Cleaning bandsaw blades & rubber tires

If the blade is badly fouled I take it off and use turps. 100 grit or finer seems to work on the wheel as it turns to remove sap etc. Watch your fingers! Tom

I put WD40 on the blade after cutting wet wood. Cloth and hand rotation of the blade in reverse cleans the gullets and helps prevent corrosion which will dull the blade. Nice time to make sure you get that cherry juice off the table and protect it, too. Leaves the blade lubed for the next cuts, though adding some before you begin isn't a bad idea. Some use a convenient spray of cooking oil.

I just take a thin piece of wood and rotate the tire past it while compressing the rubber if I get a buildup down below. Breaks up and scrapes off nicely. Usually only happens when I neglect the vacuum, though. You shouldn't have problems with oil-based solvents. I'd avoid the ketones.

Some folks put a hard-bristle toothbrush in position so that it brushes the tire while the saw's in use. If you don't use a vacuum, seems like a good idea. If you need cleaning beyond the ordinary on either the tire or the blade, nylon or brass bristles seem aggressive enough.

Consider ceramic guides for your saw. They're so slick they can actually be set in contact, and they help keep the portion of the blade they contact scraped clean. Be careful of the sparks on punky dry wood!

The instructions that came with my blades says use PAM on them. It seems to help keep the gunk off and lubricate it. I raise the upper guides and while running it hold a paper tower on one side and spray the other side lightly. Or spray it on the paper towel and wipe it on the blade.

Roller guides make it worse.

Iturra sells these. Cost is about $7.

I bought a lubrication compound called Lube Tube from Iturra. It's made by Lenox. It's in a jumbo chapstick-like container - about 10 inchs in length. It's designed to be used with bandsaws. Just hold it against the blade for a few seconds, and then apply to the other side.

I tried this on a metal-cutting bandsaw, and it makes a remarkable difference in cutting ease.

I'm not sure about it's impact on gunk build-up. I used a blade made for cutting green wood: The wheel brush I was talking about is here for $7.99

I can't find hard bristle toothbrushes any more. Not sure they make them now. But I have an old one on my bandsaw.

Go with a half of a fingernail or vegetable brush.

As far as the blade goes, I use oven cleaner on my table saw blades, and it works great. Don't know about the tires as much, but I know you can buy replacements pretty easily if it turns out that whatever you try causes problems. At a glance, I think I'd avoid most solvents, out of fear that they would dry out the rubber and cause cracks, but that's just a guess. Maybe try a little 3-in-1 oil and a soft brass brush before jumping right to the thinner- it may or may not work, but I don't think it could hurt anything.

Hi Ralph, I don't cut a lot of green wood but when I do I just wipe everything down after the session. Usually the junky stuff gets knocked off by the blocks. I do however cut a lot of "dry" wood which does gum up the tires. What I do about once every couple months is take the tires off and clean them in warm soapy water. They clean up fairly easily. There is usually a small amount of junk on the wheels themselves (under the tires) which I hit with a brush and occasionally a light touch of 330 grit sandpaper. It's much easier to keep the saw tracking properly if I do this once in a while. Bob

One more thing. I had problems when the push bearing was a roller bearing. I switched to a ceramic, and gunk never clogs it up, because the ceramic doesn't need to rotate.

dig in Harbor Freight, they have a small black stiff bristle brush over in cleaning.. also bristles in brass or SS

--Shiva--

Thanks Prometheus and Turnerbob for your suggestions. What I did yesterday was dampen a cloth with Paint Thinner and wiped the tires while rotating the wheels. This worked pretty well, but still not good enough so I will try other methods mentioned here. For the blade I used a small flexible 6" metal ruler(?) to scrape off the gunk. I did this by the holding the small thin ruler firmly against the blade while rotating the wheel by hand. This worked quite well.

Forgot to mention. The rubber tires on my bandsaw are glued on, removing them would probably destroy them. I do know that some bandsaws have tires that are easily removed, such as the Mini Max MM16, unfortunately mine isn't one of them.

Thanks again for your help.......Ralph

Hi Ralph, I don't cut a lot of green wood but when I do I just wipe everything down after the session. Usually the junky stuff gets knocked off by the blocks. I do however cut a lot of "dry" wood which does gum up the tires. What I do about once every couple months is take the tires off and clean them in warm soapy water. They clean up fairly easily. There is usually a small amount of junk on the wheels themselves (under the tires) which I hit with a brush and occasionally a light touch of 330 grit sandpaper. It's much easier to keep the saw tracking properly if I do this once in a while. Bob

Just ordered a lubricant stick and pitch remover from Rockler Woodworking. I am hoping the lubricant stick, which appears easy to apply, will deter some of the gunk from adhering to the blade. Here is the link in case someone is interested. Thanks again everyone.......Ralph

Not sure how long this link will last:

Feedback re lubricant stick and pitch remover:

I tried the bandsaw blade lubricant stick and agree with a previous poster in that it doesn't work on wet wood, gums up very quickly. However; I sprayed the Rockler Pitch Remover on the blade and it works great. I spray the blade as I slowly rotate it by hand. In a couple minutes the gunk comes right off by slightly scraping the blade, very little effort. I use a thin

6" metal ruler (any thin flat scraper will do) to scrape the blades and also to remove the gunk off the wheel tires. I do this while rotating the wheels by hand. The question I have is that the Pitch Remover doesn't list the ingredients so I do not know if the pitch remover will harm the rubber tires. I like using this stuff but hate the thought of replacing rubber tires more. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated......Ralph

Same as before. Use oil to prevent pitch buildup.

Remove your blade, fold per instructions and immerse in a good solution of washing soda or TSP. After ten minutes you might have to wipe with a towel.

Thanks George. My problem with removing the blade to clean is that the wood that I am cutting is very green (water flying). It is Live Oak and Black Oak and begins to clog after trimming one piece. It is a big hastle for me to remove the blade because I also have added a larger plywood table to facilitate large pieces and requires removing some bolts before removing the blade. Not that I am lazy but it it just too much of a hastle.

Thanks again........Ralph