Drum Sander Questions

[Jack Hogoboom]

Finally got a chance to try out my Performax 16-32 this weekend. Had a couple of questions for the pros out there:

1. I bought the outfeed extensions, but when I feed a long panel through the sander, the board gets hung up on the extensions and the drum takes a nice divot out of the board. Aynone have any ideas on how I can drop the height of the extensions a little?

2. I got some burning on my belt. I tried to be careful and turn only 1/4 turn at a time, but after a few passes it would burn. Kept retightening the belt, but no luck. Any ideas? Also, once it burns, is the belt useless?

3. What is the right feed rate? "40" seemed to work well (scale of 0-100) for rough sanding of maple panels, but wanted to know if I should be using something else. Does the type of wood and the grit of the belt matter?

4. Just to see what would happen, I fed the same board through the sander several times. It seemed to remove stock on each pass. Is that normal, or evidence that I'm trying to take too much off?

5. How do people use their sanders? Subject to the above, it worked well for rough smoothing of glued up panels, but it seemed to take a long time to get there. Do people change belts and go with finer grits up to a final finish, or do most people just use the sander for rough smoothing and then use a random orbit sander for the finish sanding?

Thanks,

Jack

[Tyler Howell]

Jack is that out feed adjustable?? Support after it clears the outfeed table is important too.Was that a stelth Gloat???;)

[Jim Becker]

Jack, when I assembled my 22-44 Plus and put on the infeed/outfeed tables, I had to raise them up to get them level with the conveyor surface. All four of the bolts on each table slide in slots to provide vertical adjustment. I can only assume the tables on your system are similar given the two machines are based on the same design.

In hindsight, I wish I had not bought the OEM tables as a shop-built solution that would fold up would be much better for storage...and I may do that anyway given how small my shop is.

[Jack Hogoboom]

Now I've got to go check if the table height is adjustable. "When in doubt, read the manual".

Tyler, not really a stealth gloat. I got this from my wife for Xmas and never really knew what to do with it. Takes up a lot of shop space, but no way would I let her know :) Decided to try it on some panel glue ups. I guess it works OK, but it doesn't exactly rock my world. Not nearly as much fun as my lathe!!!!

How about some feedback on my other questions?

[Greg Heppeard]

Burning on the belt is caused by a couple of things...either glue or in the case of maple cherry and pine, pitch or sawdust build up. I've sprayed a little "Pitch Off" on the spot while turning the drum by hand and let it set about a minute...then take a air gun and blow it off...works well and doesn't hurt the paper. When I used to work in a cabinet shop, we used to take the 4' wide sanding belts to the car wash and clean them once in a while.

[Terry Hatfield]

Jack,

A couple of suggestions for you.....

The infeed and outfeed are adjustable. I have mine just a touch below the level of the feed belt.

1/4 turn is too much. 1/6th of a turn maximum. The head is flexing upward during the sanding operation. That's why it sands on multiple passes when you haven't turned the lever. Start by sliding the wood under the drum and then lower the drum until the paper just touches the wood. Go 1/6th of a turn per pass from there.

On mine I sand about 70. 40 is just too slow.

Try one of those crepe rubber sandpaper cleaning sticks. I use one on mine all the time. It does a good job.

Hope that helps,

Terry

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Jack;
Terry's info is right on-
Also, better to make two lighter passes at faster speed.
Unit will remove material at same height setting on additional passes because: 1. Drum is not parallel to table and path is slightly different on additional passes or, 2. Grits are like little knives and material does not line up exactly same every time so you get little hills and valleys which gradually even out after multiple passes.
Oily woods clog paper quickly if speed is too slow or cut too deep-coco bolo is murder on paper.
Have had luck removing most debris with crepe rubber per Terry info. Heavy stuff will loosen with gel type paint remover, scrub and washing(don't use it while belt is on the machine!)
I primarily use mine for fine sanding marquetry, inlays, or prep for laser inlays.
Good Luck
George

[Mike Cutler]

Jack. it's seems as if it is the week to get drumsanders. I just got the performax 16-32 also. I don't claim to be an expert (about 6 hours total sanding time on it), but these are my observations so far.
According to the manual, the infeed and outfeed table should be slightly lower than the conveyer belt, when sanding material that has a bow to it.( your tables are adjustable)
Terry is right. 1/4 turns are too much. The coarser the abrasive, the more you can attept to take off, but still limit your amount per pass.
I wasn't as lucky as some, and had to adjust my drum for parallel. This is very time consuming but the manual does a good job explaining it.
I initially attempted to sand an entire board at one time, but quickly gave it up,( 14 1/2" wide brazillian cherry that was 9' long) and found that getting my pieces as close to the required size helped a lot.
According to Performax, your sander was shipped with the conveyor belt over tightened to protect the table in shipping. You still need to follow the tensioning procedure in the manual to prevent damage to the conveyor belt and the bronze bushings.
I don't know why the abrasive is burning, but I really wish that they had shipped the unit with 100 grit. the 80 is a little too agressive, and the 120 is just a tad light for removing planer marks. I'll be ordering some 100 right off the bat.
Performax recomends that you progress thru the grits and not skip grits to the final sanding. I haven't got there yet, but I'll probably stop at 180 and do the rest by hand.
So far I like it! Once I pulled my head out and quit thinking of it as a planer it started to make more sense, and I started getting better results immediately. Those first couple of boards were a little "rough" though. Good luck. My .02 fwiw

[Jack Hogoboom]

Mike,

Thanks for the tips. I missed that part about loosening the coveyor belt.

I had to level my drum head too. It was a PITA to do, especially since I'm left-handed (also makes putting on the belt a pain). As far as I could tell, the straightedge touched some places more firmly than others. I finally gave up and just gauged it by eye. It seems to be OK now.

Jack

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Ok guys - my 0.02 worth to follow:
Burning - the sand paper may be overlapped at the edges - that's usually when I get burning.
Burning - the dummy (me) put the wood in too close to the pivot edge of the drum and the sandpaper ain't sanding but the drum is burning a nice ridge into the wood.
Burning and repeat sanding - the drum is aluminum and tends to expand as it warms up from the heat of sanding. So the drum increases in diameter, hence it sands more off as you feed wood without changing settings. ( A good theory - eh?)
Get some chalk and put lines across the board you are sanding. It will help you to determine if the sanding drum is "level".
I use a setting of 1/8 turn for rough sanding and a belt speed of about 50.
For fine sanding I use about 1/12 turn with a faster speed - about 65.
I use succession in belt selection and am using 80 and then 120 - then ROS.

I just got done sanding the 22 inch lids to the blanket chests (on the 16/32) - the chalk method works - very faint line of chalk left after final pass - yes both ways.
Addendum - The lids are 22 by 44 and each lid went through the sander 4 times (twice on top and twice on the bottom) before changing setting. Yes! it took the better part of 6 hours to get them smooth as a baby's bum.
Daniel :D
PS I love my Performax! - no dust!