Taking care of your belongings is very important and also a responsibility of yours as intelligent human beings. No matter what type of object it is. Do not ignore any of them. Same applies in case of the saws you use for your livelihood or hobby. Even the blade of your saw requires to be taken care of. Other parts of the saw also need the owner’s attention. But here we will only discuss only how to clean a saw blade.
It can become sad in ignorance. And when it is upset on you, it will give any types of service other than what you really need; just like your spouse. If you do not take care of them, I think you know what can happen next. And for additional info, the blade can even hurt you pretty badly if you are not responsible enough.
Dirty blades
Using a dirty blade in your saw is more kind of like using a dirty razor on your skin. The cutting results with a dirty blade are very bad. Because heat and friction increase a lot and it becomes hard for the blade to make cuts on the workpieces. You can easily assume the results of those cuts. Besides, less efficient cutting blade increases a lot of strain on the saw’s motor; if you have a power saw. This is also harmful to your saw.
Furthermore, I forgot to mention above that when you get irregular or rough cuts with your blade some people tend to change the blade and replace it with a new one. However, this is not the case always. When the blades become dirty, dirt stuck inside the grooves of the teeth of the blade. Which also could be the reason behind irregular cuts. If you just clean it, it will start cutting neatly.
Required materials
The materials that you will need for cleaning your saw blade are all very cheap and you anyone normally have them in their home. The materials are-
- Water
- Simple green or laundry detergent if simple green is not available. Even kerosene will also work.
- Toothbrush or brass
- A pan
See! There are no different or extra elements. You can also use oven cleaners. But I would recommend against oven cleaners. The oven cleaner can harm the carbide tips and the binder that holds them in place. The caustic soda which is an ingredient of the oven cleaner can make the teeth weak. This can cause misplacement of the teeth during cutting with it. So using simple green is a better choice. It is also a very good option for cleaning blades. Not only blades, but it can also clean almost everything around a house. It is environment-friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable cleaner. Even if the simple green is not available, then you can use the laundry cleaners which you use to clean your clothes.
About the cleaning brush, you will get optimum results if you use a toothbrush for Teflon coated blades and brass or stainless steel brush for bare metal blades. If you trim the bristles of the toothbrush to about half of their length then you might get the best results from the toothbrush.
When and how to clean your saw blade
When you see symptoms of unusual cutting with your saw you should check the saw to find what is wrong with it. If it because of the blade, examine the tip of each of the teeth of the saw blade you have. If you see dirt on them then you must clean the blade immediately. But if you see that most of them are damaged, then you should sharpen or change the blade and use a new one. Here are some good articles about sharpening table saw, chainsaw, hand saw, circular saw. There are also some articles about changing miter saw blades, table saw blades, circular saw blades, etc.
Cleaning procedure
When you are absolutely sure that you need to clean the blade of your saw then you can clean it.
- The first and the foremost work you have to do is to unplug the saw from the electric power source.
- Now remove the blade from the saw.
- Then if the blade is too dirty then remove the dirt from the grooves of the teeth with the help of a wire or something like that.
- Now, if you are using the simple green as I have suggested, you have to dilute it before using it for regular saw blade cleaning. Take one part of the simple green with two or three parts of water and mix them.
- Now dip the blade in the cleaning solution and leave it there for soaking for a few minutes. The ideal time is 5-10 minutes. You can keep it dipped in there if you think it is too dirty and need more time to clean properly.
- Now scrub the teeth of the blade with the toothbrush or brass.
- After that, rinse the blade in water.
- Now you have to make sure to dry out the blade completely with paper towels. Water and metals are not so good friends together. There is a great possibility of setting rust on the surface of the blade. So carefully remove all the water particles and make the blade dry.
- Oil the blade if it requires oiling. Lubricating the blade is a very good option to increase its life span. Moreover, lubricating the blade also gives advantage while cutting with the blade. It makes the cuts to be made easier, faster and better in quality.
- Reinstall the blade back to the saw to its rightful place.
This all you need to do for cleaning the saw blade of yours. I hope this article about how to clean a saw blade will come to your use. If so, I will be happy that my work is helping others.
