Cleaning saw blades

[Tom Walz]

Here is a compilation of how to clean saw blades.

The first part is from a saw builder and saw shop discussion group. The second part is a compilation of various saw users discusssion groups.

http://cs4u.org/cleaningsawblades.htm

In my opinion Freud is right, Forrest is right, the several dozen people that clean blades successfully are also right.

The only thing that might be wrong is Brake cleaner. It is not what brake cleaner is made for. In our tests brake cleaner was horribly expensive for this use and didn't work very well. It is, however, extremely good at flushing gunk out of brakes.

[Anne Schmidt]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for taking time to write this article. I would like to read it, but can't get the link to work. Any ideas?

Thanks & best, Anne

[Tom Walz]

We moved the web site.

Try http://www.carbideprocessors.com/Technical_information.htm

click on sawblades

There are a couple dozen articles there.

Basically anything will clean them as youcan see from the list.

[Gene Howe]

We keep a few large bottles of 409 in the house for general cleaning. When SWMBO wasn't looking, I appropriated one for the shop. Works really well on blades and bits.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I couldn't get the link to work either....

Anyone else use Easy-off and a toothbrush? Works good, just need to flush the water with WD-40 or similar afterwards.

[Cody Colston]

I couldn't get the link to work either....

Anyone else use Easy-off and a toothbrush? Works good, just need to flush the water with WD-40 or similar afterwards.

I use a generic oven cleaner I get at Home Depot with a brass bristled brush. I also know about the oven cleaner supposedly eating away the brazing on the carbide so y'all save the admonitions.

I tried Simple Green but it took way too long and didn't clean nearly as well as the oven cleaner. My shop, my methods. ;)

[Chris Tsutsui]

Read the article. For those that don't want to read everything, it basically says to use inexpensive oven cleaner concentrate for the best results.

I've been using a small plastic bristle brush and simple green this whole time. :(

Looks like I got something else to try. Thanks!

[Frank Drew]

Easy-Off worked just fine for me; gloves and goggles are recommended, of course.

[Billy Trinh]

I used krud kutter to clean everything. Works great on for oven, grease, blades and bits too.

[Bob Genovesi]

This is the stuff I use. When sprayed, it goes on sort of foamy. I let it sit for about a minute then go over the blade with a brass tooth brush. It has as many cleaning uses as you can come up with. I highly recommend it and it's available at Lowes.

[Thomas love]

Chris ,
I use the simple green as well, the problem I always had was getting the blade submerged and waisting a bunch of cleaner. I now stretch out a sheet saran wrap large enough to fold over the top of the blade. Spray the simple green on saran wrap, lay blade on top, spray the blade again and wrap. For some reason the simple green is much more effective this way, I let it sit about 10 minutes, most of the pitch on the blade just wipes off.
Tom.

[John Thompson]

Ditto Thomas on Simple Green. I just finished cleaning 4 blades as I finished a project build Saturday. I clean blades with SG after each project which is 1-2 months. The key for me is not letting the build up case harden IMO.

[Robert Reece]

It amazes that some people would prefer harsh chemicals, gloves, goggles, and full body condoms for cleaning a saw blade.

A 5 gallon bucket is a little over 10" in diameter. Fill the bottom 1" with simple green, place as many blades as you can fit in the bottom of the bucket and let them sit for 10 minutes or so. Most of the stuff wipes off, and you can use some 3/16" rope to "floss" the gullets and teeth.

Put lid on 5 gallon bucket and set aside until next time. No wasting of simple green.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

It amazes that some people would prefer harsh chemicals, gloves, goggles, and full body condoms for cleaning a saw blade.

A 5 gallon bucket is a little over 10" in diameter. Fill the bottom 1" with simple green, place as many blades as you can fit in the bottom of the bucket and let them sit for 10 minutes or so. Most of the stuff wipes off, and you can use some 3/16" rope to "floss" the gullets and teeth.

Put lid on 5 gallon bucket and set aside until next time. No wasting of simple green.

Simple Green isn't exactly non harsh. It dissolves aluminum. It dissloves paint if you leave it on long enough. It got removed from our inventory of approved cleaners...... Yeah, I know my saw blade is not aluminum. Easy-off is not that harsh anymore. Those days are long gone.

[Darrin Davis]

Easy Off does the trick every time.

[Dan Forman]

I remember a thread in which Charles from Freud pointed out that caustic alkaline cleaners were bad for the brazing that holds the carbide on the blade.

Dan

[Thomas love]

"A 5 gallon bucket is a little over 10" in diameter"

Wonderfull / if your blades are all 10 "

[Tom Walz]

Charles M did. So I took a bunch of carbide tips with braze alloy on them, sprayed them with oven cleaner and let them stand a few days. I couldn’t see any change at all. If Freud says there is then I believe them but these weren’t Freud tips. Personally I think it is matter of degree. I don’t think the short exposure form cleaning is going to make a practical difference.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com/carbide_in_oven_cleaner.htm

[Bob Wingard]

I too still use the old caustic oven cleaner to do my blades with one simple twist .. .. .. after the gunk is removed, I spritz on a little vinegar (mild acetic acid) to neutralize any caustic that may be hiding in the crevices, then rinse in hot water and towel dry. From reading many of the posts here and on other sites, it appears that most of the caution in the use of oven cleaner is due to the caustic nature of the product. The acid bath should combine with the caustic, creating a pretty neutral substance .. water !!

