I have noticed that the feed rollers on my planer have been slipping a little bit lately because they are dirty (the thicker the board, the more noticeable), so I used a chlorox wipe to clean them. That worked good for a couple days, but not for long. Should I try a damp rag with mild soap?
Jasen Morris
Replies
I use MEK, but I don't know if that hurts the rollers or not.
ne sutor ultra crepidam
Jasen,
Use mineral spirits. That won't hurt the rollers and is recommended by the manufacturers. Clorox will break down the rubber and make it hard and slippery.
Steve
There are two secrets to keeping one's wife happy.
1. Let her think she's having her own way.
2. Let her have her own way. President Lyndon Baines Johnson
A mild solvent like mineral spirits, naptha or denatured alcohol seems to work best. Stonger solvents like lacquer thinner or MEK work, too, but I'd be concerned about them eventually attacking the rubber.
-Steve
I use Naptha, but mine are serrated metal, not rubber.
Jeff
Clorox is a bleach, disinfectant, but not a "cleaner" per se. You could use the solvents mentioned above, or if the rollers are rubber, just try a dilute household cleaner. I get lazy and use the cleaning cloths from Costco, Kirkland Household Wipes (Mr. Clean wipes are similar). Or, use 409 or Simple Green and a wrung-out sponge -- the kind with the white safe-scrub stuff on one side are nice. You need to rotate the rollers so that you get all the surfaces (unplug-clean-plug-quick switch to move the rollers-unplug-clean..... very tedious). Then wipe dry
Service guy here in the printing industry. Rubber roller can be killed by solvents unless Manufacture approved. (No way to find out with most tools) I saw other posts and I will not comment! Some bad some reasonable.
I would stay away from solvents if possible. Alcohol I never found to hurt rubber rollers. I keep mine clean with a grey 3M pad. OK so some scratches but seem Ok.
What do you mean by "Solvents?" Any liquid that I can think of is a solvent - the petrol solvents, water, alcohol, you name it.
"Solvents?"Sorry, I used a general term. I did not have time to list them all. (even if I knew all of them, which I do not)From my long experience in the printing field (service)
using a non-recommended 'solvent' on 'rubber' (here goes another general term) can cost the owner of a press/folder/whatever many thousands of dollars. A 'solvent' that works on one type of compound will shrink/swell/crack/dry-out? another type. You may not notice the problem immediately, maybe in the middle of a big job and you loose the job and sometimes the customer. I have seen some 'rubber' rollers turn to a sticky gum or turn rock hard and all sorts of other problems more than a few times.Even Alcohol can ruin some types of so called 'rubber'.
Straight from the DeWalt www site. Clean the rollers with mineral spirits or alcohol.
Interesting answers about the 735 there. They say they don't carry carbide knives because their M2 tool steel blades are more durable and hold up better. And also say they can be sharpened a couple of times.
I also submitted a question about the torque settings (in/lbs. or ft/lbs.) for the 8 allen cap screws (each knife). Owners manual says sufficient tightness. That's a little lame for nit picky me. Will pass the info on when they reply.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 1/6/2008 3:33 pm ET by BruceS
How do you like that new planer? I like mine some of the time and it's usually the blades that drive me crazy. Sometimes I get a set that last quite a while but other times it seems that they don"t even last long enough to get 30 bf of rough sawn wood dimensioned.
So far I've only run about 6' through it. ;-) But the same planer at work has had plenty of feet run through it. Just flipped the blades a few weeks ago.
Check out my other post about torque setting for the knife screws, Got that info from http://www.DeWalt.com. Thats info that should be in the owners manual.
I wonder if there arn't still some of the original blades still on the market, there was a problem with them.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 1/7/2008 7:36 pm ET by BruceS
Well you know where I get all my blades from. I never worried about the torque specs on the blade bolts, the only thing I was really worried about was removing the bolts down the road. After I couldn't get some removed from my old planer, the first thing I did before even using the machine I removed all the bolts and never seezed them all.
I guess smart people think alike ;-) FYI, K&D Hardwood just bought 24 sets of blades(years supply) So that shows you how well that planer holds up and this is their second year on the machine.
Also, there is a pocket hole class this Sat. if your interested. Morning session is filled, room in afternoon class.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 1/9/2008 9:11 am ET by BruceS
Bruce,
What is the thread count and size on the allen cap screws? I work for an Aerospace field and have access to torque values.
Thanks for the offer. I got the torque setting from DeWalt http://www.  The Answer is 50 in/lbs.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
"They say they don't carry carbide knives because their M2 tool steel blades are more durable and hold up better."I believe that. I had carbide knives on a stationary planer one time and found them to be too brittle. You would knick them just by hitting a knot.
I would not use a strong solvent. I was involved in servicing printers and plotters and I used a rubber restorer, I do not remember the name. I also used alcohol at times and did not have any repeat calls to replace damaged rollers.
A strong solvent was probably used on the Makita 2030 and turned the rollers to mush as discussed in the message below.
http://forums.taunton.com/fw-knots/messages?msg=39439.1
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
Although some solvents can damage rubber rollers, in the case of the Makita planers they apparently had a problem with the rubber compound and they are well known for having the rollers disintegrate.
John W.
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