There is one chore that every rock hound who owns a saw dreads and that is cleaning their saw. Whatever you call it; rock snot, rock stuff or sludge the oil and cutting debris needs to be removed from the saw once in a while. After prolonged cutting the sludge in the bottom of the saw can get think with the material cut from the rocks. It will start sticking all over the inside of the saw and on the rocks being cut but most of all it can cause added ware to the blade and threaded parts of the saw such as auto and cross feeds. Another issue is depending on what you have been cutting the oil can really stink sometimes.
One of the problems when cleaning a saw is draining the oil and sludge. Even with drains built into the saw the oil can splatter all over place including you. Also it is often hard to get a bucket under the saw to collect the oil and even when successful the buck may not hold everything or you may have to tip it to get it back out from under the saw. The second problem can be getting the sludge all over you and your clothing.
To overcome these problems the most useful tool I have found is my sludge collector. I got this idea from my friend Tony. The sludge collector is a five gallon bucket with a tight sealing lid on it. In the lid there are two holes. In one hole I attached an old vacuum hose. In the other hole I attached a hose size adapter. I attached both parts using liquid nails, silicone sealant may have worked better. I lined the inside of the large end of the adapter with foam insulation. This allows for the hose from my shop vac to fit snugly inside of it. Now when I turn on the shop vac the suction is transferred to the hose attached to the sludge connector. When the sludge is sucked up it falls into the collector (five gallon bucket) and the shop vac remains clean. This contraption is easy to make and you can use different parts as long as each connection is tightly sealed. Tony used plumbing parts from his local hardware store.
Sludge Collector
Sludge Collector Hose Inside Saw
Getting rid of the sludge is another problem. I filter the oil back out of the sludge using a paper grocery bag. This worked very well with my small saw because I was able to place a coffee can with holes in it inside the bucket that would hold the bag up from the bottom. I would clean out the saw and just leave it until the next time I needed to clean the saw again. In the bottom of the bucket there would be clean oil and all the junk would remain inside the paper bag. The paper bag would get thrown away and the oil could be put in containers for future use.
Sludge Filtering
With my bigger saw this would not work because there was too much oil. To resolve this issue I move the coffee can and bag to a second bucket. After removing half the sludge from the saw I poured it into the bag in the second bucket before removing the rest of the oil.
The other tools I use to clean the saw are a putty knife to scoop up rock bits and scrape the sludge sticking to the sides of the saw to the bottom and a cloth rag to wipe up any spills and to wipe down the lid and vice of the saw.
The oil I use is mineral oil. This can be found at some oil distributors for $35 to $40 for a five gallon bucket labeled as technical grade mineral oil or at farm and veterinary stores in the equine section for $10 to $12 per gallon. Some people even buy baby oil from Wal-Mart which is mineral oil with fragrance added. I have read that the fragrance will disappear after some use.
Using the tools I mentioned above will help eliminate a lot of the mess. You will however still get it on your hands but at least it won’t be on the floor and your clothes if you’re careful. I have use surgical gloves before to keep the sludge of my hands but found it to be more of a pain. Besides if you use the mineral oil it’s just baby oil that easily cleans up with soap and water.
