Blade Cleaning with Lestoil

Brent Dowell

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So I was cutting some cherry, and was getting quite a bit of burning. I checked the fence and alignment.

It all looked pretty good, so I figured the blade was dull.

I thought Well, I'll just take the blades in and get them sharpened. But then I thought, maybe I should just clean them up first.

I had the lestoil and went looking for a container to use to soak the blades in. Sure enough, the lid from a home depot bucket proved to be just about perfect.

A five minute soak and a little brushing (very little) with a brash brush and wow, what a difference.

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I'll have to give these cleaned blades a shot, but they look really good now.

Of course that doesn't help me with all the burn marks I need to scrape off.

They still have a room for a good sharpening though.
 
My experience with table saws and their blades is almost nil, but I would give a try to spraying the blade with silicon before each cut so that the resin and sawdust doesn't stick to it so easily. I spray my thicnesser blades, and my hand saws and planes with it and it does make a diference in all aspects. D:dunno::dunno:dunno.
 
dont use silicone it can mess with your finish. just keep the blade clean and sharp.
If you are getting excessive burning then one of two factors are in play. 1) wrong type of blade for the wood specie/thickness being cut or 2) insufficient tooth width to blade thickness which is found mainly in thin kerf blades. Burning wont be eliminated 100 percent but those two factors can go a long way to reducing it.
I always rip my stock an 1/4 oversize. this allows for stress relief on the board and still have sufficient waste to re joint. After jointing one edge then I rip the other 1/16 over and make a pass on the jointer or if several pieces of the same width stack them up in two's and three's and run them through my drum sander to final thickness.

Try using a blade that is dedicated just to ripping it will have fewer teeth, a different tooth profile, and deeper gullets for the dust. This will reduce resistance in the cut lowering heat buildup and reducing the burning.

The lestoil trick is a great tip. I will have to remember to give it a try as my better half gets that "expression" when she sees me coming up stairs with a pile of blades to take over the kitchen sink. I usually partially fill the sink with hot water and let the blade soak for about ten minutes then hit it with a tooth brush.
 
Agree. A clean blade will improve your cut and often delay a trip to the sharpsmith. I use LA Awesome from the 99cent Store. Lestoil was the quickest and one of the least expensive in a review by Woodsmith.
 
Now I need to head off to the dollar store and find one of these mythical resealable plastic containers. Only ones I can find on the interwebs cost an arm and a leg!
 
Hello to you all across the pond.

Can you tell me,what is lestoil??

Regards from England,

BrianT.
From the description it sounds like Pine-Sol. Which is a pine scented fluid that is mixed with water to clean floors. Google is your friend.
 
Kind of maybe, but it's really, really thick. As thick as motor oil, whereas pinesol thin and more of a water like consistency.
 
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