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| Cleaning Thickness Sander Belts with Windex http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=56231 |
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| Author: | Kbore [ Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Cleaning Thickness Sander Belts with Windex |
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: How to remove oily tropical wood gunk from drum sander belt- use Windex. Method: With belt removed (after replacing a gunked up belt) spray a 3x4” area of totally-impacted-cannot-remove-by-any-means- area with window cleaner. Place a piece of plastic/ saran wrap over it, and a block of wood on top to hold it in place. Let it sit for 1-24 hours. Scrape off the gunk with a sanding stick with 80 grit PS. Burned resin will almost jump off the belt. I used a blue “windexesque” window cleaner from the $1.25 store. Belt was cleanable either wet or dry, but dry was cleaner and more effective. I haven't tried Windex on-the-drum yet. Discussion: I’m new to the thickness sander, having purchased a new 19/38 drum sander last fall. I was familiar with the nuisance of embedded resin muck on the belt from reading countless reviews on the sanders and abrasives. Belt gunk has even been a topic here on the OLF. During use I took light passes and rubber sticked the factory belt it came with (labeled with “TJA” in a triangle). I dug out virtually every piece of gunk after every session using razor blades, scribes, file cards, scotchbrite, abrasives and even tried acrylic while the drum was spinning. A scalpel of corner of razor blade worked best but was very time consuming. I’m not selling guitars yet and I’m already down five $ figures in tools and equipment so money is not in surplus yet. Every method I tried to eliminate/ reduce burned debris was less than satisfying. I really gunked it up after using a finger board radius jig for the belt sander for the first time. This time, the belt would not come clean. After several hours of determination I threw in the towel and replaced the paper, but retained the belt to find a de-gunk method that worked better. With the belt off the machine, I tried all the mechanical methods, with acetone, mineral spirits, naptha and finally water. Water being the best, I tried the windex, which was the best of everything I tried. Windex loosened the stuff so most of mechanical means would now easily dislodge the debris. I did this over the course of several days. I felt it was a good investment given I was spending hours cleaning the belt anyway, and cutting and installing a belt was no walk in the park either, time wise. The windex, spritzed over the gunk and allowed to sit for a while, under plastic, followed by a light scraping with 80 grit-on-a-stick, was amazing. It worked wet or dry given a dwell time was observed. The entire belt is 98% gunk free now and fully usable. I have installed a cut-your-own Klingspore Blue belt (PE40280 Alumina Zirconia) will move to evaluating it’s performance in regard to resin/ gunk, compared to the factory supplied abrasive. I also went from 80 grit to 120 grit because of the deep, difficult to remove from hard wood scratches it leaves. Hopefully, using Windex, on-the-drum, will save time, paper and $$$ going forward. I hope some of you will have similarly satisfying results with Windex. |
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| Author: | SteveSmith [ Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Cleaning Thickness Sander Belts with Windex |
Karl, thanks for the information. If you have the extra time then it makes sense to try to clean belts as well as attempting other money-saving tasks. I have done a lot of that over the years but it does take time away from repairing and making guitars. I do still use cleaning sticks on all my power sanders but sanding belts for my Jet 10-20 drum sander are only $6 each so I just change them when they get gunked up. |
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| Author: | Darrel Friesen [ Fri Jan 19, 2024 5:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Cleaning Thickness Sander Belts with Windex |
I wonder how well that would work for African Blackwood gunk? It's even worse than cocobolo IME. I never go higher than 80 grit with either and light passes. |
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| Author: | Kbore [ Fri Jan 19, 2024 6:10 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Cleaning Thickness Sander Belts with Windex |
Darrel Friesen wrote: I wonder how well that would work for African Blackwood gunk? It's even worse than cocobolo IME. I never go higher than 80 grit with either and light passes. African Blackwood was the one I used that gunked up the belt so bad, and the one that came off with Windex/ dwell time! |
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