Need advice on Performax tracking

[Jesse Cloud]

Hey all.
I'm having a heck of a time getting my Performax 16/32 to track. It may be the new belt I put on, but the old one was pretty beat up so I suspect the guy I bought it from had a similar problem.

Any hints for setting the tracking? I did what the manual said, but couldn't get it to work.

Thanks in advance.

[Robyn Horton]

You can try turning the belt end for end that worked for the poly belt on my 16-32

[John Carlo]

I had the usual problems that others commented on when I first brought home my 10-22. The conveyor belt initially tracked hard left against the tracker no matter how it was adjusted. PerformaX tech support had me reverse the belt and it still tracked hard left. I removed the conveyor table and returned it to the service department where I bought it. Sitting on the workbench supported by its mounting bolts, the belt quickly adjusted to perfect tracking. When I replaced it on my machine it immediatly went back to hard left tracking. I played with the mounting bolt tension to no avail. Another call to PerformaX netted me a new belt within two days and after a minor adjustment, the belt has tracked perfectly ever since. You can tell just how perfect your tracking is adjusted by holding a ball point pen to the feed roller immediately adjacent to the edge of the conveyor belt as the roller revolves. The mark left on the roller will very quickly indicate what drift, if any, is occurring. I like the way the ceramic trackers leave a light white residue along the edge of the belt if tracking is off. It shows they are doing their job and gives you a quick indication that readjustment is needed. They trackers should not come into play at all if your adjustment is dead center. Think of the trackers as an extra measure of safety.When properly adjusted, this sander lives up to the hype. You quickly learn how much wood to remove in one pass. Any mill marks from the planer or jointer are removed in one pass. It does a nice job of sanding edges on stock up to four inches wide.
The machine really has to have a dedicated 20 amp circuit. Attached to a 15 amp shared circuit, it easily stalled out. I removed the electrical cover from the motor and found a clear diagram for rewiring the motor for 220 volts. Of course, you would then want to install a separate switch to power the drum as feeding 220 into the conveyor motor would quickly destroy it. It's nice to have the 220 volt option even though the factory warns against it. My sander is working so well that I see no reason to make the change.
Sandpaper changeover is very easy and quick. I like the way the right hand clip helps take up any slack in the wrapping of the abrasive.
I just completed biulding my oldest daughter a red oak dishwasher cabinet for her new house. All the trim for this was quickly sanded on the 10-22. I'm also finishing up an oak bar and This sander really saves time.
I recently sanded some 16' x 6" red oak boards to box in a beam. using auxillary infeed and outfeed rollers. As the end of the wood came off of the the several rollers I had set up on the infeed side, the sheer physics behind the length and weight of these boards, transmitted this to the wood under the drum. This made for an extremely small "gouge". A handheld oscillating sander quickly fixed these very slight imperfections which only showed under close examination with a light. I've never seen any sign of this when working with lengths up to the more usual 6' - 10' lengths we commonly encounter in our furniture crafting.