[Eric Gustafson]

"A 5 gallon bucket is a little over 10" in diameter"

Wonderfull / if your blades are all 10 "

I sawed the bottom off on 5 gal bucket and use that. I have a 10" saw.

[Larry Frank]

I have used oven cleaner before with very good results. I never noticed any problems associated with it. I stopped using it when I read that it was bad for the carbide or the braze material. Is this just a a rumor or is it a problem.

I would appreciate it if anyone had some technical basis for not using oven cleaner or test data which says it is OK.

[John Thompson]

I mentioned I cleaned 4 blades the other day with Simple Green. I clean five more yesterday in about 30 minutes total. I work in the shop daily and always have nicks and cuts on my hands. I cleaned those blades bare handed. I won't use oven cleaner simply because I have to wear protective gloves to keep the nasties out of cuts and I don't care to breath the fumes.

And.. if you have 12" blades ( I have mostly 10" but use a 12" to get 4" depth of cut on the TS and have a 12" on my SCMS) you can buy a cheap plastic container large enough with lid at the Borg will do the same thing as a bucket if you want to save the solution. I just pour it out as it doesn't require that much IMO.

[Tom Walz]

Dear Larry Frank,

The original article is at
http://www.carbideprocessors.com/carbide_in_oven_cleaner.htm

You will see that caustic solutions are widely used in saw shops that clean hundreds of saws a day. This has been a common practice for the 28 years I have been in the business.

The only evidence I have seen for caustic being involved in damaging saw tips is in my US patents; 5,624,626 and 6,322,871. However there it is not really the caustic that does the damage, it is the electricity. The caustic bath just provides a cheap medium for the conduction of electricity.

The following articles are not terribly rigorous science but they are pretty good demonstrations.
http://www.carbideprocessors.com/can_cleaners_hurt_saw_blades.htm (http://www.carbideprocessors.com/can_cleaners_hurt_saw_blades.htm)

http://www.carbideprocessors.com/carbide_in_oven_cleaner.htm

I like oven cleaner because it is strong, fast and rinses well. There are literally dozens that also work well. The best and cheapest was actually a gallon of barbecue cleaner from the local janitorial supply.

Some guys build houses, some guys build boxes and some guys build furniture. No right or wrong there. Just doing what works for them.

Personally I think this is a great forum. I got into this because there used to be some fairly intense discussions about what was the “right” way. Now it just seems to be folks offering help and exchanging opinions without criticizing anyone else. Feels better this way to me.

Tom

[Rick Dennington]

Awhile back I gought the blade cleaning kit form Rockler, with the tub, lid, little wire brush, and a qt. of cleaner. The tub has a rizer in the bottom to keep the blade from sucking to the bottom.
Anyway--I mixed the solution according to instructions, and starting cleaning one of my Freud 10 " blades. It was working pretty good and I decided to let it soak for a few minutes. I went in and showered, took the wife to town for supper, and forgot all about the blade cleaning. I went to the shop the next morning, opened the lid to get the blade, and WoW! The blade had turned black and blue, and all the writing on the blde was gone. It looked like th blade had been "blued" like a rifle barrel. I finished cleaning the blade which came out great, but the Freud looked horrible--ugly!!
It's fine, works great as usual, clean, but it looks like crap. I know now not to ever soak a blade in that stuff for that long. If you have one of these kits, be careful.
I really like the kit--- works great.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Well, I was Googling, and trying to find substantiating evidence that oven cleaners are bad, and ran across this, from the Simple Green site. Search the simplegreen.com site for carbide if you wish

Simple Green has been successfully used by many woodworkers over many years as a good "spray - wipe - rinse" cleaner for saw blades. When pitch is fairly fresh (typically within a 12-hr period since deposit) it is fairly easily removed with Simple Green. Older, dried-out pitch is much more difficult to remove. We do not recommend long-term soaking of Carbide blades in Simple Green. Long-term exposure like this can possibly cause cobalt leaching that will, in turn, affect the integrity or carbide. Shorter term "spray/wipe/rinse" applications do not create that kind of problem.

Lye and Phosphoric acids are also bad for carbides. Maybe 409 is better to use, although that takes off paint too.....

I for one, never have the time to clean my blade every 12 hours.... You Simple Green users may not want to do the soaking trick.

[Tom Walz]

Mr. Iwamoto,

Elemental cobalt, used as a binder in traditional carbide grades, is susceptible to acids. This can be a problem in mills that cut green wood. Green Western Red Cedar is supposed to be the worst.

Forintek, the Canadian Wood Products Research Institute, actually collects and boils down wood sap to determine its effect on tools.
http://www.forintek.ca/public/Eng/EE0-default_eng/EE0-default_eng.html

As the binder is dissolved the grains come out causing dulling.

Some sources list elemental cobalt as slightly susceptible to bases (caustic solutions, et. al.)