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Thread: Baileigh ES-6100 edge sander review

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
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    Tampa Bay area
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    Baileigh ES-6100 edge sander review

    Originally had a Rikon belt/disc sander. I felt it was marginally powered and had only a 10” disc. Sold that and decided a 20” disc sander was all I really needed. Regretted not having a belt sander since. Last fall I decided to treat myself to a new tool for Christmas. On November 8th I ordered a Baileigh ES-6100 edge sander from Grainger with a web site promised delivery of November 19. While ordering I had the option of liftgate residential delivery for an additional $225 or maybe it was $275. Or free delivery if I picked it up at a Grainger store of my choosing. Less than an hour drive to a Grainger store so I chose that.

    Received notification my order was ready for pickup on January 28th! The web site obviously was not up to date with current conditions. Drove to the Grainger store with a copy of my delivery confirmation. When at Grainger I told them I had a full size Chevy van and was not sure the crate would fit as the web site listed 48” tall and during a call to Baileigh that morning was told it was really 44” high.44” will fit, 48” and I will have to rent a trailer.

    The rep I was dealing with suggested we go out into the warehouse and measure the crate. He pointed and said that is yours over there. That one??? The crate was mangled. Top was off, sides were askew and it was all shrink wrapped together. Looking it over we saw the main belt drive drum was bent and all else looked good. He called Baileigh and had a new drum shipped with me agreeing to install it. So far okay until he tells me he does not have a forklift capable of going into the parking lot to lift it into my van or a trailer. Depending on which web site you read this machine crated is either 480 pounds or 326 pounds. The Grainger building is a dock high building with the floor being about 48” above ground level. Even at 326 pounds I am not going to try to lift that crate from their floor into a van or trailer on the ground.

    The rep offered to ship it to my house free with a lift gate. Very nice of Grainger. The machine arrived late Friday afternoon and Grainger had put the crate on another pallet and wrapped the mangled crate better for the short hop to my house. I uncrated it in my driveway and looked it over good. Got a little help from neighbors and put it in the garage shop.

    Did not have time until Monday morning to start cleaning shipping oil and setting it up. Everything looked good until I got to the main cast iron table. There was a small crack in the cast iron near one edge. Called Baileigh and was asked to send pictures. Received and email that afternoon that I had to deal with Grainger as it was shipping damage in their opinion. Called Grainger customer support and again was asked to send pictures. Two days later I am told they are going to replace the machine. I suggested sending me a new table and I would install it. Said they had never heard of doing such a thing. I did not want to wait months more for another machine. Grainger said they had one in stock in Utah. Wondered why I was not sent that one in the first place. Turns out the Utah machine was one serial number behind the first one I got. They must have bought two when they bought mine.

    Because they could not load the machine at the store they agreed to ship it direct to my house with a llftgate for free. Thanks again Grainger. The second machine arrived about a week later with an intact crate. With the exception of the integral pallet missing a couple of its feet and a small hole in the crate side above the missing feet. Noted that damage on the truck drivers paperwork and started uncrating.

    The machine is held on the pallet with only two bolts both of which were missing. They were there at one time I could tell by marks left on the wood and machine base. The machine being loose in the crate appeared to not cause any damage other than a few small marks on the sanding belt cover. The cover is shipped in wrapping and laying on the pallet beside the machine.

    One manufacturing problem is the belt cover needs a small notch cut in it to clear a bolt head so the cover will lay flat on the sanding head. The belt cover on both machines is a one piece affair as opposed to a two piece cover as the manual depicts. A design change was apparently made and allowing for the bolt head was missed. Called Baileigh and they said it would be okay for me to cut the needed notch. Did not want to alter a new in warranty machine without asking, even as minor as this was. A couple minutes with a small die grinder and a file and a perfect fit. Another problem was one of the motor mount hinge bolts hit the edge of the main table when tilting the sanding head. That had to have about 1/8” ground off it.

    Put a plug on the cord and turned it on for the first time. Ran smooth with no tracking problems. Other than the bottom of the belt was running about an inch below the lowest setting on the main table and about ¼” below the bottom of the drive drum. With that condition my 6” wide belt is only 5” wide useable. I was able to move the belt tracking up on the idler end of the drive system with the tracking adjustment. The drive end though stayed about 1” below the table.

    Baileigh touts lifetime technical support with hands on savvy techs for their machines so I called them. Cannot say for certain but am guessing the tech I talked to had never used a belt sander before. I am sure as I talked to him he was looking at pictures in a manual trying to answer me. Very nice and willing person just not able to give me any answers. Told him thank you and hung up.

