Refurbished Delta Drum Sander

[Lyle Moore]

I bought a 31-255 Delta X drum sander recently but one of the gears to set the platen up and down had two teeth broken off so when adjusting the sanding depth up the gear would skip. It made a loud noise when this happened so I decided to fix it as soon as possible. I ordered new steel gears from Renovo and they came about three months later. When pulling the old broken gear out I discovered that both gears were made of plastic. I didn't pay much for the sander so I don't mind fixing it but I'm surprised that a Delta X model would be shipped with such cheap components. Aren't the X models supposed to be the higher end product? I can't see any difference between this and the regular 31-250.

Also I guess parts are pretty hard to find so I have to be careful nothing else gets broken on this machine or it will end up completely useless.

[Mike Kees]

Lyle I have owned and looked at a lot of Delta tools. FWIW I dont think there was any real difference in the "X" tools maybe a few accessories and a five year warranty but other than that really the same machines. There are still parts available from several sources,e-replacements.com and others. You can also get creative and buy pieces from other manufacturers such as Grizzly,jet,etc. I would not loose sleep over it. Mike.

[Bruce Page]

FWIW, I had one of the early Delta 18/36 sanders that I bought around 2000, maybe a little eariler. It had all steel gears and never gave me a problem. I guess the bean counters didn’t think the profit margin was high enough and switched to plastic.
Like Mike said, the chief difference with the X series was the warranty & some extra bells & whistles. Other than some stickers they were basically the same machine.

[Cary Falk]

I opened up this thread to tell you not to buy it because of the plastic gears. I am glad you were able to find metal replacements. As stated X5 meant a 5yr warranty and some extra bling. I got rid of all of my Delta stuff and will not buy any more(new or used) because of stuff like this.

[John TenEyck]

There is an old posting on SMC where someone used alternative metal gears to repair his machine. A search should find it.

John

[Van Huskey]

There is an old posting on SMC where someone used alternative metal gears to repair his machine. A search should find it.

John

I think the OP got the most used retrofit metal gear set from Renovo. They are not cheap at about $160 but they do fix the worst problem the sander has. I don't think the plastic gears are even available anywhere.

[Rick Potter]

I had one which worked fine ,with a caveat. I was running a 12" or so wide piece through it, and set it to take a little bit too deep a cut, which was fine on narrower boards, but too much for the wide one.

Half way through the machine flexed a bit and bucked, ripping the paper off the rollers and finally I managed to hit the switch. Scared the daylights out of me. The machine and stand it was bolted to actually jumped.

After redoing the paper and checking everything I was very careful about going too deep again.

PS: About the 'X5' models, I have had several Delta/Rockwell 14" BS's. The X5 was a kind of last gasp for Delta 'made in USA' tools, and I looked a long time for my current X5 bandsaw. It has 1 1/2 HP, the table is a couple inches bigger, and it has the blade tension setup. My previous Delta's had 1/2 - 3/4 HP.

[Myk Rian]

I got rid of all my "newer" Delta tools, and started restoring the old ones. Vintage is all I have in my shop because of plastic in the new ones.

[Lyle Moore]

Thanks to all who replied to this post. I feel a lot better about owning Delta tools. I have a contractor's saw and a jointer by Delta as well. It's really too bad they went out of business. I face certain limitations because I live in Canada and not everything I need is available here. You sure notice when you have to order parts for things.

[Van Huskey]

Thanks to all who replied to this post. I feel a lot better about owning Delta tools. I have a contractor's saw and a jointer by Delta as well. It's really too bad they went out of business. I face certain limitations because I live in Canada and not everything I need is available here. You sure notice when you have to order parts for things.

They aren't out of business yet... They still offer a limited line of tools but they sold off their inventory of non-current parts several years ago and no longer support the older machines. They actually make at least three really good machines (the newest Unisaw, their 18" DP and their tilting spindle OSS) but there is so much fear of how long they will be viable there is very little discussion of buying them.

[Lyle Moore]

Good to know. I should have said too bad they may go out of business. The gears I bought from Renovo actually came from Boston Gears. Renovo just added a split bushing inside the gear that fits on the crank. I'm still glad to have it, even at 160 dollars a pair.

[Jim Tabor]

I posted this a few years ago and may still be helpful.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?203150-Delta-18-36-Sander-Owners-A-Must-Read

[Lyle Moore]

Thanks Jim. I saw that article and almost pulled the trigger but the steel alternative just seemed a more permanent solution. I have checked Boston Gears' site and they do stock steel gears that will work but then you have to drill the holes and add the bushing that you detail in you post. I'm pretty busy these days and just don't have time to fix things the way I used to. Good post though.

Just wanted to add I did have to enlarge the inside of the bushing that was added with some emery cloth to get a proper fit on the shaft. It was out a few thousandths of an inch.