How To Clean Your Chainsaws Without Making a Mess

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Gypo Logger

Timber Baron
Joined
Dec 8, 2001
Messages
16,788
Reaction score
14,088
Location
Yukon Territory
Having five saw shops on my property, my shop of choice is in the living room by the wood stove because it’s been so cold outside lately.

I have drawn the line at bringing an air compressor into my living quarters as I don’t relish the thought of getting oily sawdust from paper plate to tea kettle.

Anyway, I thought if I had a specialty type vaccum cleaner I could clean my saws without making a mess.

Does anyone know of a vacuum cleaner that would be useful for this application?

My shop vac works but also blows dust everywhere.
Thanks
 
May not help you but my job is in a shop environment. I take them to work most often and clean them on my lunch break.


Do you work in a shop environment?

Otherwise warm that thing up in the house and then take it outside and blow it off with your air compressor in your garage....


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]
 
Collect more saws and clean them all in the spring lol.

I baught a propane heater for my shed to make it little more cosy when its cold. My biggest problem is my air compressor dont like the cold and i have to empty the tank to get it to fire for the first time.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
 
I do all of my saw maintenance in the breezeway area of my home. Not sure if it translates for the foreign readers, but it's a room between the garage and home.

My air compressor is there along with all of my tools. Its an insulated room and is quite easy to warm up and heat with an electric space heater.
 
Thanks for the informative replies. I was thinking along the lines of one of those dental suction devices.
Suction never has the power of pressure. You can vacuum off larger clumps of sawdust, etc, but you will never get off all the greasy clods that you can blast off with even modest air pressure. You will have to do a lot more scraping and brushing.

Not sure what your saws look like when you clean them: one guy's 'dirty' might be another guy's 'looks alright to me'. Some guys' 'It's a Working Saw NOT a Shelf Queen!" look like they were camouflaged with mud and grease to discourage theft.

You could build a small cleaning enclosure, like a sand blasting cabinet, with a vacuum to collect all the dirt, but it would probably be easier to just heat one of your shops.

That said, some of those dental tools are pretty cool. I like the ultrasonic wands.

Philbert
 
The last time i did it in the house I disassembled the saw and put it in the dishwasher. The wife was not happy. The wife said that if I ever do it again that it would be the last time i ever do it.
I am not sure what she meant but I clean them in the shop now. After 49 years of marriage I have learned not to argue with her.

One idea is to use a small quiet air compressor at low psi to blow out the stuff and at the same time catch it with a shop vac. Use a high filtration filter on the shop vac. The make vacs to clean out the toner dust in office buildings that do not make any dust. My air compressor is no louder than normal talking.
 
Bundle up and use your compressor to pre blow it outside with top cover off.
Bring it inside where it is warm.

Use a shallow pan to catch all the crap as you disassemble and use brush / screwdriver to loosen stuck on crap. All the while enjoying TV / music etc. in a warm cozy environment.

Bundle up again, take saw / parts outside and use compress air to finish removing crap. A temporary inconvenience outside.

Rush back inside to warm up, partake in snacks and refreshments of your liking. Examine all parts to your satisfaction for cleanness repeat as necessary. Reassemble and sharpen chain.

More refreshments....

Yea a shop vac has volume to suck air and needs a good filter to keep the exhaust clean is important. The oily crap does clog up a filter. Nothing like compressed air with volume and pressure to get the crap out though.
 
If I am inclined and have a few funky ones to clean, I fancy the local car wash. I pull the covers, electronics and plug the carbs. $2 and their hot water, soap and high pressure. Can do about 2-3 saws if I lay them out before dropping the coin. Salt and/or mud on the truck while I am at it.
 
This is experimental, so i don't know if it has the power to suck all oily sawdust.
But, if you have one line that push directly the air, and in parallel one line that absorb the air previously pushed, this maybe it can work.
At the end of the absorbing line, attach a bag, or the dirty goes everywhere.
Venturi Tube :
 
Another experimental idea :

This is a sandblaster (with its sandblaster gun), with recovery. (i don't know if "recovery" is the right translation).
The sanblaster gun push Sand at high velocity, and immediately absorb it with a vacuum cleaner system:


The concept is based on Venturi tube : one line push air directly, and one line absorb it with a venturi tube concept, and a circular brush.

You can try to use the sandblaster gun with recovery, attaching it at the air compressor, and using it without sand.

50300.jpg
 
I use a harbor freight sand blast cabinet with their large dust collector hooked up to a 4" dryer hose connector. Then use a piped in compressed air blow gun to blow it out inside of the cabinet. Works like a champ!
I stick cutoff saws in there, especially because some Rural water districts around here still have "Transite" brand of pipe remaining in service, which has carcinogenic properties. They quit making it back in the early 80's.
-Not that concrete dust is good for the lungs.....
 
I say when your saws become dirty ship them to me and purchase new ones. Problem solved. I make a mess all over garage door with compressed air and WD40 or my mixture of gas and diesel. Power wash and use purple power on door when I am tired of looking at it.
 
Back
Top