Blade cleaning

[DaveLeard]

There's a lot written about cleaning pitch and gunk off bandsaw and tablesaw blades. There are proprietary products and even blade cleaning kits. I have personally used oven cleaner, Formula 409, turpentine, gasoline and mineral spirits with varying degrees of success. They are all generally followed with scrubbing using some sort of brush or abrasive pad. However, last night I was looking at a recently removed and grody blade from my 14 inch bandsaw and thought "why not the dishwasher?"

Anybody ever tried that?

[Roly]

There's a lot written about cleaning pitch and gunk off bandsaw and tablesaw blades. There are proprietary products and even blade cleaning kits. I have personally used oven cleaner, Formula 409, turpentine, gasoline and mineral spirits with varying degrees of success. They are all generally followed with scrubbing using some sort of brush or abrasive pad. However, last night I was looking at a recently removed and grody blade from my 14 inch bandsaw and thought "why not the dishwasher?"

Anybody ever tried that?

Because of wives !     I don't let mine get very bad, but hot water in slop sink a little simple green and a nylon scrub brush.     Rinse ,dry and spray with WD 40 .    Roly

[DaveLeard]

Because of wives !     I don't let mine get very bad, but hot water in slop sink a little simple green and a nylon scrub brush.     Rinse ,dry and spray with WD 40 .    Roly

I had my 1st experience with simple green this past week. We soaked an old, crudded up Record quick release device. Amazing how that got things sliding properly.

I wasn't going to mention this caper to my wife until experiments proved it was a good method to use………. And I got caught.

A point of interest: the little lady is out of town this weekend and the dishes need washing

[Halfathumb]

A point of interest: the little lady is out of town this weekend and the dishes need washing

Oh Oh! The cats away and the mice will play. 


BTW. I just use Pitch and Resin remover combined with elbow grease and a green scotch pad. Works quite well for me.

Jim

[DaveLeard]

Oh Oh! The cats away and the mice will play. 


BTW. I just use Pitch and Resin remover combined with elbow grease and a green scotch pad. Works quite well for me.

Jim

Jim, do you do your process with the blade on or off the saw?

The band saw blade dishwasher experiment was a little disappointing but may still be better than dealing with a bucket of solvent, a dripping wet bandsaw blade and brushes.

When I pulled it out of the dishwasher looked rusty but it was just that the pitch residue had changed to a rust color. It was powdery. I could wipe it off easily with the skin of my thumb, but did not do the whole blade.  I mounted it on the bandsaw and pinched it with a rag soaked in WD-40 while rotating the bandsaw wheels. That turned the rust colored deposits to the color of the steel so I couldn't judge how well they were cleaning off. I kept trying new clean portions of the rag but gave up before the rag came back 100% clean. I will reevaluate after cutting some wood.

I'll try a table saw blade next. (When the wife is out of town again)

[jteneyck]

I have really good results with a little OxyClean in warm water.  Put it in the lid of a 5 gal bucket to soak circular saw blades and in less than 10 minutes the gunk comes off the teeth with just a little brushing.  I soak my sawmill blades in it in the laundry sink for 30 minutes or so and they come clean, too.  Same with router bits.  

John

[tablesawtom]

I use  the industrial strength ammonia at Ace Hardware.  I  used to by Little BO Peep ammonia from the grocery store. Your wife might have some under the Kitchen sink. The stuff at harbor fright it is not good enough you can't even smell it when you open it.  I mix it with 3 parts water and on part ammonia. I picked up an oil changing pan at one of the auto parts store. And that is what I soak it in. You can put in a little mister Clean also. I have never tried Simple Green  After about 5 minutes I use a tooth brush but mostly to wipe off the junk. I never thought of cleaning band saw blade. But it might not be a bad idea.

Tom

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

Simple green soak overnight then find brass or nylon brush. WD40 afterwards.

[lincmercguy]

I bought the blade cleaner spray bottle from CMT. I just put down some plastic, set the blade on it, spray it down, and let it soak for about 10 minutes. Most of the pitch will wipe off with a shop paper towel. I just repeat the process to get the rest. I don't have a sink in the shop, so this avoids hauling them up to the house.

[mr_skittle]

Sorry to hear the dishwasher adventure didn't work out great. I think it was plausible with the heat in there softening the pitch. Maybe run it on a heated, dry cycle before a wash to really help soften the pitch. There's probably no way around using a little elbow grease.