Thanks Prometheus and Turnerbob for your suggestions. What I did yesterday
was dampen a cloth with Paint Thinner and wiped the tires while rotating the
wheels. This worked pretty well, but still not good enough so I will try
other methods mentioned here. For the blade I used a small flexible 6"
metal ruler(?) to scrape off the gunk. I did this by the holding the small
thin ruler firmly against the blade while rotating the wheel by hand. This
worked quite well.

Forgot to mention. The rubber tires on my bandsaw are glued on, removing
them would probably destroy them. I do know that some bandsaws have tires
that are easily removed, such as the Mini Max MM16, unfortunately mine isn't
one of them.

Thanks again for your help.......Ralph


"turnerbob" wrote in message
...
On Jan 24, 11:23 pm, "Comcast Newsgroups"
wrote:
I use a 3/4" bandsaw blade on my 20" bandsaw and when cutting wet wood the
blade gets wet a wood/sap builds up on the blade and causes the blade the
thump as it is pulled through the guides. I stop the saw and clean off the
gunk then I'm good for awhile. Is there anything that I can clean the
blades with or spray onto the blade to clean or reduce this buildup? I
notice that it is also on the rubber tire so I am guessing that it is
probably building up on the rubber wheel then heating up and
melting/pressed
onto the blade.

I would also like to know what is the best method for cleaning the rubber
tires without damaging them. I was thinking of using paint thinner but not
sure if that would cause damage to the rubber.

Hope you can help. As you can tell I am not well versed on bandsaws. Any
suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.......Ralph

Hi Ralph, I don't cut a lot of green wood but when I do I just wipe
everything down after the session. Usually the junky stuff gets
knocked off by the blocks. I do however cut a lot of "dry" wood which
does gum up the tires. What I do about once every couple months is
take the tires off and clean them in warm soapy water. They clean up
fairly easily. There is usually a small amount of junk on the wheels
themselves (under the tires) which I hit with a brush and occasionally
a light touch of 330 grit sandpaper. It's much easier to keep the saw
tracking properly if I do this once in a while. Bob
http://www.outofcontrol-woodturning.com