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CBN Cleaning Stick?

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Just ordered from WoodTurning Wonders Ken’s slick stick. I’ll get it Monday (unless the USPS takes another week) He has a video, but I never found any user info. Have no idea it will work. The cleaning stick in the link cautions to prevent wheel wear. I’d be very concerned using it very much.
 

john lucas

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the slick stick works great. You can grind soft metals. If you follow it up with a HSS tool it will clean the wheel although I haven't even notice any build up at all. I have not ground brass or copper but have ground really soft non hardened carbon steel on it. That $8 stick will probably last a lifetime.
 
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I recently bought a Rikon grinder from Woodturning Wonders and they threw in a Slick Stick for me to try. I've just started playing with it and I really don't have an opinion on it yet. I'll use it on the outside of my bandsaw blade and maybe on drill bits/wood screws. I'm sure I'll find multiple uses for it.

I only grind HSS on the CBN wheels so buildup shouldn't be a problem. I have other grinders for lawn mower blades.
 
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There were a couple of hard aluminum oxide sticks that were available, and I think that is what Packard has. It is considerably harder than our grinding wheels. You could take an old grinding wheel and do the same thing, I think.... I would opt for the Slick Stick. I will have to check it out on my bandsaw blades too. I will be getting Madrone logs this spring, and that gunks up blades worse than anything I have put on my lathe. If you use an aluminum oxide chunk on a CBN wheel to clean it, be aware that it puts a lot of dust in the air.

robo hippy
 
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That's the kind of info I was hoping to see Reed. And it also explains this line in description from the Sharpening Supplies stick, "Use minimally to avoid excess wear on the wheel."
 
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I am not sure why the aluminum oxide cleaning sticks would cause wear on the wheel. The CBN is a considerably harder material. With the first version of the CBN wheels, they were a 3/16 inch matrix of CBN and some thing that was bonded to an aluminum hub. The matrix would wear and then more CBN or maybe a fresher CBN surface would be presented. The wheels would wear unevenly, and the shop that made them for me would mount them and grind them back to true with a very hard grinding wheel. I know there are different letters to mark the hardness of the wheels, but can't remember what the letter was on the pieces they gave me to clean up my wheels. This type would need to be cleaned periodically. Woodcraft did have a diamond wheel that was pretty much identical. Then, for the good of us all, the electroplated CBN wheels came out. Much better!

If you are just cleaning the gunk off from sloppy wet wood, just soak it in water with a detergent, for an hour or three, then hit it with a scrub brush. That gets most of it off. Mine did have a tendency to get kind of black.....

robo hippy
 
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What is it you guys are trying to clean from your wheels?

If it's a pitch build up from grinding dirty tools that's easy. Sears sold pint cans of a cleaner for pitch build up on saw blades. The Sears product was nearly the same as Easy Off oven cleaner. Oven cleaner should work for pitch on plated CBN wheels. It works on all sorts of cutters, table saw, bandsaw, planer, router bits, etc.

Yesterday I used oven cleaner on one of those router bits with the electro bonded bits of carbide that was completely clogged with wood debris. Cleaned it fine, it does darken the cleaned area though. To speed up effectiveness you need to heat the tool.

Cleaning metal build up isn't going to be easy, if possible at all, without permanent damage to your wheel. Note one of the ads says: "Use minimally to avoid excess wear on the wheel". What kind of nonsense is that, a cleaning stick that damages your wheel?
 
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Finally got the slick stick yesterday. I agree with John it seems to work. I had some dark material embedded into a small area of a 180 grit wheel. I had soaked the wheel in simple green for a couple of hours and could not remove it using a bristle brush. I applied the slick stick and used a steel brush and the wheel cleaned right up. I put the wheel on the grinder and it seemed to work well. Not sure if the steel brush was the most effective, but the feel the slick stick was effective. The slick stick is similar to a hard deodorant stick (paste like).
 
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Beware of highly alkaline cleaners when cleaning tools made of aluminum. Aluminum will dissolve in both acid and bases. Sodium Hydroxide in concentrated solution will really go to work on Aluminum which is what my CBN has for a base onto which the CBN is plated.
 
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Good point Paul. You would have to be careful to keep the cleaner away from the aluminum hub.

Thinking more about this, I have a liquid we use to erode broken steel taps in aluminum parts. The kit we bought doesn't say exactly what the liquid is, no mention of toxicity or harm in getting it on hands.
 
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