Cleaning cloged sanding belts

I used to dread thickness sanding oily woods like rosewood and ebony because it clogs the belt with thick clumps of wood that are nearly impossible to remove. So, I tried heating a cloged belt on a bending iron to soften the wood, and was able to clean it with just a few passes of a crepe dressing stick. This really works and will end up saving money on sanding belts.

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After:

Thanks for the tip!

That's a good tip. Spraying oven cleaner on the belt then rinsing it is another way but it's a hassle

Take it to the power washer. Let the belts dry. That works great. I have used this method for years.

Simple Green also works well for me.

In the past, having failed to shift rosewood gunge with a crepe cleaning stick, I have tried an engineers file cleaning brush and also wiping the residue with a variety of solvents - all to limited effect. I'm hoping to try some of these ideas, but since I don't have a pressure washer and oven cleaner doesn't really appeal, that leaves the bending iron suggestion. However if heat is the answer, then I wondered about using a hot air gun instead? Question is how hot can you go before the adhesive in the belt matrix breaks down? I think I had better try on a piece of old belt first!
Finally, living in the UK I have never encountered "Simple Green" products before - grateful for more details on which of their cleaners you are using? Hopefully there may be a similar domestic product I can try.

The car wash power washers work just fine...

I throw them out as soon as they get clogged up. I used to try and clean them but they didn't cut or sand for crap for all the effort. I don't have the time or energy to try a save the few bucks they cost.

BlackBearUkes said:

I throw them out as soon as they get clogged up. I used to try and clean them but they didn't cut or sand for crap for all the effort. I don't have the time or energy to try a save the few bucks they cost.

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Same at our house...When the grit has all the nibs knocked off it just polishes and burns the wood...A new belt is the way for me also

Oven cleaner, the nasty stuff not the kind and gentle variety, works best for me. Does a great job on rubber sanding drums and drum sanders. Not so good on my wide belt sander, and only works on the rougher grits like 36 and 60. All the finer grits are shot by the time they are clogged up. For sanding drums and the drum sander I spray the stuff on at night and wire brush it off in the morning. May take 2 applications to get the job done, but it is easy to do, and worth doing 1 time. I'll have to try out the pressure washer method. That would be an easier way to clean wide belts.

This was the state of a virtually new 120 grit belt after taking less than 1mm off two small pieces of pine for Pete's 2x4 challenge. This is after heavy use of the crepe cleaning stick with the machine running!

OK, so 120 probably not the best choice, but it was already in the machine ...
And here it is after some TLC from the heat gun and crepe stick. I used max temperature on the heat gun and wafted it around an area for 5 - 10 seconds before attacking with the cleaning stick. Very little effort required - amazingly it just comes off.

Not sure whether it is heat is softening the wood residue or the crepe stick (or both) but it works!

Thanks for the tip.