Thanks guys for the followup I'm really in a mess now I did try the bread ties but it is too big an area, so I went to denatured alcohol which worked like a charm but now I've removed the top stain from my cabinets and have to decide what to do next I'm thinking, go to place where I got cabinets and see if they can get me the stain and then I can reapply it what do you think?

There are several posts on the Silent Paint Stripper, mostly on the Old House forum. People seem to like it. Used ones are for sale regularly on Ebay. Most anything you do to remove the paint is going to produce a gooey mess, but with the SPR, soft paint is all you get. With Smart Strip you have the paint and the goo and the paper that covers it. I used Smart Strip last summer for a small project, and you have to leave the stuff on and covered for a couple days in order for it to work well. I followed the advice of this blogger: Here is a link that might be useful: Blogger on paint stripping.

SouthernCanuck: if you looked at the date on the other thread, you will see that the OP posted this one first. I don't know why he/she started a new thread and agree with your opinion that multiple posts by the same person on the same topic are redundant and simply create confusion. However, your post directing people to the "other" post instead of this original one only adds to the confusion. The other (second) post should be left to die.

What do you mean by "without ruining the finish"? You are not going to be able to remove several layers and return to some former varnished finish without damaging it. If it was originally varnished, you have a better chance of getting down to virgin wood because the paint pigment would not have generally penetrated into the wood. It is messy and you will have to protect everything in the area, but heavy bodied chemical strippers are your best recourse. I try to avoid the use of sandpaper, relying on the stripper and steel wool to remove the old paint. Finally, I wash everything down with lacquer thinner and fine steel wool and then lacquer thinner and paper towels. You want plenty of ventilation as the lacquer thinner has a strong odor and is flammable and potentially explosive.