Keeping Clamps Clean
Mold release film can keep hardened glue from gumming up your clamps. December 19, 2009
Question
I have a JTI panel clamp with about 100 clamps. My problem is that they are covered in glue and almost useless. We tried sandblasting, using a torch, air chisel, and needle scaler to no avail. Does anyone have any advice?
Forum Responses
(Adhesive Forum)
From contributor A:
Expose them to steam to loosen the glue up then use a mechanical means to get the mess off of them.
From contributor F:
No advice but an idea maybe. Could you get yourself a shallow tank long enough to hold a few of the clamps and submerge them in a bath of 5F5 or similar stripper? Assuming there are no plastic parts it seems like that would get just about anything off and you wouldn't really have to do much except hose them off good afterward. Anyway just a thought, not sure if it would work, but may be worth a try?
From contributor C:
Try boiling water and a scraper. Soak the water in a cloth and drape it over each clamp piece and scrape it off. Time consuming, but it works.
From contributor L:
Try some acidic toilet bowl cleaner. We use it on our JTL door clamp. Let it sit a ten minutes and a putty knife will scrape off the glue. It will rust some, so scrub it down afterward and either wax or oil to prevent rust. It might not hurt to neutralize the acid with some vinegar prior to scrubbing.
From contributor B:
We use a wire brush on an angle grinder to clean them when they get cruddy. Try clamp wax to keep the wax from sticking.
From contributor M:
Here's a trick we do. About once a month or so, depending on how much we use them, we spray them all with "partall 90", which is a mold release film for making positive and negative molds in the fiberglass industry. It will stick to the clamps until it gets glue or anything on it, and will "fall off" the clamps when the part is unclamped and sanded, or simply washed off. You need to keep doing it every month or so but a gallon of it goes a very long time. It’s worth trying on a few sample clamps anyway.
