Bandsaw blade help

[Chris]

I was resawing a fair amount of southern yellow pine on the bandsaw, it's dry, it's been floor joists in a warehouse for the last 100 years.As I was cutting I got a whiff of a burning smell & stopped to check. The blade has a fair build up of pitch, on the teeth, in the gullets ,but mostly on the back of the blade. The back of the blade is like you smeared a very fine coat of glue and dusted it with fine sawdust. The tires are coated the same too. So, what is the best way to clean this? Don't think I can do it with the blade on, can I? Is it anything to be concerned about or is just normal with this kind of wood?

Thx, Chris

[dadiOH]

Clean with mineral spirits. Yellow pine is very "fat" (lots of resin). Most/many softwoods have resin too. One thing, keep the interior of the saw clean...yellow pine is also hard and that equals heat. Heat, sawdust and resin = fire.

[BobS]

Use some mineral spirits on a cloth, hold it on the blade and manually rotate the blade backwards to clean the blade. May have to use a small brass brush to scrub also. Be sure to clean the tires also and the guides.

After that, I spray some DryCote on the blade and that helps but pitch is tough.... I would have thought that any pitch pockets in that old of wood would have crystallized by now.

Bob S.

[Phisherman]

Cleaning the blade and tires are parts of a total bandsaw tune up. Mineral spirits, like others have stated, will clean the metal blade. Some solvents may attack rubber. I believe Duginski talks about using sandpaper wound on a stick to clean some kinds of bandsaw tires.

[Chris]

After I was done posting the original message, I read a few then headed back over to the garage where I keep the bandsaw, as I entered the kitchen I could smell a slight whiff of smoke, when I opened the garage door the area was filled with a haze of smoke. I couldn't imagine where it was coming from, I thought electrical? I unplugged everything, then I noticed slight smoke from the bottom of the bandsaw. I felt the machine, it was cool to the touch, I looked behind it and there was glowing embers in the sawdust. I'm not great about cleaning up the sawdust around the bandsaw. I don't have dust collection, I use a shop vac attached by hose to my jointer & planer, but don't both with the TS or BS. I really don't know what was so hot to cause this to happen. Maybe a spark from ceramic guides? A slither of an old nail that was in the wood? I guess I'll never know, but I shudder to think what would have happened if I had not went back there. I'll be mounting a smoke detector now and I'll have to be better about the pile of fine sawdust.

A cautionary tale!

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Something to keep in mind.

You were lucky. This was started by a welding spark that smoldered about 12 hours. I worked in this building and we are one of three business that were not totally destroyed. We're rebuilding elsewhere.

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[dadiOH]

That's why I cautioned you about it. _______________

Nope, just friction.

[Maxwell Lol]

Buy a wheel brush to keep particles off the tires. Iturra sells them for about $7. Others stores sell them as well.