Simple Green as a carbide cleaner

[Doug Jones]

I was making my rounds to the forums I am on and found the following. It is regards to using Simple Green as a cleaner for blades/bits with carbide tips.

Copy/Paste from forum;

"A conversation on a local WW'ing forum concerning cleaning carbide and carbide tipped blades and bits lead to some concern about Simple Green for this purpose.
SG is all I use so I submitted this question on SG's web site via their feedback form and received a reply saying that SG is fine to use for cleaning carbide tipped tools.

Then this afternoon a fellow from SG called and said that was sent in error.

According to him, their testing has shown that submerging a carbide, or carbide tipped tool in regular, consumer SG can cause hydrogen embrittlement, which could cause the carbide bonding to weaken.

He strongly recommended not using SG for this purpose.

He did recommend Extreme Simple Green (removed url) for cleaning carbide products. It's relatively new and not available everywhere, but is available at (removed url) in Atlanta for $10.80 a quart."

It was also determined that spraying the blades/bits then brushing and wiping off was ok, but prolonged soaking was heavily advised against.

Just thought I'd keep y'all in the know.

[Cecil Arnold]

Thanks Doug. I've used SG for almost everything from cleaning driveways to washing smoke out of my hair (what little I have left) and found it works well on most things. I haven't had to soak any carbide just spray on, let sit for a minute or so, and wipe off.

[Joe Scarfo]

I use an amonia / water mix to clean pitch and it works great. 1 part amonia to 3 parts water. Let'em soak then scrub w/ a stiff brush works great. I use a kitchen nylon bristle brush.

Good Luck
Joe in Green Bay .... whose adjusting to life in the tundra and misses the swaying palms of Tampa

[Marcus Ward]

This happens with bicycle chains also, I've found. You can soak a chain in simple green and get it clean and then it'll snap within an hour or two of putting it back on the bike. I didn't realize it was called hydrogen embrittlement but I don't use it on my chains anymore for that reason. Makes sense it happens to carbide too.

[Tyler Howell]

Use it on my saw blades. Not as fast as oven cleaner but I feel much better about using it SG over the hard stuff.

[CPeter James]

I guess that I am back to the orange juice by CMT.


CPeter

[Jim O'Dell]

Just a note about Simple Green. I've not used it but people I work with swear by it for cutting grease and grime. In fact, a story they tell is of one of the parts guys several years ago was mopping with pure strength SG in the Parts dept. warehouse. They found him later passed out on the floor, evidently while he was mopping. Pulled him to freash air and he was fine. So use this with proper ventilation!! Jim.

[Bob Noles]

After reading this, I guess I'll toss my bottle. Don't need anything around that don't have universal use. That is a shame, because I have heard may WW recommend it for cleaning saw blades.

[Dave Tinley]

I have been using SG for years now. I spray it on the blades, let it set while watching DM reruns and come back. With a quick rinse all is clean. However I did notice that the 80 tooth table saw blade is now down to 41 teeth. Hmm. But hey it can burn cherry just as well as my high dollar HF blade.;)

Dave