Cleaning spiral cutterheads

[Pierre Laliberte]

Just received my new G0490X 8" jointer with spiral cutter head and G0453PX 15" planer also with spiral cutter head! Beautiful machines but what a pain it is to clean all the grease on these machines! After spending at least an hour on the jointer cutter head alone I still have to tackle the planer. I used WD40 and a lot of rags followed by compressed air to get the grease off the cutters and I think I got most of it. Is there a better way to do this without of course having to remove all the cutters from the head?

[glenn bradley]

I raised the tables to give a good clearance, clamps a piece of scrap over the opening and fired it up. I used the same method on my planer prior to completing the top end assembly. This is after using mineral spirits, paper towels and a nylon brush to scrub out all I could and wipe it away. Be sure to get all that WD-40 off of there, it turns to goo over time.After the first few sets of a good number of lineal feet of material had gone through the cutters, I opened things up and blew it out again. The post cutter head drive roller on the planer was the worst; all those little bitty grooves.

[Glen Butler]

I used carburetor cleaner. I took off the upper shroud to expose the cutter, put some rags underneath to catch the crud, and used the pulley to spin the head by hand and sprayed it down. The thing I like about carb cleaner is its harsh so cuts grease fast, it comes in a convenient spray can, and leaves no residue. If your not careful though that same harshness will take the paint off your shiny new tool. I always have some around cause its so handy. Cleans tree sap easily as well.

[Gary Kman]

Planing wood may remove the grease. If it doesn't, what difference does it make if it's on there?

[Keith Westfall]

Go get some "brake cleaner" in a spray can. Desolves the grease and evaporates afterwards. Can't see why it wouldn't work...

[Carl Beckett]

In fact, if the grease isnt interfering with the operation (by collecting dust, etc), maybe its a good thing to leave the grease ON as many surfaces as possible!?

(I say this, but have certainly myself gotten a new toy and wanted to wax it inside and out. Then a year later Im spraying white lithium grease on everything that isnt a working surface..... ?)

[Glen Butler]

Planing wood may remove the grease. If it doesn't, what difference does it make if it's on there?

Cause you never know when little bits are going to come off. It's on the feed rollers as well as the cutter head. It's possible to get an indistinguishable amount of residue on the project then have stain not penetrate properly in that spot.

[Gregory King]

Pierre, good luck with the cleaning. Not trying to change topic for long, but were the two machines packaged well upon delivery? Heavy cardboard and styrofoam, I would suspect. I am thinking about the planer as a purchase now. You living in Canada as well as myself, I was interested how they survived shipping. Greg

[Pierre Laliberte]

Thanks for all the tips! In the end I used WD40 and many, many rags! Took me a few hours of tedious work spraying and wiping and then blowing compressed air to get at all the goop. I then ran a few scrap boards through the jointer and planer and while I got some grease at first now everything seems clean. My main concern was with the grease affecting the finish later on so I will keep a close eye on this in the coming weeks.

Greg the machines were well packaged in good plywood crates, heavy cardboard (jointer base) and lots of styrofoam. Everything got here in perfect condition including my 17" bandsaw. Just finished setting everything up in my shop and so far I am real happy with these tools. The planner and jointer with the spiral heads are really quiet compared to what I had before (portable planer and 6" jointer) and once I get a better blade on the bandsaw I will be ready for some serious work!