 30 years of paint. I'm thinking FIRE! Maybe a little propane torch or weedburner.

Thoughts?

Sand blasting would be my choice if you have access to the equipment.

Whatever you do, make sure to wear a mask.

Might have some Lead under there.

Do you have a angle grinder? If you do sandpaper/flap disks like these will probably work really well. A 4 1/2" starting off with a low grit pad should take it off fairly quick(might several disks depending on size of job) and then go over it with a higher grit pad (usually doesn't take much just to smooth it down.) You can find them at most any welding supply store or napa etc.

If you can get ahold of large angle grinder with a sandpaper disk then you can really cover some ground.

If you don't have either you could just go buy a 4 1/2" grinder, a decent enough one can usually be had for about $40 I think.

+2 on it possibly being lead paint., If it is you'll probably have unholy hell getting it off

No!

I did the whole flap disk/ wire brush on my grinder when I reworked 12ft of front porch railings about 3 years ago. Took me half a day and two beers to clean it up.

Really? I've had really good luck stripping paint etc with them, but I will admit I've never taken on something as large as a swingset or porch railings. I still think though that a good heavy grit disk(36) will take it off pretty good and seems like the best option I can think of to totally strip it other than sandblasting which would be a PITA and probably be fairly expensive. Grinding it off will make a mess though I won't argue that.

OP could also use a wire wheel/brush to knock off the loose and peeling paint and then ospho it and paint it. But that would not strip it at all and would pretty much just be adding another layer of paint, should last OK though considering the work put in.

Oven cleaner???

I vote you don't strip it.
I would sand down flakes, bubbles and rust and leave the rest alone.

I like the angle grinder idea.
Harbor freight has a 7" angle grinder for 40.00

Aircraft Paint Stripper

I did an entire FJ-40 with this and removed all the paint without lifting a grinder or sanding block.  Best stuff IMO.

Woohoo! Contains ammonium hydroxide!

Didn't they put that in frozen concentrated orange juice in the 1950's?