how to clean a table saw table (or band saw)?

[Doug Miller]

Mostly, I clean mine by brushing sawdust onto the floor.

Comes that way from the factory.

Not unless it somehow gets rust on it.

Johnson's Paste Wax.

Washing soda (sodium carbonate, Na2CO3). Dissolve about 1/4 cup (60ml +/-) in a quart (liter) of warm water in a shallow pan. Lay the blade in the water. Watch the gunk float off of the blade. Allow to soak for five minutes. Scrub lightly with a nylon or brass brush, if needed to remove stubborn gunk. Rinse with warm water, and dry with a towel.

Cheap. Fast. Easy. Safe. Environmentally benign.

[Cyrille de Brébisson]

Hello,

I was wondering how you knowledgeable wood working veterans were cleaning your table or band saw tables (I imagine it would also work for jointers and other power tools)?

I imagine that a "read to use" table should be shinny and slick, but how do you do it? which products? do you sand it? how do you make it slick?

ps: while I am out cleaning stuff, how do you clean your carbide tipped saw blades?

thanks for the info!

cyrille

[Lew Hodgett]

My power tools are kept outside, under tarps, in SoCal which means the table tops require more maintenance than most.

I simply spray WD40 all over the surface, then sand the top using a ROS equipped with 150 grit paper.

Use lots of paper towels to wipe up the used WD40, then respray and repeat sanding.

Finally wipe surface clean and coat with Johnsons paste wax.

May not be the best, but it works for me.

Lew

[Rob Mills]

I use an automotive type buffer and a paste buffing compound that you would find in an auto parts store. When I get it cleaned I apply several coats of a good paste wax and buff each coat. It lasts a long time if you don't set the beer/pop cans on it. RM~

[RayV]

I'll have to try the washing soda. I usually use Brakleen for my blades with great results.

[Pat Barber]

Setting a "pop" can or otherwise on any of my power tools could result in serious bodily injury.

Rob Mills wrote:

[mac davis]

I have to clean my bandsaw table every couple of weeks... I cut a lot of green bowl blanks and it gets sap on the surface...

I spray it with "Awesome" concentrated cleaner from the local dollar store and go have a cup of coffee... When I come back, the sap and other crud wipes off and I put a few thin coats of Johnson's wax on it and it's good to go..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Phisherman]

[Bill D]

Mac, I just use SWMBO's spray-on oven cleaner. Works a treat on router bits, blades etc. It doesn't affect metal, just dissolves gunk. I haven't come across "awesome" - maybe its similar?.

[mac davis]

I actually found out about Awesome in an RV group.. very popular to get rid of the dreaded "black streaks"..

I don't think it's as "powerful" as oven cleaner, but since I haven't used oven cleaner in a lot of years, it's probably not nearly as strong as it used to be.. someone could get hurt with it then.. lol

For some reason, although it says "as seen on tv" on the spray bottle, it only seems to be available in dollar/99 cent stores... our local dollar store uses it to clean the store and swears by it....

It seems to be very general purpose, cheap and effective...

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Bill D]

Mac, I had to smile at your comment that someone might get hurt with Oven cleaner if it is too strong. It brought back a memory of when I first used it. I pushed the spray knob, nothing happened, so what did I do? Well naturally I turned it around to have a look at the offending nozzle, peered at it over my glasses and for some inexplicable reason my finger, which was still on the go button, pushed down!

WOW did it sting. With the good eye I managed to read the instruction which said "avoid getting it in your eyes and if you do wash out with water immediately. I did that and the pain subsided over an hour or so.

I learnt a number of valuable lessons from this experience.

Thanks for the memories!!!

Cheers Bill D

[Jim K]

[mac davis]

OUCH! I know that it used to say something about wearing gloves while using.. Stuff now has to be environmental and law suit safe, so it's mostly over priced water..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[CW]

Kind of like the bug killer I bought a while back. Instructions stated that it was more effective if you could wet the bug thourouly with it. If I wanted to drown the bug, I would have used the hose.