Picked up a power feeder... bad rollers?

[Tim Einwalter]

So I was walking through a equipment dealer yeasterday when I spotted a power feeder against a wall. I knew the dealer was closing up and would be headed to auction soon, so I asked if it was for sale. “Make me an offer was the response”. I thought about it for a bit before offering $150. “Sold!” Was the immediate response. Cool! I thought, until I realized they would have taken less.

It’s a Delta 36-840, 4 wheel, 8 speed, 1 hp, 3 ph unit. Ironically, this unit is identical to the feeders offered by a half dozen competing manufacturers.

When I was unloading the feeder, I noticed a couple of the wheels were distorted. I reached out to touch the wheel and noticed it was super soft. I pushed my finger against it and the wheel easily deformed and stayed that way. I dug my thumb into the wheel and the material stuck to it, stringing when I pulled it away. The rollers are by Western and appear to be blue. Anybody see something like this before?

[Martin Wasner]

My guess it was sitting in a pool of something that softened the wheels.

Pure guess.

Just order new wheels, $100 will get you four new ones.

[Robert Cherry]

Yep, order a new set of wheels and you gots good deal on a 1 hp feeder!

[David Kumm]

Some of the old Delta feeders were actually Steff. Later ones were Comatic but looks like you got a great deal. Western Roller or Axiom are two sources for tires. Dave

[Kevin Jenness]

My old shop had a feeder sitting around unused with those same blue wheels that had turned to chewing gum after 20 years. A new set of wheels and it was back in business. The yellow Western Roller wheels are good for general use. The blue ones are good for slick material like melamine or p-lam although they wear faster.

[Tim Einwalter]

Ok, this site was hell bent to fight me last night. Couldn't get the photos to attach. Finally gave up so I'm posting them this morning. I'm guessing the rubber broke down from exposure to oil. Everything has a light coating of oil. Not sure if the gear case leaked because it was tipped on it's side or what. "Chewing Gum" would be a great description.

[Tim Bueler]

I recently got a new set of rollers for a 4 wheel powermatic feeder. Forget who I talked to at Western Roller but they were great to deal with and johnny-on-the-spot with shipping. The set I got was blue, at their recommendation, because it grips better on the pre-finished plywood that I use and also the finer sanded wood. These rollers replaced the original ones and made a night-and-day difference!!! Call 'em up and tell them what you have and what you're doing and let them tell you what will work best. I think I paid in the low $30 range, per wheel, IIRC.

I never had a good power feeder before and the wheels are the difference. It changed how I work with my shaper. You got a great buy! Enjoy!

[brent stanley]

Yup, another plug for Western Roller. They were great but don't even bother emailing them.....just call. They won't answer your email!

B

[Tim Einwalter]

I suppose that I shouldn't tell you guys that I also bought a 20" Jet planer for $250. Yea, I know...

[Peter Christensen]

Has anyone had rollers reconditioned/repaired? There are places specializing in it. Don't know how cost effective it would be but it might be worth looking into.
http://www.harwoodrubber.com/index.html

[Cary Falk]

Has anyone had rollers reconditioned/repaired? There are places specializing in it. Don't know how cost effective it would be but it might be worth looking into.
http://www.harwoodrubber.com/index.html

Western Roller will do it too. I had some Jet planer/moulder rubber rollers coated with urethane. I'm not sure how cost affective it would be with feeder wheels.

[Tim Einwalter]

Has anyone had rollers reconditioned/repaired? There are places specializing in it. Don't know how cost effective it would be but it might be worth looking into.

I have a belt grinder that takes 3x16" wheels. The wheels new cost close to $370 each. I reached out to the company that makes these wheels and asked them about a recover option. After All, they really touted it as being a significant cost savings on their website. After two-way shipping, turns out it was $10 cheaper per wheel than new.

[Peter Christensen]

I've seen threads in the past where people have had their planer feed rollers reconditioned. That's what made me think of suggesting it for this application.

[Mike King]

I bought a set of replacement tires from Western Roller for my Felder F38 feeder. It has split wheels and they don't have the wheel, so I just bought the tires. It was a struggle to figure out how to mount the new tires on the split rims. Split rims rely on pressure of the bolt fixing the wheels to the feeder to compress the wheel. So, you've got to have a mechanism to compress the wheels ON THE FEEDER sufficiently enough to get the thread of the nut started on the bolt/shaft of the feeder.

Western wasn't any help about how to do this. Ultimately, after a bunch of fiddling around, I simply cut a large (2 ¼") hole in a short board and used a couple of F clamps to compress the wheel/tire assembly sufficiently to get the nut started. It's a bit fiddly as the wheels are slotted to meet a key on the bolt/shaft of the feeder.

