I can't be the first to have come up with the idea, and actually I thought of it quite awhile back, but never did it until after today's grinding session. Usually I just soak the plate(s) awhile, then vigorously swish them around in a sink of soapy water to get the crud out of the holes, but today I finally tried taking a blowgun on the compressor to blow the crud out of the plate before washing. It works like a charm, especially on the plates with small holes. This will become my standard plate pre-clean from now on as it makes cleanup much easier.