Jet 16-32 drum sander- drum/ bed parallelism

[Robert Chapman]

Just spent a very frustrating hour trying to again adjust the drum so that it is parallel to the sander bed. The instructions in the manual were not working for me and then I had a brain spasm.

Why not use a simple 12inch level to get the drum parallel to the bed? Get an accurate reading of the levelness of the bed and adjust the drum to the same position of the bubble in the level. It worked for me.

Now my boards are the same thickness on each edge after going through the sander.

Probably thousands of people have already thought of this.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Probably thousands of people have already thought of this.

Nope. Not me. But thanks for the tip. Now I can get mine level..... I got pretty close. I have a digital level, so that should work too. Since my floor is not level.

[Jamie Lynch]

Thanks for the tip!

[Curt Harms]

I would not have thought a level would be 'fine grained' enough. It sounds like it is. Good job.

[Victor Robinson]

This is a really good tip. I presume a digital angle cube would work as well?

[Jeff Duncan]

I'm honestly very surprised that worked to any level of accuracy? In order to get a bed parallel to a head your generally speaking about adjusting with thousands of an inch. A level in general is not going to give you anywhere near that degree of accuracy. Normally you want to have an accurate straight edge that you can use to compare the two ends of the head with. That's along the same lines as using a level to adjust the tables on a jointer:eek:

If it really worked for you that's great, but I think you were very lucky and I wouldn't advise others try the same method:(

good luck,
JeffD

[Kyle Iwamoto]

A level in general is not going to give you anywhere near that degree of accuracy.

I disagree. A quick look up on the Stabila site claims their homowners level (not the best) is .029 degree accurate, .5 mm over a meter. That's pretty accurate. I would agree that's not a thousandth over 16 inches, but a spirit level in general is very accurate. And yes, you'd need to get lucky. But after attempting to level that thing and pass board after board through and guessing how much to move that head, any help would be well recieved. Not that I own a Stabila level either....

[Robert Chapman]

Jeff - I am talking about adjusting a Jet 16-32 drum sander's parallelism - not some precision piece of equipment that adjusts in one thousands of an inch increments. When my $50.00 calipers tell me that both sides of my board are the same thickness - that's close enough for me.

[Jeff Duncan]

When my $50.00 calipers tell me that both sides of my board are the same thickness - that's close enough for me.

Can't argue with that:D

[Jeff Monson]

Glad it worked for you Robert. Getting these things aligned is a major PITA, my 22-44 took me quite some time to get dialed in. I spent a good amount of time trying to improvise some type of micro adjuster on the end of the drum. It would be nice if Jet would engineer something like this. Some type of threaded adjuster would be great.

[Chip Lindley]

Glad it worked for you Robert. Getting these things aligned is a major PITA, my 22-44 took me quite some time to get dialed in. I spent a good amount of time trying to improvise some type of micro adjuster on the end of the drum. It would be nice if Jet would engineer something like this. Some type of threaded adjuster would be great.

If that is a Major PITA, consider a "Double Drum" sander! And, as previously mentioned, IF the bed is not parallel to the floor, there must be the same degree of slant in the drum as bed, to be parallel to each other.

I had rather trust two blocks of the same exact height, one at both ends, between the bed and drum, slid front to back, until adjustment gives the same amount of friction (by feel) at each end of the drum. With an unwrapped drum, and iron bed, this should provide great accuracy. It is akin to the method used to set jointer knives by feel.

With a rubber conveyor bed, that accuracy would be hard to duplicate, but over 36 inches, plenty!

~~Chip~~