A few weeks ago I found this trick on the Internet (apartmenttherapy.com quoting doorsixteen.com quoting thisoldhouse.com) where you can strip paint from intricate metal objects with a crockpot, soap, and zero effort and we finally got to try it out today…
First: Take some gunked up painted hinges that we’d like to reuse for the closet project:
Put them in a crockpot / slow cooker with water, laundry detergent and some handsoap. Put crockpot on low and walk away for a few hours:
Paint just falls off!
After some minimal rubbing and rinsing (careful, metal will be hot!), we discovered our hinges were copper!
(PS We got a small cheap crockpot on sale just for this project. We do not condone using a slowcooker you use for food for stripping paint!)
madison square home 
I used this trick for some of our hardware. My hardward crockpot came from Aldi for $10!
We found ours online w/ free shipping for ~$15- considering new solid 4″ hinges run close to $20+ per pair, I think we’ll make it back pretty quickly 🙂 plus it’s fun!
Good to know that it really does work! I’ve been meaning to do it for, um, years, but haven’t gotten around to it. hah
I know, doesn’t it sound like a scam? I wonder who thought of it first? We were very excited that it worked for our hinges!