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It's a crappy job, but you have to do it!
Homemade Phenolic scrapers are key and make the job almost pleasant when you see the results and wonder how you ever lived without it.
Don't slice up your craft with a razor blade.
Phenolic is made of layered glass fiber pressed with heat and synthetic resins (actually phenolic is one of the resins itself). Super tough, machinable, typically non conductive, and used in heavy industrial trades, or more commonly in very thin form, the pc board in your computer! The aircraft industry actually uses phenolic as scrapers, and has for eon's.
McMaster Carr has an excellent stock of phenolic, but you need an account. I have seen it on the internet as well from various sources, just do a search, you won't regret it and well worth the hunt!
Buy 1/4" or 3/8" thick board by at least 7" long and cut into whatever width you want with a tablesaw using a blade that has a bit FEWER teeth than a plywood paneling blade has. Having an array of different widths on hand come in handy for different tasks.
For scrapers they hold a sharp edge really well and don't scratch your finish if your somewhat careful. You can get them extremely sharp too! WAY better than typical synthetic or metal scrapers, including razorblades, although you'll still need the razor to break the seal on a ride plate as an example.
Have a few and sharpen on bench grinder so you don't need to keep going back to have the fresh edge every five minutes for the heavy stuff. I actually put a radiused notch on one scraper with the corner of grinding wheel for scraping corners. (see the darker one) Phenolic typically will not load up your grinding wheel if you keep it from getting overheated.
Phenolic is used all over the place and have seen it used in the PWC industry as a spacer between intake manifolds and the block to reduce heat transfer.
Homemade Phenolic scrapers are key and make the job almost pleasant when you see the results and wonder how you ever lived without it.
Don't slice up your craft with a razor blade.
Phenolic is made of layered glass fiber pressed with heat and synthetic resins (actually phenolic is one of the resins itself). Super tough, machinable, typically non conductive, and used in heavy industrial trades, or more commonly in very thin form, the pc board in your computer! The aircraft industry actually uses phenolic as scrapers, and has for eon's.
McMaster Carr has an excellent stock of phenolic, but you need an account. I have seen it on the internet as well from various sources, just do a search, you won't regret it and well worth the hunt!
Buy 1/4" or 3/8" thick board by at least 7" long and cut into whatever width you want with a tablesaw using a blade that has a bit FEWER teeth than a plywood paneling blade has. Having an array of different widths on hand come in handy for different tasks.
For scrapers they hold a sharp edge really well and don't scratch your finish if your somewhat careful. You can get them extremely sharp too! WAY better than typical synthetic or metal scrapers, including razorblades, although you'll still need the razor to break the seal on a ride plate as an example.
Have a few and sharpen on bench grinder so you don't need to keep going back to have the fresh edge every five minutes for the heavy stuff. I actually put a radiused notch on one scraper with the corner of grinding wheel for scraping corners. (see the darker one) Phenolic typically will not load up your grinding wheel if you keep it from getting overheated.
Phenolic is used all over the place and have seen it used in the PWC industry as a spacer between intake manifolds and the block to reduce heat transfer.
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