Clean Gunked Up Sander and Dremel!?

E

Ethan_Hardy

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Sep 10, 2011
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350
Over the weekend I was making scales for my BK7 out of bocote. I noticed that the belts I was using were getting gunked up to the point of them not removing material. Is this specific to a species of wood? Has anyone seen this before? Is there a way to clean the belts and remove this? Help would be much appreciated and would save me money!
 
Yup, they make a sticky "eraser" type block that pulls that gunk right off the belts and tools, just press the block against the belt like you're trying to sand it, and watch the gunk vanish. Works awesome.

You should be able to score one at just about any hardware store.
 
I tried the eraser idea and it didnt work as well as it sounds, this stuff is like ground into the grit. I went to my local Home Depot and as expected they weren't much help. Ill try my local Woodcraft store they seem to know whats good. Thanks for the suggestions!
 
Now that's weird, I've never run into anything wood that the eraser wouldn't clean off of the belt. Melted-on plastic is the only thing it's not been able to clean up for me so far.
 
Only thing I can offer, since I haven't used a grinder.

Tropical woods like bocote are known to be oily (some very much so). I'm wondering if the oil is creating most of the difficulty in removing the junk, if it's essentially gluing itself to the belt. Don't know if the belts would be damaged by using some solvent, like mineral spirits (grinder guys, please advise)?
 
Komitadjie said:
Now that's weird, I've never run into anything wood that the eraser wouldn't clean off of the belt. Melted-on plastic is the only thing it's not been able to clean up for me so far.
Click to expand...

Like stabilized wood (impregnated with resin), maybe? Hopefully this case doesn't apply(?), but it makes me wonder.
 
Found this in Google Books' search results, from Wayne Goddard's book, "Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife Shop Revised":

http://books.google.com/books?id=Xd8Ac9Pow3sC&pg=PT147&lpg=PT147&dq=cleaning+oily+wood+from+belt+grinder&source=bl&ots=9ST5IX99zG&sig=Lw_jJMVSJ9ahBeHO-VwH6PV520Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ADzrT6SHB7Pq2wWggenKAQ&ved=0CE0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=cleaning oily wood from belt grinder&f=false

Here's the pertinent extract from that text:


Maybe something as simple as a wire brush might do, based on the above.
 
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If I could clean off the belts i wouldnt need more lol. I will definitely have to get one of those abrasive cleaners they might just do the trick. I epoxied the wood onto the blank, its possible that the epoxy is doing although I doubt it because its totally dry and mixed well. When I sand something like Zebrawood or Oak I have no problems. Thanks for the responses.

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The erasers work well for lightly clogged belts but my experience is when you grind woods like that at high speed the dust tends to glaze...and then the eraser does minimal. Working slower helped me...but it still clogs.

Now that David mentioned mineral spirits I'm curious what effect a good industrial degreaser would have.....they are formulated to break down oils/grease.
 
Put the Grinding belt in a bucket and pour hot water ( NOT BOILING ) on the belt and let it soak over night, clean most of the junk with a wire brush let it drip dry, Take care for loosened partickles the first run after cleaning.

Cheers

"VAN"
 
I will definitely have to try the water, mineral spirits and a wire brush. The dremel sanders clog a lot more than the sander. The dremel sanders sometimes close within a few minutes. Ill let you guys know my results.
 
I get this sometimes with the layered multicolor G10....It is difficult to clean out stuff that is oily and has adhesives in it.
 
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