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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.

_________________
Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

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.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

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!

_________________
Measure Twice,

Karl Borum