Had glue build-up and a bit of paper residue on a power pad and heating it up to remove the disc wouldn’t get all of it off and had no xylene type solvents around.
Used a belt cleaning stick (those big eraser looking sticks) on the pad at high r.p.m. (Makita 1500 - 2800 V.S.). It heats the glue up and takes it right off. Pad looks like new.
Note: It tends to shoot some bits of glue around, so do it away from freshly shaped blanks, new glass jobs, etc.
Pete
Outstanding, Pete, thank you, I have a couple of those that need doing plus the Doc-sized eraser* and you just made my day.
Best regards
doc…
I can’t find a picture of it but you can also get those eraser “sticks” in a wooden frame that you can nail or screw to any convenient surface - worktable, shaping stand, nearby 4x4… makes it easier for portable tools than trying to hold both the stick and the tool at the same time. (I have one nailed to a shaping stand, that way I always know where it is.)
Have to try it on the power pad, never thought of that. Thanks Pete!
Ah, but I can…
They run about four bucks US from Amazon/Tool Crib of the North. Do a search for ‘sanding belt cleaner’.
Though I’ll bet I could ( and should, lest life get exciting ) clamp my giant eraser into a woodworker’s vise and clean off things safely, rather than the kinda suicidal way I do it now, one hand on the saner ( upside down, no less ) and one holding the cleaning block…
doc…silly tool tricks while you wait…
exactly the one I was talking about. thx for the pic, doc!
Doc,
The old free hand method is mine also. Things get interesting when the stick starts to chatter on the belt, disc or whatever. Have a big Delta edge sander with a 4 x 132" belt (great for trueing templates !) that eats cleaners - and finger tips if the reflexes are slow.
The stand or clamp method would be the way to go. Did notice doing another power pad - this time with sleeves rolled up - that hot glue bits shot onto the hair on my arm that was holding the sander. Was like little mosquito bites pulling the cooled bits off taking a hair or two with each bit. But the pads are sparklin’.
It’s just nice, as always, finding a little more versatility in another mundane shop staple.
Pete
Just when I thought there was nothing new on Swaylock’s, up jumps this gem!
Crepe soled shoes from the '70 also work. Now if I could just find my white belt!
(chuckling) …
Pete, do I EVER know what you mean! ‘interesting’ indeed. You find yourself wondering whether you are gonna eat the eraser, the sander or just wear away part of your arm. Down to the bone, that is.
Y’know, if you used, say, one full side of the eraser, lightly and carefully on your edge sander ( NEAT tool, I want one, or did when I was doing production furniture ) I wonder…
That would give you a flat, pretty smooth edge, which you could then contact cement to some ply ( doing it very, very carefully) so that you’d have a mountable item… put a couple together ( sand two sides of one, three sides of the other ) or more so that you’d have a big sucker that’d do just about anything this side of a drum sander…
Of course, now I am wondering how they de-gum drum sanders and wide belt sanders without worrying about the eraser getting loose and bouncing around inside the gizzards of the machine, making horrible noises and awful smells.
So… a quick explanation of how my twisted little mind works, and why having this internet thang is dangerous for people like me:
Y’see, I’m a curious sort of character. A question like ‘how do they degum drum sanders and wide belt sanders’ is something I have to find out. It’s a compulsion. But, as we will see, it can be a useful compulsion.
Okay, to find out about drum sanders and how you’d attack one with a giant eraser, I go to where I get most of my bigger shop tools: www.grizzly.com . They do really good manuals and have PDF versions of 'em on line, so I can likely find the info in there…Look up sanders, look up drum sanders - gee, that’s a cute little 12" model, lets check that. http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0459
Cute. Definitely cute. Not what I’d need for doing production work, it’s single-drum and a double drum type ( like this ) is better for cranking out finished wood in one fell swoop, but lets take a look at it anyhow… Aha, the manual: http://images.grizzly.com/grizzlycom/manuals/G0459_m.pdf
Bebop along through it, there may be cleaning instructions or something, like ‘Do not do this under any circumstances or you will lose digits, limbs and appendages you may have been fond of’ which will, naturally, get me on it in a flash.
And I get to Page 19…accessories. And what do I see? A reference to a Pro-Stick sanding pad, ya just feed it through the sander and shazam .
Back to Grizzly main, do a seach for ‘pro stick’ and ‘pro-stik’ ( dontcha just love variant spellings) and get http://www.grizzly.com/products/H2845 20" x 15" x 1 1/8" ( plus a better price on a nail-on goodie like Keith has) - but it’s a bit big and the $60 price tag is a bit steep - but they claim they have ( someplace ) a smaller one that’s got to be cheaper, 12" x 15" x 3/4".
And, this means this old bald fat man doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel for wide stick on sanding cleaner. It would probably also work fine as a non-slip sanding pad for small items. Mount one on the wall to throw things at when I lose my temper ( tired of fixing shop windows )
ah, the possibilities are endless…
doc… a dangerous mind is a terrible thing to waste…