    The ES-6100 has a right angle drive gearbox coupled to the bottom of the drive motor that provides the belt oscillation. This is accomplished using small tie rod ends hooked to the gearbox in an off center position. The tie rod ends have threaded studs and nuts that can be adjusted to reposition the motor as it rocks back and forth on its hinged mounts causing the belt to oscillate. I fiddled with those adjustments off and on for three days with no permanent results. The sanding belt could be made to move into a centered position but after a few seconds it would jump to the top of the drive drum so much a ½” or so of the belt would be above the drum. Adjust it back to center and it would eventually jump back to the bottom of the drive drum.

    At one point I had the tie rod mechanism disconnected from the gearbox. Plugged the machine in to try something and the switch was in the on position. On no, I jumped for the switch and saw the belt perfectly centered on both the drive and idler drums. I let it run for a couple minutes and the belt stayed centered. If I tilted the motor by hand down the sanding belt moved down on the drive drum. If tilted up the opposite happened. Exactly what I would expect and thought adjusting the tie rod linkages should have done.

    The sanding belt oscillates only about 3/8 of an inch. Not sure why I thought I even needed the oscillation with that small amount. My last belt sander did not have it and I did not miss it. So for now, and maybe permanently, I removed the tie rod linkage and altered the motor mounting mechanism to a fixed but adjustable position. I welded a tab to the arm that held the tie rod linkages and tapped it for two jam bolts. One to push and one to pull. This allows the motor to be adjusted so the sanding belt runs centered on the drive drum and to hold that position. The way I did this still allows the jam bolts to be removed and the tie rod linkage to be reinstalled if I figure out a way to center the sanding belt while oscillating. I know I have altered a brand new machine but I wanted to use it not play with adjustments. Also seems a shame to pay for oscillation and disable it.

    The sander came with a table mounted fence. A piece of heavy gauge sheet metal bent to be used as a fence when using the sanding head in the horizontal position. Most likely will not have much use for it so I made a couple brackets to hang the fence on the back side of the machine base cabinet. Out of the way but easily reachable if needed.

    The sander also has a small table that fits on the idler drum end of the machine to use as a spindle sander. Heavy cast iron table that adjusts up and down. I have a good oscillating spindle sander so did not even install the support arm and table. With the belt oscillation hooked up the idler drum pulsates in and out on its spring loaded mount as the drive drum rocks back and forth causing the oscillation. Not sure how you would use the spindle sanding option with the drum pulsing in and out.

    Overall the machine is sturdily built with a nice storage cabinet on the bottom. Dust collection is about what you can expect from a belt sander as long as the 6100. The 4” collection port is over three feet from the far end of the main table. I will have to use the big gulp dust hood I use when sanding on the lathe in addition to the machines dust port. The miter slot is not a standard ¾” wide, it is narrower at about 18mm. Had planned on using one of my good miter gauges for sanding angles but that will not happen. The included miter gauge while useable is a pretty cheap one. The included gauge clamps to the miter slot thus providing a bit of safety which my better gauges would not do.

    Moving the sanding head from vertical to horizontal is accomplished by a clamp with one of those spring loaded handles under the main table. On my machine loosening the clamp a small amount allows the head to start to move. Then it has to be loosened more for the table to move more. Then loosened even more about ¾ of the way to horizontal. Then the clamp gets real loose in the full horizontal position. Requiring two or three full revolutions to tighten back up for a proper clamp. The handle can turn only about 180 degrees before hitting the cabinet underneath. Then has to be pulled outward and repositioned on the clamping nut. Really tedious having to do this numerous times to move the head. For now I took the handle off and am using a ratcheting closed end wrench.

    Overall I expected better for paying ~$1700. I have not used the machine for real work sanding yet, only tests and playing. Time will tell if the machine is really worth the money.
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    Last edited by Robert Hayward; 02-23-2022 at 10:13 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    West Lafayette, IN
    Posts
    6,529
    Sorry to hear about your shipping woes. Hate to say it but it sounds like Baleigh doesn’t have their stuff together.

    I just bought a 650 lb Newton oscillating edge sander. Though a much smaller belt, the oscillation stroke is at least 1”. I couldn’t believe how small the oscillation was on the video I just watched of the Baleigh edge sanders.

    I hope it works well for you in any case. Thanks for the detailed write up.
    Last edited by Keith Outten; 05-04-2022 at 11:42 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2022
    Location
    Central CT
    Posts
    164
    I wish you good luck and hope you get good use but I think I would have been trying to figure out how to return it and try something else.... you're probably past that now but you could hound baileigh and see if they'll at least send you a free accessory or something if you can't.

