I was wondering what types of cleaning solutions / solvents and techniques can be used for effectively and efficiently cleaning the oil and pitch off your chains before sharpening?
Denatured alcohol might be a better option if just removing pitch. I use it on the saw casing, hand tools, etc., for pine sap.I tried soaking a maple pitch chain in low odor mineral spirits. It was a complete failure. Went back to gasoline in bucket covered outdoors for now. Willing to attempt the lye method. I will try straight Spraynine this next time around. Also have a purple cleaner concentrate I didn't try yet on pitch coated loops.
Pic?Yeah, guys on this site used to praise ‘Purple Power’. I bought some similar looking ‘Super Clean’, because that was what I could find. Worked good.
When I, later, found ‘Purple Power’, it did not work as well. That’s when I started looking at ingredients.
In my ‘Chain Challenge’ thread, a l also tried pure lye (from the plumbing aisle), and making my own from wood ash.
They worked. But a chemist at ZEP convinced me that the commercial, water based cleaner/degreasers containing lye, also had other good stuff in them, for other kinds of dirt.
About $10 / gallon. Works well.
Pretty reasonable.
Philbert
Takes too long.WD-40
Great to use before cutting pine.WD-40
I have Poulan saws for those, no bs. 221, 295 and one old whatever. Likely one of the Homelite 330s if it needs to be bigger. I avoid pine especially white pine unless the saw is sprayed down first with something slick like WD40.Great to use before cutting pine.
I use a coffee can about half full of strait gas. Slosh the chains around a bit. Then soak the chains for a few minutes. Then slosh them around for a few seconds again. Hang chains until dry. It works great and the gas evaporates off the chains fairly quickly. Change out the gas when it no longer effectively cleans the chains. Hope this helps.I was wondering what types of cleaning solutions / solvents and techniques can be used for effectively and efficiently cleaning the oil and pitch off your chains before sharpening?
Good use for gas thats getting a bit old tooI use a coffee can about half full of strait gas. Slosh the chains around a bit. Then soak the chains for a few minutes. Then slosh them around for a few seconds again. Hang chains until dry. It works great and the gas evaporates off the chains fairly quickly. Change out the gas when it no longer effectively cleans the chains. Hope this helps.
What I use in my large capacity ultrasonic heated cleaner. Either that or straight lye in cold water added to the cleaner and heated in it., then rinse in clear water and then I grind them and immerse them in a tray with light viscosity motor oil (clean of course). In as much as I do multiple chains at one time. Gunked up loops foul my CBN grinding wheels.I use a water-based degreaser *containing sodium hydroxide* (lye), such as ‘Super Clean’ mixed 50:50 with water.
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