Saw Blade Cleaning

[Keith Starosta]

Last night, I was going through some of the stuff I have piled up, trying gain on the mess in the shop. I came across my Systematic dado set and started to look at the teeth on the two main blades and all of the chippers. There seems to be quite a bit of pitch buildup along all pieces of the set. My question is, which product and what method have you found works best when cleaning the "gunk" from your saw blades? Thanks in advance!

Keith

[Lee Schierer]

The best stuff I've heard of is Simple Green. I have used Simple Green and Sudsy amonia. Both are availble in a variety of locations. If it has carbide do not use oven cleaner as it can weaken the silver solder joints that hold the carbide in place.

[Jim Becker]

Simple Green is about the best thing for this job and it's safe to use.

[Dick Bringhurst]

Simple Green. Dick B.

[Joe Scarfo]

I use a 5 gallon bucket w/ 1/2" of water/amonia 1 to 3 mix...

Cleans'em right up quick and cheap.

tks
Joe in Tampa

[Steven Wilson]

CMT 2050, I find it works better than Simple Green

[Kent Cori]

Another vote for Simple Green. It works pretty fast, is inexpensive and has many other uses around the house and shop.

[Maurice Ungaro]

CMT Spray on stuff. Nice

[Dan Stuewe]

Ok, bottom line what do you have to do to clean your blades?

Soak for xx minutes? Then scrub with ???

or

Spray on and scrub with ???

Then what? Rinse with water and dry off every nook and cranny (especially those anti-vibration slots)?

Sorry for the questions from a lazy cleaning challenged guy (wait till I get up the nerve to ask about cleaning oil-based paint brushes!).

[Chris Padilla]

Another vote for CMT 2050. I'm going to pick up a big bucket of this stuff so I can just dump the whole blade in there...in fact, maybe I'll "store" my blades in the bucket of 2050!

Dan, I spray it on, let it soak for several seconds, and then take a toothbrush to it and/or my fingernail as needed.

The 2050 just needs wiped...no rinsing.

[Terre Hooks]

I've yet to buy some Simple Green, so I always use a splash of Mr. Clean and some hot water. I let the blades soak while I surf the internet and then make a quick scrub with an old toothbrush.

I'll dry them and then shoot'em with some WD40, wipe them clean and rub some paste wax on them.

[Mark Stutz]

Keith,
I just recently started using Simple Green. It works great and is environmentally friendly. Prior to that I used sudsy ammonia--89 cents or so a bottle. I would soak the blade overnight or longer. Most of the pitch would soak off, but the rest easily came off with a soft toothbrush.

Mark

[Byron Trantham]

I use oven cleaner, gloves and a toohtbrush. Works VERY well BUT it's not friendly. I will try Simple Green.

[Andy Haney]

Not a counter to any of the other statements, as I haven't used any of those products to clean blades. Simple Green does get positive remarks every time I've seen this question asked.

I've had fantastic success with the pink stuff I got at Woodcraft. It dilutes in water to working strength and cleans up the pitch quickly.

Andy Haney
Ottawa, Kansas

[Pete Bova]

It seems Simple Green is the product of choice. My question is about using WD40 on the blades after. Won't it put a residue on the wood when cutting?