    I recently ordered a hammer hs950 and hope for the best, it also has a very short stroke I think they told me only 5mm which personally I find hard to believe but it's better than 0 for sure. I'll still be waiting a few months, which at least they're up front with but so it goes... a lot of my products people wait for so I get that part even if it could probably be improved... them and me

    I've mentioned this is other threads and can't stress this enough to the manufactures who might peruse our forum.... these types of tools cost a lot more than typical hobby or amateur consumer machines and they better fall into professional or serious amateurs with big budgets categories... not quite industrial though some of them are... and I find that as you move towards industrial level machines or manufacturers you start getting treated more that you should fix the problems and that they're not a big deal.... we'll for a $2mil shop maybe they're right but for a normal person whether amateurs or pros 1700 or so is a lot of money and in my opinion they should take good care of that customer but even more important they shouldn't let anything out of their factory that either a) isn't built or engineered to avoid problems or b) not packed well enough or logistics worked out well enough to avoid the majority of issues from shipping. Now shipping products on a regular basis I know that some of that is out of their control but there is a lot more that can be done by most of them to better ensure customer satisfaction. If you bought a $1300 phone and it comes with a button that doesn't work... will you be fixing it or sending it back?

    Some of you might say I'm expecting too much but I don't think I am... if you make a subpar product or give subpar service you should be called out on it and if you don't resurrect the issue you should eventually go out of business... so why do we let them get away with it? Crap happens that's true, it's how we/ they deal with it that makes the difference.

    Anyway, I digress sorry to rant... nothing is prefect but a lot of companies have lost sight of a pursuit of perfection and focus too much on the bottom line... there's only one way that eventually leads....

    Again good luck, thanks for sharing, and keep us updated.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Tampa Bay area
    Posts
    1,090
    Review update now that I have been using the sander for about two months now.

    The sander was not getting much use at first because of the belt tracking issues. Recall the belt tracked way down at the bottom of the drive drum with the oscillation mechanism hooked up. So I disabled the oscillation and modified the motor mount so the drive drum was stationary. My mod allowed the tracking to be adjusted at both the drive drum end and the factory adjustment at the idler drum end. The belt would track centered on the drums until a piece of wood touched the belt. Then the belt would jump to the top or the bottom of the drums. It would move enough that a portion of the belt would be above or below the drums. I was never able to stop that from happening. Made sanding very annoying so the machine did not see much use.

    Kept thinking if all of these ES-6100's did this people would be screaming all over the Internet. So I would fiddle with the machine off an on, ten minutes here and 20 minutes there. Finally removed my mod and put it back the way it shipped from the factory with the belt oscillating. The factory tracking mechanism at the idler drum end would not allow enough movement to allow the belt to center on the idler drum. I removed the idler drum assembly thinking I would cut a weld and reposition the tracking adjustment screw.

    While the idler drum assembly was off I saw a large nut on the belt tension device. Looked like that nut was to adjust the tension on the belt. Put the entire thing back together without modding and started playing with three adjustments. The idler drum tracking, the belt tension nut and the oscillation linkages. After maybe half an hour of going back and forth between the three adjustments, success. The oscillation works and the belt stays centered on both the idler and drive drums, even with heavy pressure on a large piece of wood pressed against the belt. Even changed belts to see if that would make a difference, all good.

    While I was going I decided the fix the annoying catch on the left door of the built in cabinet base. The bottom of the left door was dragging on the cabinet frame. Minor issue but it bothered me. Both doors also rattled while the machine was running. A little work with a brass hammer and a block of hard maple almost fixed the dragging. A tiny washer slipped over the bottom hinge pin lifted the door just enough to eliminate the clearance issue. Rummaged around in the shop and found a partial pack of adhesive furniture anti slip pads. Just right to be used as a door bumper. Cabinet is good now with smooth opening and closing doors.

    The final issue I have with the machine is the clamping device for tilting the sanding belt head. I bought the sander to use it as an edge sander and have yet to have a need to tilt the head so it is not that big a deal. The clamping bolt needs a 1/2 turn to start tilting the head. After a few degrees of tilt the bolt needs loosening more to tilt the head more, and again and again. Then when the head is horizontal the clamp gets really loose requiring three or four turns to tighten it. Then the opposite to return the head to edge sanding position. I do not see a fix for this. The clamping device is a welded affair that is also part of the motor mount and sanding head. I think I will have to learn to live with this condition.

    All said and done the sander is a nice machine to use now that all the adjustments have been made. I find myself heading to the edge sander to sand now instead of the disc sander. Which is why I wanted and edge sander in the first place. I will say it again though, for ~$1700 I should not have had to jump through all these hoops to use the machine.

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