Removing Glue from Clamps - Question of the Week
This week’s question comes from Jeff who writes:
Hey Marc, I have the following question, and could really use some advice. Do you know any way to clean the bars on the Jet Parallel clamps? They are supposed to be coated so glue doesn’t stick. Mine, however, stick. In fact, I can no longer open nor close my 24′ ones! Any ideas? Thanks.
And here is my response:
Hey Jeff. Very good question. This is a dilemma that all clamp users face. Although the manufacturer may claim they are resistant to glue, you and I know different! First off, any new clamp that comes into the shop gets waxed immediately with paste wax. That will definitely help repel glue. However, once the damage is done I usually get the heavy stuff off with a putty knife. That usually takes care of the bulk of it and gets the clamp working again. For the textured area on the top, you can use a steel brush to knock the glue out of the crevices. If you are in a rush, just pick up one of those wire wheels that chucks into your drill, and carefully knock the glue out of the grooves. Just don’t be too aggressive or you can smooth out the texture and the ridges. And, of course, the best practice with these clamps is prevention. That means covering them with a sheet of newspaper, craft paper, wax paper, brown paper, or even sheets of plastic. Although I need to practice what I preach. Most times, I don’t think about prevention until after the glue is drying, haha. Good luck!
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jeff ; the other thing you can do is to put a few drops of vinegar on the glue that is stubborn to remove, and then wait a few minutes.
The acid in the vinegar will re-soften the hardened glue and then you can use your putty knife to peel it off easily.
good luck
Tim TAN
great question. i don’t know but i always get ahead of myself and start the glue up and glue it up without protecting the clamps. luckily there hasn’t been too much damage done yet :)
Another idea is to adjust the clamps and then put some 3M blue tape on the top of the clamp where the glue may drip.
If you’d like to follow the fascinating story of a guy named Marty, who needed to remove 4 years of glue from a huge clamping system he had just bought, check out this thread on the FamilyWoodworking forum:
http://familywoodworking.org/f.....php?t=6345
(You probably won’t be able to see the photos unless you join the forum. Sorry about that … but it’s a great forum!)
Marty’s attempts ranged from electrolysis (best results, but took a while) to just soaking in a sodium carbonate solution. Once the glue was loosend up he used his pressure washer to remove the resulting “goop” from the clamps.