How do you clean tablesaw blade?

[Rob]

I see the stuff advertised in the woodworking catalogs but was wondering what each of you use to clean your blades?

[mkochsch]

Oven cleaner and a brass brush. Use gloves.

~m

[Bay Area Dave]

Sprayway.

dave

Rob wrote:

[Bernie Hunt]

I've been using the CMT orange stuff but before used Simple Green. I don't like using oven cleaners because they are caustic to me. The CMT and Simple Green both are skin friendly. I have enough trouble just not cutting my self on the blade, hahahaha.

Bernie

[Bob S.]

409 and a brass brush or the Green stuff and a brass brush...

Let it set for 10-30 min, depending on how bad it is, use the brush to clean the gullets, dry then wax or spray on your favorite rust preventative.

Bob S.

[Doug Miller]

Dissolve about a quarter cup of washing soda in about a quart of warm water. Let the blade soak for five minutes. The crud will wipe right off. Rinse the blade clean, and dry it.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Greg G.]

I use Simple Green and a really stiff nylon brush. For those hard to remove deposits I will sometimes carefully use a brass brush. I put the blade in an oil drain pan that fits the blade perfectly, and the high sides catch the crap that brushing slings everywhere. Spray the blade down, and soak for 10-15 minutes - then brush.

Greg G.

[Tom Hintz]

Woodworkers have used oven cleaner for a long time but blade manufacturers are warning against it saying it can attack the brazing that holds carbide teeth in place. Some say it can affect the carbide itself. I have a story about lceaning blades, including one of these warnings at the link below.

Hintz

[Joel Jacobson]

Simple Green. A 10" blade fits perfectly inside the lid of a five gallon plastic bucket. Let it soak a while and brush it off with stiff bristles.

Joel

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Oven cleaner, orange cleaner, or simple green, whatever's easiest to grab. I scrub, if necessary, with a plastic bristle brush.

Barry

[Ron Magen]

'Simple Green' soak, followed by a scrub with an old toothbrush . . . if needed.

Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop

[Andy Dingley]

Mainly I use the isolator switch.

[Mike at American Sycamore]

Rob, I was setting my blades aside in a stack to be shipped to an outside source to be sharpened, when I noticed how dirty the baldes were. I had purchased a blade cleaner kit from Rockler and thought what better time to test the product. WOW, What a difference!!!! My blades did not need to be sharpened, they needed to be cleaned of resin and dark pitch. The kit has a plastice wash basin, the cleaner, and a wire brush.

I like the commercial blade cleaner better than oven cleaner for two reasons, I had an ol' sharpening service man tell me that oven cleaner attacks the bonding agent that they use to glue the carbide onto the saw blank, plus the oven cleaner's has strong fumes.

When I used Rockler's blade cleaner, I let the blades soak over night. Then I used the wire brush and it simply removed all the pitch. I then rinsed with hot water, dried the blades and sprayed with Top Cote to retard the rust. The kit worked very well for me and I was very pleased with this method. There are several others as well.

Good Luck, Mike from American Sycamore

[Mike in Idaho]

You know, the first time I cleaned my blades I used oven cleaner and it worked great, but what a mess. I bought an old drill press and used simple green to clean it up -- did a great job. Since then I've used simple green for my router bits and my saw blades. I just squirt it on a toothbrush and scrub away at the teeth/blades, and the resin/gunk comes right off. It's great and pretty non-toxic from what I understand as well.

Mike

[Bob Summers]

Some saw blade cleaners are a lot like oven cleaner. I tried that one one on my saw blades (an Oldham) and it took all of the writing off of it. I've since bought some CMT saw blade cleaner (citrus based?) but I haven't tried it yet.

Bob S

[kb8qlr]

I wait till all my blades are dirty, then I hang them on wires on the sides of my car. I drive through the carwash. Turn them over, then drive through again. Works great. Needless to say, I get a lot of stares. Good luck. Joe

I can't believe the rest of you guys were so damn serious.

[Nate Perkins]

I've been using the Oxisolv cleaner. Works well for me.

[George E. Cawthon]

Not surprising, since lye will take paint off anything.

[George E. Cawthon]

I see there is a lot of opinions about not using oven spray which is just NaOH (lye). I'm not sure I believe the statements about it being bad for carbide tipped blades. Lye won't hurt steel, and I don't think it will do anything to brass or the brazing used to set the carbide. However I think they coat the carbide with something to help braze it to the steel. If anything is attacked by lye it would be that coating. Lye won't hurt a high carbon on moly chrome blade but it sure will get it clean. If you have a mess using it, then you aren't doing something right.

OTOH, Simple Green sure does dissolve a lot of stuff easily. Works great >

[George E. Cawthon]

I think the site is mainly advertising the blade cleaner. As for being extremely careful with blades and worrying about the great strain they are under, I don't buy it. Sure you want to be careful and not ruin the polish, and most of us are pretty careful. But, a scratch on the blade isn't going to do much unless you are running it way faster than the recommended maximum and/or it's just a piece of crap. I know my 10" blades run at about 3,000 rpm, way lower than the blade maximums. I have no fear of using a metal tool or a steel wire brush to clean a blade. How do you think they got that brushed finish on some blades?