How to clean thicknesser rollers?

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hugov

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Hi,

I processed some rather sappy wood and ended up with a bunch of sticky sap smeared all over my Makita 2012NB thicknesser bed, infeed/outfeed, knives, and rollers. It came off the metal parts easily enough with some acetone, but I'm hesitant to use acetone on the rollers (which are some kind of rubber/polyurethane/??? material). Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
You could try WD contact cleaner (other makes available) it evaporates quickly/ I use it to remove the sticky mess left behind by those annoying stickers.
 
You could try WD contact cleaner (other makes available) it evaporates quickly/ I use it to remove the sticky mess left behind by those annoying stickers.
 
Have you checked it's ingredients ?
It probably has a root in acetone.
Tbch no , but I’ve used acetone to clean up tiles after grouting and it’s quite aggressive, I used wd contact on my sons Xbox controllers several times after he 1st spilt jam , then Diet Coke, then milkshake at different times, all controllers were saved and £180 of my hard earned cash-wd evaporates quickly.
 
Have you checked it's ingredients ?
It probably has a root in acetone.
Tbch no , but I’ve used acetone to clean up tiles after grouting and it’s quite aggressive, I used wd contact on my sons Xbox controllers several times after he 1st spilt jam , then Diet Coke, then milkshake at different times, all controllers were saved and £180 of my hard earned cash-wd evaporates quickly.
 
Do NOT use Acetone, it will dry out the rollers and make the rubber hard and less grippy. I used to use Acetone to clean the rollers in laser printers and although it seemed to work well initially the printers would after time start to suffer with paper jams due to the rollers slipping on the paper.

I found a product called "Platenclene" by AF International specifically made for rubber rollers. I highly recommend this product and it's cheap too 😀
 
Metal parts easiest to scrape when warm straight after use, or with a touch from a hot air gun, or white spirit.
Rubber parts with white spirit. Pan scrubber useful.
 
You could use mineral spirits (aka white spirits, paintbrush cleaner) or if you want to try something less aggressive, you could try alcohol (ethanol). If I may suggest; don't use 18 year old single malt whiskey, partly because it won't work so well but also because you should be drinking it (not whilst woodworking); instead use methylated spirits aka industrial alcohol/denatured alcohol.
 
You could use mineral spirits (aka white spirits, paintbrush cleaner) or if you want to try something less aggressive, you could try alcohol (ethanol). If I may suggest; don't use 18 year old single malt whiskey, partly because it won't work so well but also because you should be drinking it (not whilst woodworking); instead use methylated spirits aka industrial alcohol/denatured alcohol.
That’s the universal answer to difficult questions: “Use ethanol!” I know I do!
 
OK, thanks everyone, I'll try isopropanol and if that doesn't work then white spirits. Next question – how do you turn the rollers (without running the machine)?
 
Google "Rubber Roller Restorer" brings up plenty to choose from, all promise miracles, I have used the Electrolube one and it works well.
 
A very brief spell working on Tripewriters in the late sixties, part of a service was cleaning the Platten (Roller) with meths because they became shiny and wouldn't grip the paper, but not sure if its strong enough to lift off resin?
Steve
 
A very brief spell working on Tripewriters in the late sixties, part of a service was cleaning the Platten (Roller) with meths because they became shiny and wouldn't grip the paper, but not sure if its strong enough to lift off resin?
Steve
lol, Spock the deliferate spalling mistale!
 
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