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How to clean a sanding belt

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How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Steve Maskery » 12 Feb 2021, 16:23

I'm servicing my 16-32 drum sander. It's a pain, really. Yes it does a great job but it all too easily get bunged up or out of alignment.
(Free tip - if you decide to unbolt the drum cover from the rise-and-fall plate, bear in mind that it is not bolted to the rise-and-fall plate at all. It's bolted THROUGH the rise-and-fall plate into the motor itself, so when you remove the last bolt the motor will crash to the floor. Or so I'm told).

The loading on mine is fairly new, it's only done a few metres, really, but already it's beginning to get gummed up. If left, it will start to burnish the workpiece, even burn it, rather than sand the surface.

I did buy one of those rubber blocks once, and while they do a decent job, they are expensive and don't least very long.

But I'm a cheapskate and WD40 is cheap. I used:

    My gummy loading, removed from the drum
    A can of WD40
    A wire brush (mine is a steel one, but I think a brass one would be better)
    Plenty of paper towels
    A softer hand brush

I clamped one end to the far edge of my bench with the rest of the loading hanging over the front edge of my bench.
P1060782.JPG
(378.51 KiB)


Then I drenched the surface with WD40, left it for a minute or two and got to work with the wire brush
P1060783.JPG
(345.45 KiB)


Then I mopped up the mess and brushed off the paper towel debris
P1060784.JPG
(327.47 KiB)


Brilliant! Just like new. For comparison, a before and after:
P1060785.JPG
(315.95 KiB)


You're welcome.
Last edited by Steve Maskery on 12 Feb 2021, 21:10, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby TrimTheKing » 12 Feb 2021, 16:29

Good tip, thanks Steve. I've got one of them there rubber thingies and as you say, does a decent job but I can see it getting chewed up fairly smartish.
Cheers
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby 9fingers » 12 Feb 2021, 16:31

Might be interesting to try that insitu Steve. Doing most of the job without the drum turning and a final spin cycle to polish up with the soft brush once the worst of the dirty wd40 has been mopped up.

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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Mike G » 12 Feb 2021, 16:41

The problem with wire-brushing abrasive is that it reduces it's "sharpness", and although clean, the belt will then act as a finer grit than it was when it started.

In place of the rubber stuff you buy for the purpose, if you have an old tube of construction adhesive which has gone off, set solid in the tube, then cut the end off and use that. It can help to reverse the belt.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby novocaine » 12 Feb 2021, 16:56

or an old trainer (something with a crepe soul works better but a trainer will do) :D
Carbon fibre is just corduroy for cars.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby AJB Temple » 12 Feb 2021, 17:25

I was always under the impression that souls were ectoplasmic but that trainer soles were a tad rubbery.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby DaveL » 12 Feb 2021, 17:28

I save the worn shods from my clogs, it works a treat.
Regards,
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby novocaine » 12 Feb 2021, 17:36

AJB Temple wrote:I was always under the impression that souls were ectoplasmic but that trainer soles were a tad rubbery.


Quiet you. :P i obviously meant soles.

But just for you I put my pants away in the draw.
Carbon fibre is just corduroy for cars.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Steve Maskery » 12 Feb 2021, 17:42

9fingers wrote:Might be interesting to try that insitu Steve. Doing most of the job without the drum turning and a final spin cycle to polish up with the soft brush once the worst of the dirty wd40 has been mopped up.


I might try that next time, Bob, but it is quite handy to be able to flex the sheet.

Mike G wrote:The problem with wire-brushing abrasive is that it reduces it's "sharpness", and although clean, the belt will then act as a finer grit than it was when it started.

I think this is a myth, Mike. I certainly don't understand it. I think the result of using a hard wire brush (which is why I said I think a brass brush would be better) is that, yes, the abrasive gets a bit duller, but that doesn't make it finer, it just means that it will cut less effectively.

Mike G wrote:In place of the rubber stuff you buy for the purpose, if you have an old tube of construction adhesive which has gone off, set solid in the tube, then cut the end off and use that. It can help to reverse the belt.

That's a good tip, Mike, I'll see what lurking at the back of the Building Supplies cupboard!
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby AJB Temple » 12 Feb 2021, 17:55

Who keeps old tubes of construction adhesive that have gone solid? Is this Hoarder's Anonymous?
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby 9fingers » 12 Feb 2021, 18:01

AJB Temple wrote:Who keeps old tubes of construction adhesive that have gone solid? Is this Hoarder's Anonymous?


