Shopsmith Forums

Hello all. I just purchased a 1993 model 510 and am in the process of cleaning it up for use. I've been lurking and learning here for a while, but I've run into a problem I can't find an answer to. The gentleman whom I purchased the 510 from has kept it in overall good condition, but he used the worktables as a workbench and the tables have quite a bit of glue (looks like wood glue) on them. There are also drips of glue all over the legs of the unit. I've scrubbed the table w/ simple green and now they're clean w/ wood glue on them. Does anyone have any ideas about how to safely remove the glue, either w/ solvent, scrubbing, etc? I don't want to damage them and have to have them resurfaced as I think that would be problematic. Thanks for the help.

mandmj wrote:................ Does anyone have any ideas about how to safely remove the glue, either w/ solvent, scrubbing, etc? I don't want to damage them and have to have them resurfaced as I think that would be problematic. Thanks for the help.

mandmj,
Perhaps others here can offer a solvent, but I would try to scrape it off using a putty knife, or other such object, that has a somewhat blunt edge on it. Usually "bumping" wood glue that has dried onto a metal surface results in the hard piece of glue to "pop" off the metal.

I also have found that a putty knife works very well. Like Tim says, bumping into the spot of glue will often make it pop off the metal.

If you are talking about yellow glue (which may have turned brown by now) you can try soaking the glue in water. When yellow glue gets wet, it turns white and weakens, to where it can be removed. One way to soak up glue when it is on a vertical or sloped surface, is to somehow affix a very wet sponge over and a bit above the spot, and leave it there for a while.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot...