bandsaw tire cleaner

papahammer8 · Post by **papahammer8** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:37 pm

done bearing upgrade on 20 yr old SS bandsaw. been reading on forum about tire cleaners. well wife came out to shopwhile in process of changing bearings, ask her what we had to clean pitch of tires. don't know if this has been mentioned before but the rubber stick used to clean 12 in. sanding dsc paper works great. didn't really want to use any chemicals on bandsaw. worked great. bearing and cool blocks did the trick. purring like a kitten

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Sun May 27, 2007 10:25 pm

Good Idea! I've been using silicone spray on a shop rag. That seems to work good and seems to prevent further checking of the rubber tires. I'll have to try the sand paper cleaning stick, and then I'll use silicone.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:44 am

charlese wrote:Good Idea! I've been using silicone spray on a shop rag. That seems to work good and seems to prevent further checking of the rubber tires. I'll have to try the sand paper cleaning stick, and then I'll use silicone.

Chuck
Silicone in the shop????? Silicone can be a pain in finishing, causes fisheye and other finish distortions. I don't let silicone anywhere in my shop.

I often clean my tires with rag dipped in Naptha and lightly touch the turning wheel (by hand). No ill effects yet and my tires are from the 80's
Ed

john · Post by **john** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:37 pm

I will have to try that.

My tires are pretty dirty from sawing so much pine and I was debating (with myself) as to how to clean them. I notice my blade is also nicely coated on the inside surface that touches the tires. I tried the rubber block on that but it didn't do much good. Any suggestions for cleaning the blade?

John

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Mon May 28, 2007 10:13 pm

John, clean the blade with mineral spirits.

Ed, I started using silicone years ago in Montana on the rubber inside of the car doors. This allowed them to open after a snow/ice storm, and kept toe rubber soft and ply-able. Haven't yet had a problem with silicon in the shop! Maybe I will someday, but the rubber tires on my band saw will retain their give and will not harden. However, you got me by a few years on the tires.

What kind of finishes would react to wood sawn with a trace of silicone from a band saw blade?

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Tue May 29, 2007 9:55 am

charlese wrote:John, clean the blade with mineral spirits.

Ed, I started using silicone years ago in Montana on the rubber inside of the car doors. This allowed them to open after a snow/ice storm, and kept toe rubber soft and ply-able. Haven't yet had a problem with silicon in the shop! Maybe I will someday, but the rubber tires on my band saw will retain their give and will not harden. However, you got me by a few years on the tires.

What kind of finishes would react to wood sawn with a trace of silicone from a band saw blade?

Almost any finish will react with silicone. Once silicone gets into wood it is almost impossible to detect until your actually applying a finish and it is almost impossible to get out.

Silicone is nasty stuff when it comes to paint or finish sticking to it. My first exposure to it came when my daughter who used silincone products like Armour-all wanted me to paint the her car another color. I had to paint the inside and years of silicone from various products caused me a huge problem with fish eye. Let me tell you I fought fish eye, and the experience was the worst nightmare I ever had. I sanded to bare metal, numerous times, used just about every car finishing surface prep/cleaner/primer/surface etcher I could think of. I just about turned the inside of the car into a toxic waste dump from all the chemicals I used until I go all the silicone out. Fish eye remover in the paint and primers did little good. I haven't painted a car in years and I believe there are some new products in the car paint business that now makes silicone a little less troublesome.

I had a friend build a beautiful inlaid mahogany table top. The inlay took him days. He was finishing it when he realized a drop of silicone lube had at one time or another dropped onto one of the boards he was using. Nothing he could find would remove it enough to allow him to continue finishing the piece. I believe he began sanding hoping he could remove the silicone before destroying the inlay. If I remember correctly he now owns a beautiful mahogany table without any inlay.

Go read a tube of silicone chaulk there are warnings all over the tube about how paint, stain and other things won't stick to it. I have heard of guys using silicone car wax on their woodworking machines and then having the silicone come off and ruin projects. Frankly I don't need any help screwing stuff up, I'm really good at that myself.

For that reason I have removed everything silicone out of my shop. I still use silicone car products and silicone chaulk but I'm very very careful that no silicone gets anywhere near my machines, wood or finishes. In my opinion silicone has absolutely no place in a wood working shop. Even if it were proven that one drop would make the SS last forever I would have go into another state while someone put that drop in my SS.

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Tue May 29, 2007 12:35 pm

I had a friend build a beautiful inlaid mahogany table top. The inlay took him days. He was finishing it when he realized a drop of silicone lube had at one time or another dropped onto one of the boards he was using. Nothing he could find would remove it enough to allow him to continue finishing the piece. I believe he began sanding hoping he could remove the silicone before destroying the inlay. If I remember correctly he now owns a beautiful mahogany table without any inlay.

A nice butterfly patch of an exotic contrasting wood may have looked great and no one would have known it wasn't his intention.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Tue May 29, 2007 1:05 pm

batg4 wrote:A nice butterfly patch of an exotic contrasting wood may have looked great and no one would have known it wasn't his intention.

I think it was a couldn't see the forest for all the trees type of thing. He was a real prefectionist. He built a zebra wood grandfather clock with 26 separate pieces on the front. He built it so that grain ran continous through all 26 pieces. That required him to rout face grain and cross grain something that took far more time and patience than I have.

Ed

curtis george · Post by **curtis george** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 5:26 pm

Hello guys
I am new to this fourm.

I used a wire brush to clean the tires and then mounted a old tooth brush to the body of the band saw so it rubs on the lower wheel. This method has worked well for me so far.

Just me two cents.

C.A.G.