In any case, none of this may matter as you may not have split wheels. But if you do, I provide it as a potential solution to the split rim problem. There may be better solutions out there...

Mike

[Martin Wasner]

Shopgear has wheels half off right now, but I think you have to buy a feeder

[Steve Jenkins]

Another plus for western roller call them with the name and model of the feeder and they will have replacement tires

[Jared Sankovich]

I like my western roller wheels, but the last two sets I got have slightly different diameters (two different) that causes a significant shudder as one of the wheels slip during feeding.

[David Zaret]

call western roller and don't look back. the polyurethane wheels are a game changer for feeder performance.

[Martin Wasner]

Mark, good info on the DC40. I just ordered one yesterday, and a set of different wheels.

I robbed the feeder off of our miscellaneous shaper and put it on a tablesaw dedicated to machining the slot for drawer bottoms.

What really ticks me off is whenever those came out, it was just before I bought two new regular feeders and didn't know about the DC ones.

I disagree with not buying them for a fixed setup as dialing in the feed rate more accurately makes them worth the price of admission. There's plenty of times where I've felt I was in between two feed rates so I went with the slower of the two, but could bump the speed up a bit.

[Jeff Duncan]

For whatever its worth you got a great deal! That style of Delta feeder is a good one, it's my daily driver at work. As mentioned yellow tires from Western Roller and you'll be good to go.

good luck,
JeffD

[Tim Einwalter]

Got the feeder running on the VFD last night so we're getting close! Today I was ordering the replacement tires and I was wondering if didn't want two 1" wide tires. In full disclosure; I've never used a feeder before, so the setup is a bit foreign to me. The initial application will be to rip about 3,000 lnft of lumber for a ceiling project. The board width will vary between 12" and only 2". My plan is to rip the wide boards first and then make the narrower pieces from the drops. It would seem the feeder would want to go on the right side of the blade, but there isn't sufficient room between the blade and the fence on the narrowest of pieces. I was thinking that with a 1" wide tire, I could then put the feeder over the blade with the 2" wide tires straddling the kerf. Is this the right way to set it up? For the record, I'll be using a 12 or 14" blade.

[Jared Sankovich]

Got the feeder running on the VFD last night so we're getting close! Today I was ordering the replacement tires and I was wondering if didn't want two 1" wide tires. In full disclosure; I've never used a feeder before, so the setup is a bit foreign to me. The initial application will be to rip about 3,000 lnft of lumber for a ceiling project. The board width will vary between 12" and only 2". My plan is to rip the wide boards first and then make the narrower pieces from the drops. It would seem the feeder would want to go on the right side of the blade, but there isn't sufficient room between the blade and the fence on the narrowest of pieces. I was thinking that with a 1" wide tire, I could then put the feeder over the blade with the 2" wide tires straddling the kerf. Is this the right way to set it up? For the record, I'll be using a 12 or 14" blade.

Or you could position the gap between the wheels of the feeder right over the blade (and not run the blade much above the stock)

[Steve Jenkins]

You could even let the blade cut into the wheel a little

[Warren Lake]

if you have a fence that slides out and has a low side you can do that, or you could just make up an L and clamp it to your main fence

[Martin Wasner]

You could even let the blade cut into the wheel a little

That's what I've done a number of times as well.

[Tim Einwalter]

if you have a fence that slides out and has a low side you can do that, or you could just make up an L and clamp it to your main fence

I was thinking about just making up the spacer board you were describing. Thought maybe there was something blatantly obvious that I may have been missing.

[Warren Lake]

Tim its always been work around scrap stuff for this and that function and once you make a very fast simple jig save it and its there for next time. I now have a grown ups saw and it has the sliding two height fence and of course im struck with why didnt I get this at the start, there are always easy work arounds and often very simple.

The best advice I can tell on a used feeder is be careful that it doesnt move, ive had one work into a cutter and it was clamped as hard as ever. I never use that one now without a block so if it did want to move it cant. that one is a Europa and even more of a bother to adjust the the Univer. I get why guys buy the fancy dancy ones, the old ones are some form of ancient torture until they are in place and adjusted.

[Tim Einwalter]

The best advice I can tell on a used feeder is be careful that it doesnt move, ive had one work into a cutter and it was clamped as hard as ever. I never use that one now without a block so if it did want to move it cant. that one is a Europa and even more of a bother to adjust the the Univer. I get why guys buy the fancy dancy ones, the old ones are some form of ancient torture until they are in place and adjusted.

i hear ya; the feeder I bought kissed a saw blade on one of the wheel chain covers. I have a new cover on order, but it’s backordered for months due to the tarrifs. If anybody has a spare, I’d be interested in buying it.