Keeping your saw clean

[bwalker]

I'm not crazy about keeping a saw clean. I am crazy about keeping the air filter clean, not running used oil as bar oil, keeping the saw tuned for conditions and blowing off the saw after use.
The sap from our Montana softwoods covers everything and is very tough to remove.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

I'm not crazy about keeping a saw clean. I am crazy about keeping the air filter clean, not running used oil as bar oil, keeping the saw tuned for conditions and blowing off the saw after use.
The sap from our Montana softwoods covers everything and is very tough to remove.

Have you tried using Canola oil as your cleaning agent?

 

[Canyon Angler]

OP, I'm surprised your saws are getting all gunked up with as little as you use them. Didn't you drive like six hours last summer just so you could cut up a couple of skinny-ass pine trees? (If I recall right, you didn't even get the wood, so basically it was a matter of driving 6 hrs, running maybe a half a tank of fuel through the saw, then leaving empty-handed...)

 

[user 122190]

You're the one who put your ideas out there in public, don't cry about it when you get honest responses back.

There was another guy who painted and wrapped his saw, monkeyed with the insides, and put weird bearings in it, and asked for a valuation of the saw. A lot of people told him numbers he didn't like, and he got rather upset about it too.

That's the way of the internet, if you don't want an answer, don't ask the question.

Don't get upset. Just cool off. Tomorrow you'll find something else to get riled up about and you can forget I made a bit of fun at your Karen personality.

 

[user 122190]

I'm not crazy about keeping a saw clean. I am crazy about keeping the air filter clean, not running used oil as bar oil, keeping the saw tuned for conditions and blowing off the saw after use.
The sap from our Montana softwoods covers everything and is very tough to remove.

Even gasoline doesn't work. I often have to take a flat blade, like a puddy knife to knock it down. I'm pretty sure some tape is going to make a big difference. Amazing the grannies here get all agitated at proposing putting 3 inches of tape on a saw. Yeesh....

 

[r black]

Even gasoline doesn't work. I often have to take a flat blade, like a puddy knife to knock it down. I'm pretty sure some tape is going to make a big difference. Amazing the grannies here get all agitated at proposing putting 3 inches of tape on a saw. Yeesh....

i just pressure wash the front of mine ....but just to remove the pitch ....lower crank case only

 

[Mad Professor]

I'm not crazy about keeping a saw clean. I am crazy about keeping the air filter clean, not running used oil as bar oil, keeping the saw tuned for conditions and blowing off the saw after use.
The sap from our Montana softwoods covers everything and is very tough to remove.

Try diesel fuel, cuts sap great.

We used it on lots of stuff when we were doing white pine at a commercial mill I worked at. The rollers inside the edger would build up sap/dust, we kept a 3-gal pump sprayer near it. When not edging we'd give the insides a few pumps of diesel.

Important to not let the sap sit in place too long, then it sets up hard. I suspect like linseed oil it polymerizes.....and f-in bio bar oils......

 

[KASH]

Go on a cut and skid crew cutting and limbing 300 trees a day in hot June weather you can hardly blink your eyes because their glued with sap your cutting pants are coated with a shiny hard sappy coating .When you jump in the TimberJack the steering ball knob is three times its normal size and your glove sticks to it like crazy glue.
Now if you have the energy after a 12 hour day to take your saw home every night and clean it with a tooth brush and a microscope than you are a better man than me.
Kash

 

[bwalker]

Have you tried using Canola oil as your cleaning agent?

I have not. Tried gasoline, Goo Gone, wd40, simple green, brake cleaner and I am sure a few others.

 

[KASH]

The only good thing about balsam trees was when you stopped at a bar for one fast beer which usually meant you closed the place the girls would say you really smell nice .Thank God the Balsam scent masked the sweaty odor of going broke cutting up side down ice cream cones all day.
Kash

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

I have not. Tried gasoline, Goo Gone, wd40, simple green, brake cleaner and I am sure a few others.

I have used it to clean Pine sap off my daily machine- bit friendlier than diesel or kerosene, but all three work- the latter two usually faster.

 

[Canyon Angler]

I have not. Tried gasoline, Goo Gone, wd40, simple green, brake cleaner and I am sure a few others.

I've used oven cleaner (lye in foam to keep it in place) to remove pitch from circular saw blades and it works great. Be careful with it around aluminum though, because lye eats into aluminum...

 

[farmer steve]

This works great on sap. And cheap at dollar store. Some good car wax on the saw helps keep the sap from sticking.

 

[SAWMIKAZE]

These work pretty good for wiping off saws.

 

[LuDookie]

I like to keep my saws clean. If I’m using them for consecutive days, I don’t do much to them. I just check the air filter once in a while. But when I put them away for any length of time they get the air hose and I can get them pretty spiffy with that. I clean out the carb box and cooling fins really well and clean under the clutch cover and grease the bearing. When I flip the bar, that’s when I clean it. I don’t sweat the stuff that sticks to the front over time. A saw has to have a little character.

 

[user 122190]

I put some tape on. It is a used saw, so the front is a bit chewed up, but looks like a nice stick and should hold well.

Crazy right? Took me an entire 15 seconds.

I'm hoping it will hold well for several cords, and then it will take me about 5 seconds to clean the front of the saw. Absolutely Crazy -- or Full Retard.

There is still way to much snow on the ground to be out cutting, but hopefully in a few weeks this idea will be tested. Now don't any of you try this, cause this could destroy the saw with sticky residue that could blow up the saw.

 

[lohan808]

Have you tried full strength Simple Green? I am not to worried about aesthetics in saws, in fact some of mine are are real junkyard dogs. But... the stuff works pretty well for most saw cleaning.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

I put some tape on. It is a used saw, so the front is a bit chewed up, but looks like a nice stick and should hold well.

Crazy right? Took me an entire 15 seconds.

I'm hoping it will hold well for several cords, and then it will take me about 5 seconds to clean the front of the saw. Absolutely Crazy -- or Full Retard.

There is still way to much snow on the ground to be out cutting, but hopefully in a few weeks this idea will be tested. Now don't any of you try this, cause this could destroy the saw with sticky residue that could blow up the saw.

Personally, I think you should send your saws out to be vinyl wrapped before each cutting excursion or before handling them without latex gloves.

 

[user 122190]

Personally, I think you should send your saws out to be vinyl wrapped before each cutting excursion or before handling them without latex gloves.

Yes, I'm sure you would. Gots to protect against the nasty "residual tape adhesive" that we all fear. Excuse me, or that you fear...

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Yes, I'm sure you would. Gots to protect against the nasty "residual tape adhesive" that we all fear. Excuse me, or that you fear...

Na, you got that wrong- I don't fear any tape residue, because there is no tape near any of my saws.
Maybe you could get a spray can of that sheep wool oil to spray on your saws and polish them up real nice- have seen that suggested elsewhere on here.