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11th December 2020, 04:41 PM #1
Carbatec Drum Sander belt loading frustration
drum-sanderx.jpg
Bought on of these 12 tears or so ago and it has been a constant source of torture. I cant complain about the machine itself as it has slogged away and taken everything I've thrown at it. However whenever I have to reluctantly replace the belt I know it is going to be a huge drama and two or three new belts later I have one in that will last awhile.
It's the belt catch at the end closest the motors and lift mechanism that has me beaten every time. I cant see how it works and I can never seem to get the damn thing to catch and hold the belt properly. I'll spend a frustrating hour with mirrors trying to get it to hold only to have it let go a few minutes into the first job. The other end [closest to operator is also a pain but I can sorta see whats going on there and I have to confess to sticking the belt down at that end with contact glue.
This time I gave up with the hard end and stuck that down as well and the results havent been great as the belt keeps breaking at the motor end.
Does anyone have some tips or insights on how to get this little beggar to bend to my will and hang onto a new belt properly??
I know a lot of these have been sold and have heard others complain about this same problem
Thanks heapsray c
dunno what's more fun, buyin' the tools or usin' em'
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11th December 2020, 05:06 PM #2Member
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Hi Ray, I have one of these and actually took it apart to see how it works, crazy i know, What i do now is slide the spring loaded bolt out into the end of the drum and rotate the drum towards me to release the catch, then maintaining tension on the drum to hold the catch open and on the belt to hold it in position i use a strip of plastic to push the end of the belt into the slot. Release tension on the drum and generally the catch has caught the end of the belt and all is good. Sometimes it fails to hold the belt and i have to repeat the process.
Happy to talk if further help is required
Good luck Owen
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11th December 2020, 05:14 PM #3GOLD MEMBER
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What Woody said.
I also found that I needed to cut a sliver off the side of the belt to allow it to slip into the inner slot a little further so that the clamp grips it properly.
I am pretty sure there has a been a thread on this problem so a search might help.Tom
"It's good enough" is low aim
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11th December 2020, 09:46 PM #4
Hi Ray,
Glad too see I'm not the only one who has had this problem, I did some searching and found this video and realised I had been trying too hard to get it right by squeezing the end clamp while trying to feed the belt in.
In the video it shows putting a pin in to hold it while the belt is fed into the clamp, I have yet to try this as I need to get some more abrasive but it makes a lot of sense
Hope this helps
Rick
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11th December 2020, 10:50 PM #5
As both respondents here have said... spot on.
I also fold the end before feeding it. Once I worked out to use the drum itself as the retraction mechanism, took a small sliver off the side being fed in, and folded it over a bit.... all problems solved.
It is a bit tricky, but they are great machines.
My favourite I think! For boxes there is no other tool more powerful for production.
SIA cloth-backed papers from the SandpaperMan are absolutely the best to use.
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12th December 2020, 08:03 AM #6
Thanks all. Video is interesting and informative. My machine doesnt have a hole in the drum for a pin.
I would love to able to have a proper look at how that back holding mechanism actually works. You can't see where you're feeding the paper. Sometimes it grabs and pulls fine, sometimes it kinda works but let's go and other times it doesn't catch at all.
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12th December 2020, 09:12 AM #7GOLD MEMBER
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There is no hole in the drum of the Carbatec version as shown in that video. The spring loaded bolt on the frame goes into the open end of the drum and as said above, pull the drum towards the switches and hold it while feeding the paper into the slot.
A bit hard to explain but once seen it is relatively easy although fiddly.Tom
"It's good enough" is low aim
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12th December 2020, 09:44 AM #8GOLD MEMBER
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Good video, warrick, because it gives you a reasonable look at how the inboard clip works. Having said that I've never seen a drum sander that takes a pin to hold the clip back, it's more usual to have a spring loaded bolt/pin that's pushed in through the drum mounting frame/casting to hold the clip back. My Carbatec drum sander wasn't fitted with any kind of clip retaining pin and this made changing the sanding media a complete PITA. The spring that you have to open the clip against is quite strong and there is quite limited space to operate in.
Does your sander have a spring loaded pin as shown in the attached pic., old_picker? I ended up fitting my own clip retaining pin using a 5/16" bolt, nylock nut and spring. The difference this made in the ease of fitting media was a revelation and well worth the effort of removing the drum mechanism to fit it. When you have the pin to hold the drum in the correct position you can concentrate on getting the media into the clip instead of holding the clip.
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12th December 2020, 10:27 AM #9
Yep there is a spring loaded pin that you push in so you can rotate the drum against it to open the holding clip.
Looking the video it seems to me to be backwards. The motor end clip is the.most difficult to operate in my experience. So why not get that end solidly clipped in first and go reverse to the video and clip in the easy one last?
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