Delta 18-36 Sander Owners.....A Must Read

[Jim Tabor]

About two weeks ago I posted a thread about the unavailability of replacement plastic table elevation miter gears for the Delta 18-36 series sander. The parts are: PN 406130510007, which mounts on the left front timing gear, and PN 406134060001, Gear shaft assembly, which includes both the plastic miter gear and 3/8” shaft. These parts are used on models 31-250 through 31-260X and according to all Delta parts suppliers that I contacted, they are obsolete and will not be replaced..
With the help of Creeker Jim Falsetti who provided a drawing with dimensions of the gear, I was able to find a gear made by Boston Gear and available from Amazon.com, PN GP1632Y for $13.12 each that can be made to work. This is not an exact replacement for the original gears, however with minor modifications it will work perfectly.
To replacement the gear attached to the timing gear, drill two 13/64” holes for the mounting setscrews. To replace the gear on the elevations shaft, you will need to reduce the bore size with a 3/8”x1/2”x1” bronze bushing that’s available at most hardware stores, and you will need to drill a 1/8” hole to accommodate the roll pin that secures the gear to the shaft.
By placing the sander on a work bench and removing the drum motor, it becomes a fairly simple repair.
First picture:New replacement gear on left, old gear on timing gear in center, and old shaft gear on right.
Second picture: Shaft gear with reducer bushing and roll pin.
Third picture: Completed installation.
These replacement gears saved my sander from the junk pile, hope it will be of help to you. Many thanks to Jim Falsetti for the drawing.

[Andy Pratt]

That's really nice of delta to not offer these as a replacement part. Kudos to you for finding a workable solution and shame on delta for making you go through all that to replace a part that they should stock.

[Chris Padilla]

That is very cool...I knew someone would find a reasonable solution. I do love the sander.

[Jim Neeley]

Jim, it sounds like this alone just justified your Contributor fees here for life.. and kudos to the SawmillCreek community for the help!! Good people, working together, with a common love..

[Dave Aronson]

Thanks, I have a Delta sander and hope that I don't have this go bad but now I know what to do if it does.

[Ryan Baker]

Jim,

Thanks for posting this. My sander doesn't need this yet, but if the time comes I will now have a solution.

Ryan

[Jim Falsetti]

Jim, thanks for the pictures. I would add a note of caution to everyone - in the shaft for the gear, the hole may not be centered (the shaft I have is not). So we had to drill the roller bearing hole in the plastic gear off-center to match the shaft. Regards, Jim

[John Terdik]

A few months ago I was given a Delta Drum Sander 31-255X that was not working and had several parts missing. I've gone through hell getting all the necessary parts. Just today I received what I though would be the last part only to discover that one of the gears (PN 406130510007) in my unit was defective. It failed because one of the two screws that hold it in place was missing. I can only assume that it fail out allowing the gear to shift and because it was out of position the other gear wore off some of the teeth. I inspected both gears and only the one gear is damaged. Amazon still offers the GP1632Y part but now it is almost $20 however this should work.

[Gene Takae]

I don't own this sander but just wanted to give you thumbs up for your hard work and diligence in solving this problem and for sharing the info.

[michael sheridan]

thank you ,thank you . saved my machine and my sanity. also one of screws that connect lift table came lose so be sure to check all connections.

[Bruce Page]

I bought one of the Delta 18-36 sanders when they were first put on sale ~2001. Back then they came with metal gears. It's a shame that the bean counters got to take over the design and ruin a perfectly good machine.

[Chris Padilla]

If you rotate these gears SLOWLY, they do okay. You just have to baby them...crank 1/2 turn...pause...crank 1/2 turn...pause....

[Charles Lent]

You should be able to buy direct from Boston Gear and they quite likely have the same gear in aluminum or brass.

Charley

[Gene Takae]

I own a Performax 16/32 but just wanted to applaud you for your efforts and for sharing the info with other owners.

[Matt Roylance]

Thanks for this post. I recently bought a Delta 18-36 off of our local classfieds list without doing my homework first. The lift mechanism elevation gear had about 4 teeth left on it, so in theory the table could go up and down, but it took a lot of cranking. I stupidly thought - no big deal, I'll order the replacement part. Ya -big mistake. So, thank you again for this post. You can still order the gears on Amazon, but they are $25 now (ouch). I ordered two, but the one attached to my timing gear was still good, so I just replaced the elevation handle one. A couple of notes. I bought a nylon bushing to make up the difference between the rod and the ID of the gear. Also, dropping the motor greatly helps this whole process (however, that sucker is heavy).

[Matt Day]

Delta engineers: “Let’s make the gears out of PLASTIC, and not offer replacements parts so people have to buy another machine! Bwahaha!!”

[Brian Tymchak]

I read somewhere in the last year or so, that the new owners of Delta ( a Taiwan company) is more dedicated to engineering for higher quality products and better customer service. Let's hope so, they've got a tall hill to climb.

[Robert D Evans]

Delta and Craftsman are famous for obsolete proprietary parts. I had to junk a $300 router because Craftsman no longer has the plastic brush holders that melt after extended use. I'm glad you were able to save your drum sander.

[Rob Sack]

No more Delta in this shop. I had their tried and true 14" bandsaw. I needed a pair a bearings for the upper wheel. I live in metropolitan Los Angeles. I called the nearest service center which said they had the pair of bearings. After driving 80 miles one way, they informed me that they had only one bearing and will back order the other. That was in 2015. I am still waiting for the bearing. Fortunately, only one of the upper bearings had seized. They did offer to remove the seized bearing and press in the new one. It took less than five minutes. I mistakenly assumed that this was their way of apologizing. My mistake. They charged me $35 to replace the bearing.

[Clarence Martinn]

I had the Delta wet dry grinder years ago. Twice, a white plastic gear broke. The 2nd time it broke, I tossed the Grinder in the garbage can.

[Brian Kent]

Have you had any further problems with a PLASTIC miter gear? I am ordering the same product now.

[Bert McMahan]

I have frequently seen plastic gears used as a "known failure" point. Basically if there's a significant jam, SOMETHING must take the load, so they deliberately add plastic gears so something more expensive doesn't explode. Not providing replacements is just plain silly!

[Brian Kent]

I am in the middle of this repair now. I was surprised to find my nylon gears in pretty good shape. They had become slightly too far apart and the corner lift assemblies too gummed up. Since I already purchased gears I will replace them anyway. I have thoroughly cleaned and lubed the other parts, and have replaced the pin bearings in the lift assemblies. My hope it that it can be carefully used for another 12 years.

[Bill Dufour]

Just in case future readers need then info.Miter Gear, 16 DP, 20 PA, 1:1 R, 32 Teeth
Bill D

[Wes Grass]

Thanks for popping this bsck up, although you have my condolences. I have one as well. But it's had such light use it doesn't yet have a problem ... yet. I just need to remember... when ... what I'll need is here somewhere.