I find they are only solid when taken down from the shelf. They are fine when they go up :lol:

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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Lurker » 12 Feb 2021, 18:24

I don’t suppose that you posh people have ever come across them, but plastic wine bottle “corks” work a treat.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Woodster » 12 Feb 2021, 20:17

You can buy rubber belt cleaners, and I’ve seen the tip of using old plastic bags. Where I used to work though we got a lot of stuff delivered on pallets with wrapping round it. The plastic wrap is either transparent or black and when wound tightly into sticks works very well at cleaning sanding belts. You simply push the stick against the belt whilst it’s running and all the crap comes off without damaging the belt.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Lons » 12 Feb 2021, 20:18

AJB Temple wrote:Who keeps old tubes of construction adhesive that have gone solid? Is this Hoarder's Anonymous?

ME....I cut the ends off and use them as belt cleaners.

It's true, I think it was Peter Sefton who suggested it, they aren't as good as the proper blocks but maybe it's because I'm a cheapskate bought cr*p silicone. ;)
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Steve Maskery » 12 Feb 2021, 20:46

Lurker wrote:I don’t suppose that you posh people have ever come across them, but plastic wine bottle “corks” work a treat.


Plastic wine corks? Seriously? Get thee behind me, Satan.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Woodbloke » 12 Feb 2021, 21:06

TrimTheKing wrote:Good tip, thanks Steve. I've got one of them there rubber thingies and as you say, does a decent job but I can see it getting chewed up fairly smartish.

Thanks from me as well Steve, brill tip! I like Mark have one of those rubber cleaning blocks but it only partially cleans the belt so in the not to distant future I'll sort out my old kacky one that's on my 16-32 using your method (with a brass brush dating from my Plessey apprenticeship days in 1967) - Rob
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Steve Maskery » 12 Feb 2021, 21:13

AJB Temple wrote:I was always under the impression that souls were ectoplasmic but that trainer soles were a tad rubbery.


I wish we had a Like button on this forum :)
:text-lol:
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Malc2098 » 12 Feb 2021, 22:08

Thanks, Steve, as a recent new owner of 10/20!
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Chris101 » 12 Feb 2021, 22:59

What a cracking thread. I was recently given a belt cleaner by someone who I met through a different website who bought lots of tools then sold lots of tools. Twice. Really nice guy but he moved house and I think he probably won't buy many tools again. He lived very close to me and I have some nice gear I couldn't have paid for new if he hadn't been one for buying stuff and 'hobbies'.
A week or three ago I got a text and he gave me all the bits left over. As I say, lovely guy, genuinely nice to meet and have a chat. Marking gauge, a large hadron dust cyclone, french chalk(!) some bits of copper lined dust hose and this wedge of brown gear. I asked what it was and he told me. I took it home in the van and tried it on the sorby.
'Well sh*t the fu***ing bed....' were my exact words. It was like black magic. Not the chocolates. The necromancy.

Now I hear I can use all sorts of shizzle. Old dunlop green flash. The souls of newborn babes. I have several tubes of cured mastic etc. So it's me. I'm the guy who has half tubes of cured intumescant sealant or pink grip or slate grey BAL bathroom mastic. No hoarder. I just stick the half used tubes in a drawer. If they get used before they die then all good, otherwise I bin them the next time I'm decorating and go to the mastic drawer of doom. Awesome. Now I'm like Greta Thunberg except less miserable. Because free belt cleaner.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby novocaine » 12 Feb 2021, 23:18

Woah there sailor, new born souls are useless,you need the souls of aging woodworker forum trolls.
Carbon fibre is just corduroy for cars.
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby pitch pine » 12 Feb 2021, 23:19

I use old bits of garden hose on my belt sander, works really well. There is a Lidl cleaning product (I forget which) that is fantastic for removing resin off circular saw blades. I bought the CMT stuff once, it was good but very expensive. I think the Lidl stuff is actually better!
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Steve Maskery » 12 Feb 2021, 23:47

pitch pine wrote:There is a Lidl cleaning product (I forget which) that is fantastic for removing resin off circular saw blades.


AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Trevanion » 13 Feb 2021, 00:49

novocaine wrote:you need the souls of aging woodworker forum trolls.


What souls? :|
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby pitch pine » 13 Feb 2021, 10:43

Tell us about your Lidl induced anguish Steve.....
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Re: How to clean a sanding belt

Postby Steve Maskery » 13 Feb 2021, 10:47

The anguish is not induced by Lidl, pitch pine. the anguish is knowing that there is a "fantastic" product out there but you can't remember what it is! :)
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