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View Full Version : 16/32 conveyor finally tracking. Try a tighter belt.



Michael Weber
09-22-2015, 11:26 PM
Won't go into everything I did because I don't think much of it made any difference. In the end I think what made it work was adjusting the conveyor belt tighter than I did before. Before I adjusted only tight enough to keep the belt from slipping when placing a hand on the running belt. If it now damages the roller bearings at least I won't keep shredding belt edges. To start off I ran the adjusting nuts completely backward to the rear nut. I marked a flat and adjusted both sides 9 complete turns outward after centering the belt more or less. Considerably tighter than before.
Left side 9 turns, Right side 9 turns. Belt moves left
left side 9 turns, Right side 10 turns. Belt moves left
left side 10 turns. Right side 9 turns. Belt moves left but slower
left side 11 turns. Right side 9 turns. Belt drifts slightly right over several minutes
left side 10 3/4 turns. Right side 9 turns. Belt drifts very slightly right over many minutes.
left side 10 1/2 turns. Right side 9 turns. Belt drifts very slightly left over many minutes.
adjusted the left to the difference between the last two settings and it appears to be tracking perfectly.
While running the belt tighter may have been the solution to my sander, YMMV and it might not work for everybody or anybody else. Just wanted to say how I solved this on my machine and those frustrated by this fairly common problem may want to give it a shot if you haven't already tried something similar.
would like to note that at least for me tightening the side the belt was moving toward made the belt move in the opposite direction per the instruction manual. There is some question if the manual is incorrect but it worked for me.

Larry Frank
09-23-2015, 7:45 AM
Well done and documented solution....let us know if it remains running true.

Ken Krawford
09-23-2015, 9:42 AM
Michael, thanks for posting your experience. My experience was exactly the opposite of yours. I had to loosen the side the belt was moving towards and tighten the opposite side in order to get it to move in the opposite direction. Unless there's some other variable that I'm not aware of, this appears to contradict the laws of physics. I guess the moral to this story is - If the belt is not moving in the direction you want, adjust in the opposite direction !