Solvents/Chemicals to clean inside of Laser Cabinet

[Bob WrightNC]

Just wanted to check on any advice on what solvents, if any, that you guys would use inside of your laser cabinets to clean residue. Didn't see any threads on the topic, understand certain chemicals may cause lens issues. Thanks for your help.

[Kevin Groenke]

Have tried a lot of things and have found that Krud Kutter is highly effective at breaking down soot on cabinet and cutting table. Mix ~1:8 with water, then hit a second time with water only to rinse. Soak cutting grid with stronger concentration and it does a better job of cleaning than any other product I have tried.
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[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Krud Kutter, DNA and Magic Erasers all work wonders inside the cabinet.

[Doug Fisher]

Common recommendations all available at Home Depot:

Krud Kutter
Zep 505
Zep Purple Commercial Grade Cleaner

For the bed, take it outdoors and do multiple repetitions of spray with cleaner, then let soak, then wash off. Repeat. FYI, some people have tried using a power washer on low stream power after a few cleaning cycles for the final wash. It kind of depends how sturdy your bed grill/honeycomb strips are made (you don't want to bend them and you don't want to inject water into cavities (e.g. surrounding metal frame).

[Gary Hair]

I use denatured alcohol on my Speedy 400, works great on the powder coat. Don't let it get too dirty and you won't have to resort to most of what others have recommended! I'm pretty picky about my laser, it gets cleaned every day and I do 99% of my work on anodized aluminum...

[Kev Williams]

There's basically 4 things that get stuck to my engraving tables (full aluminum, not honeycomb):
Guck from cutting plastics
Guck from cutting wood
Guck from cutting thru tape
Coffee

Kleen Strip "painters solvent" (which is a new 1-size-fits-all replacement for xylene, MEK, toluene, etc) is good to great for removing plastic, wood and tape residue. But won't touch coffee ;)

Denatured alky okay for plastics wood and tape, and certain grime that p-solvent doesn't do well on. Also not so good for coffee

Fantastic 'scrubbing bubbles', use for finish cleanup, it gets everything the other two doesn't, and is GREAT for removing coffee!

I haven't cleaned my honeycomb table yet (Triumph) but when I do, I'm going to try dollar-store oven cleaner. It's essentially identical to Castrol SuperClean or the other 'purple' cleaners (lye being the main 'active ingredient'), but being foamy it will hang on to guck, giving it time to work.

As for the cabinet proper-- MY life is too short to spend any of it cleaning a piece of equipment that works for a living, my machines don't care if they're pretty... I have 15 machines, if I kept them pristine-clean I'd have no time to do any actual work. I clean only what's absolutely necessary for the machine to function properly...

[Bob WrightNC]

Lots of good answers. Thanks to all!

[Ray Scott]

The Kurd cutter is pretty nice stuff. I have also found anothercheap solution.. I went to my local dollar store and found the “LA’s Totally Awesome” degreaser. I used it on my Yeti tumblers with excellent results. I have also used it in the soaking method for my honeycomb... to melt off the sap and crud buildup. I’d love to hear other people’s solutions.

[Bryan Rocker]

I have been using Simple Green with great success.

[Jeff Watkins]

I'm hooked on Zep Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser from HD. It's $10 for a gallon and works in the kitchen and garage as well as cleaning power coated tumblers, honeycomb bed and the inside of the laser. If you happen to wipe your rails with it be sure to re-grease them properly. If you have any residue left after cleaning a little 91% iso alcohol will take care of it.

[Ray Scott]

Be cautious. "Simple Green" has chemicals in it that will bubble fresh paint (less than 4 days old). I found this out when I used diluted "Simple Green" to wash my car... four days after the new paint job. Within 30 seconds, it made fish-eye marks and other bubbles on my freshly painted Fiero. Yes... I drove a Pontiac Fiero when I was younger.