Woodtek 13" belt sander....how to fix?

[Christof Grohs]

I picked up a 13" Woodtek belt sander about a year ago at auction. I was told it was functioning by the auctioneer, I trusted him.....big mistake. Thankfully I did not pay much. The aluminum drum vibrates like crazy and when I disassembled it I found that the drum was cracked beyond repair. This was not obvious at the auction since the drum is covered in vulcanized rubber.

I'm wondering what can be done with this sander? Everything else seems fine except the drum. I contacted a Woodtek service man and he said it's obsolete. It seems a shame to junk the whole machine when just the drum is damaged?

Thanks for any advice.
Christof

[Rick Lizek]

No machine is necessarily unfixable. It a matter of cost versus replacement. If you have a reasonable machinist you might have one made. Sometimes you can use a local trade school or perhaps you can scrounge and modify from a scrap yard. No simple answer and it depends on your resources. The still restore all kinds of old cars but again obvously an old Dusenberg is in a different category.

I've had drums turned and modified shafts and such. It's definitely fixable but it depends on your resourcefulness or the resourcefulness of your resources.

Rule of thumb for auctions is to know all the possible problems and "solutions" to those possible problems before you buy.

[Joe Jensen]

I'd look for a machine that uses a drum the same diameter, and then modify it for the machine you have. This might not be possible, but there are a lot of drum sanders out there. If you found a drum that was too long, it would be easy to shorten it. Not sure how the drum mounts in the machine, but I could imagine modifying the machine to mount a different drum..joe