Cleaning Wide-Belt Sander Belts
Tips for getting the gum and dust out of a wide-belt sander belt. April 14, 2010
Question
Does anyone know of a wide belt cleaning service in New England? If not, can you suggest any improvements to our process? We spray Reuzit, which I think is a lye based solution, scrub with a brush, and rinse with water while the belt is stretched on a rack - rather tedious, but effective. We do this outside, so it is not very attractive in this season.
Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor M:
We were thicknessing some Extira panels through our wide belt and after doing so, discovered our belt was really clean. We keep some scrap pieces of Extira around and when we see a belt that could use cleaning, we just run some scrap pieces of Extira through, and it seems to do the trick.
From contributor A:
I used to work at a shop that cleaned belts using your method. We would put the cleaner in one of those old stainless steel fire extinguishers and spray it on. The floor sweeping kid never complained much; however we had a ton of belts and would clean them before it got real cold out. This might work better than the Extira.
From contributor D:
Reuzit works great on belts fouled with pitch from pine or other softwoods. A pressure washer works best for rinsing off the Reuzit. I use a cheap electric pressure washer I got for $75. We put our belts (37 x 60) over an upside down trash can to hold them upright for the pressure washing.
