I have just roughed out some cherry, pear and walnut. About 50 or 60
bowls total and all were very wet wood. Now my Supernova is filled
with dried gunk inside and out. It is getting hard to turn. The stuff
won't blow out with air even when its dry. How should I clean the
gears (soaking, brushing, etc.) and what should I use?

Thanks,
Ted

Ted wrote in message .com
on Tuesday 10 May 2005 03:01 pm:

I have just roughed out some cherry, pear and walnut. About 50 or 60
bowls total and all were very wet wood. Now my Supernova is filled
with dried gunk inside and out. It is getting hard to turn. The stuff
won't blow out with air even when its dry. How should I clean the
gears (soaking, brushing, etc.) and what should I use?

Thanks,
Ted

Have not 'been there, done that' but there's precious little damage that a
long soak in mineral spirits (perhaps agitated by an aquarioum air stone)
can do and quite possibly a lot of good. After de-gunking, remember to dry
thoroughly and re-lub per manufacturers suggestions.

I used to work in a machine shop and that is about what we would do as a
first step to clean anything metal. If things were severe and beyond the
reach of mineral spirits, they'd get the mineral spirits blown off 'em and
a long, slow, bath in some other solvent such as lacquer thinner.

If those two aren't enough to do the trick, dry it one more time and reach
for the wrenches to begin disassembling it. Odds are something is
mechanically wedged in there and no sane solvent will take care of that.

Bill