Cleaning planer rollers

[Paul O.]

Instructions say to use a non flammable tar and pitch remover. How bout denatured alcohol, or something else I may have around. Thanks.

[Rumpty]

"Brake Cleaner" from your auto parts store will work, but it's a bit toxic and will remove the oils from your skin.

[Andy Dingley]

Try it. It won't hurt

I clean nearly everything like this with acetone, because it's cheap and I keep a bottle handy.

[Rick Samuel]

keep it off your skin, wear gloves

[Patriarch]

Andy Dingley wrote in news: [e-mail]:

but the aftereffects of _references_ to acetone are long and painful. ;-)

Patriarch, who wears gloves cleaning the planer so as not to cut up his hands.

[George]

Alcohol won't work as well as mineral spirits. Resin more soluble in the latter.

Acetone can be a problem with a lot of plastics - sometimes even plastic things you don't see get exposed to acetone by the flow. I wouldn't.

[Stephen M]

My experience with my DW733 has been that the rollers get a fine coat of dust which makes them loose their grip. I wipe them with a (water) moistened rag and they are like new. I wax the table while I'm at it.

I do this every few hours of use (which is actually quite a bit of wood), as needed.

It's not the conventional wisdom, but it does work for me.

Steve

[woodcraftssuch]

My planer works best once the rollers get a coat of pine resin on them. Is there anything a person can put ON the rollers to improve their grip?

[woodworker88]

I would try a product called replacetone, a noncaustic alternative to acetone. It might be more difficult to find and possible more expensive, but it won't kill your hands or sensitive parts of your machine. Another thing to try would be turpenoid, sorta like turpentine, but not solvent based. Worked well on some paint brushes soaked in tar. The best product would probably be the resin remover sold for saw blades. This is probably what they were refering to in the instructions. This stuff is so useful, though,I would definitly buy a can of it. It works wonders on everything that cuts, even bench plane soles and irons.

[woodworker88]

Not a bit toxic, though. Try very nasty.

[Hax Planx]

How about a detergent like a really strong citrus cleaner? Acetone and denatured alcohol are both very flammable. Acetone is murder on most plastics. If you aren't worried about the flammable part, VM&P naphtha is a better universal organic solvent than either alcohol or acetone and it is reasonably safe for most plastics. Naphtha will also sweep away any oil and grease residue which acetone and alcohol aren't very good at dissolving. Naphtha will evaporate almost as quickly as acetone.

[Paul O.]

Thanks, I will try exactly that. My instructions says to keep the bed waxed, so was going to do that.