Way of cleaning ceramic belts?

A

AlexKV

Joined
Jan 28, 2015
Messages
17
Hey all,

When I first started using my 2x72 belt grinder, I used to remove walnut from handles with 80 grit ceramic belts. At ~4300sfpm, of course they clogged up, and I think there is still some service left in about 5 of them. Is there any method of removing burnt wood from them, or should I just scrap them? After some time hanging for a while, when I bend them, they make crackling sounds because of that wood.
"Simple little life" on youtube cleans his gator belts with diamond stone, and i tried the same with sintered diamond wheel, and just ruined it, nothing happened...
 
I don't know about burnt wood and ceramic belts.. But the AO belts I use for G10 and Micarta clog up and I clean them out in few secs with one of those rubber belt cleaning blocks. Works great.
 
AlexKV said:
Hey all,

When I first started using my 2x72 belt grinder, I used to remove walnut from handles with 80 grit ceramic belts. At ~4300sfpm, of course they clogged up, and I think there is still some service left in about 5 of them. Is there any method of removing burnt wood from them, or should I just scrap them? After some time hanging for a while, when I bend them, they make crackling sounds because of that wood.
"Simple little life" on youtube cleans his gator belts with diamond stone, and i tried the same with sintered diamond wheel, and just ruined it, nothing happened...
Click to expand...
I wash them with a toothbrush...
 
I've used plastic scrub brushes for the coarse grits and toothbrushes for the 220-440. Don't be afraid to soak them in a bucket of water for a day or so before scrubbing.

I remember reading a while (years) back that simple green works in some cases.
 
I use ceramic on wood all the time. Won't help the OP but the secret is to clean them often during use with the belt erasers. Don't let the wood glazed gummies build up. Even more often with woods like ironwood or walnut.
 
I read on hear a while back about someone who had left a whack of used belts outside his shop over the winter. He said when he went to clean them up the snow and rain had made them look new. He tried them and they worked great. From this, I guessing you can use some soap and water to clean them up but I have never tried it. Make sure their of a backing material that can get wet. Snapped belts suck when the smack you in the face.
 
X3 on the belt cleaning "erasers". you can get them at harbor freight or woodcraft (probably other places - but that is where I get them). They work great on either ceramic or AO belts to get rid of wood clogging. when I am grinding wood (almost at any grit) I will keep one right by the grinder, and clean multiple times during the sanding process.

I have occasionally used old, nearly worn out, ceramic belts on wood for rough shaping ... but honestly, after burning wood a couple times, I now just use a fresh (cheap) course grit (60 or 80) AO belt for that initial shaping (these belts chew through wood like you would not believe (but I have not used Ironwood yet). but with the rosewoods I have used so far, they are so "sticky" that, like I said, I clean the belt multiple times while doing that initial shaping....
 
before using any belt on stick/gummy wood/handle material pre load the belt up with a mix if parafin/bees wax
old time trick for cutting drilling things like aluminum was to pre load the bit with wax , works on belts too
only for roughing things out..
 
I do the same as Weo. I soak wet/dry belts in a bucket of detergent (Simple Green) water overnight. Then use a nylon scrub brush on the belts to clean them out. They do come out much cleaner. Doesn't help much with embedded epoxy unfortunately.
 
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Pinoy Knife said:
before using any belt on stick/gummy wood/handle material pre load the belt up with a mix if parafin/bees wax
old time trick for cutting drilling things like aluminum was to pre load the bit with wax , works on belts too
only for roughing things out..
Click to expand...

Interesting you should say that. I was having a debate with someone on another forum (they had dropped the remark "Abrasives never need lubricant") and I found this short but interesting article.

https://www.emisupply.com/catalog/article_info.php?articles_id=18&<osCsid>
"...Loading is a condition where the metal partially fills the space between adjacent grains as well as being welded or adhered to the abrasive tips. It is most commonly encountered in grinding and polishing soft, gummy metals such as many grades of aluminum, copper and zinc alloys and other non-ferrous metals. ...."
 
As i live in Serbia, there's no dressers or erasers available here, but i have just soaked one ceramic belt in water, to see if anthing happens in a few days. It's all black glazed from roughing walnut, so we'll see... Thanks for the info all of you!
 
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