Thread: Anderson 900mm wide sander

is that North American?

I picked up my previous sander, a 1980 era prestine condition SCM UNO, 930mm wide, for 1500NZD. I think you can do better with 2000 AUD.

Originally Posted by Albert

I picked up my previous sander, a 1980 era prestine condition SCM UNO, 930mm wide, for 1500NZD. I think you can do better with 2000 AUD.

You got lucky, there's certainly nothing else that wide for that money around at the moment.

Looks like it's been worked hard, so it's clearly a capable piece of kit, but that might mean it'll need some attention down the track. There's no fancy electronics and the conveyor belt still has plenty to dress off if its lost grip, so it's really just drive belts and possible replacement of pneumatic parts which are plug-and-play anyway.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Does anyone know anything about this brand 'Anderson' or this particular machine?

https://www.machines4u.com.au/view/a...sander/479545/

if you have the spare dough, I'd say go for it.

Note it's a 3 phase machine and unless you want to kill your lungs, you'll need something more substantial than a modified 2 hp dusty.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

You got lucky, there's certainly nothing else that wide for that money around at the moment.

Looks like it's been worked hard, so it's clearly a capable piece of kit, but that might mean it'll need some attention down the track. There's no fancy electronics and the conveyor belt still has plenty to dress off if its lost grip, so it's really just drive belts and possible replacement of pneumatic parts which are plug-and-play anyway.

Excuse my ignorance, I dont know anything about wide belts. What are the pneumatic parts used for? Does it need to be hooked up to a compressor?

Originally Posted by ian

if you have the spare dough, I'd say go for it.

Note it's a 3 phase machine and unless you want to kill your lungs, you'll need something more substantial than a modified 2 hp dusty.

Do you know how powerful of a DE is necessary for something like this?

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Excuse my ignorance, I dont know anything about wide belts. What are the pneumatic parts used for? Does it need to be hooked up to a compressor?

Air is used for tensioning the sanding belt and, on some machines, for tracking as well. Yes you need a compressor, but it's a closed system unless there is a leak so you don't need a high flow rate.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Do you know how powerful of a DE is necessary for something like this?

I wouldn't go less than 5hp, which should be vented outside if at all possible, these machines make a LOT of fine dust.

Unfortunately, if you want to play with the big boy machines, you gotta have the big boy support equipment as well

the tensioning and tracking doesnt use alot of air, what uses a lot of air is the blower unit that keeps sand belt clean. my current sander uses something about 700-800 litre per min if the blower is turned on. if the blower is not turned on, the tracking and tensioning uses about 100 litre a min or less.

not only you need a compressor, it is recommended that you have a dryer, pre and post filter to keep the air dry and clean.

Usually the sander user manual will say what kind of m3/hr or CFM is required to match with the sander. my current sander says I need something along the line of 6900m3/hr. my dusty is only a 4-5kw baghouse unit. it will never reach that. I overcome this issue by placing the sander to the dusty as close as possible and shut all gates except the one connected to the sander, seems to be ok. but a musk has to be worn when I sanding. surprisingly its not a noisy operation. the sander.

big sander needs a lot of infrastructure...

This one doesn't appear to have belt cleaning, or even pneumatic feed belt tracking. Air supply won't be a problem here

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

This one doesn't appear to have belt cleaning, or even pneumatic feed belt tracking. Air supply won't be a problem here

the blue line in this photo looks an awful lot like an air line ...

I know that. See post 6; I said it was for sanding belt tension, just not some of the other things that new machines use air for.

I was going on your post #8.
If not for belt tracking and cleaning, what would air be used for in that sort of sander?

Belt tension and tracking on the sanding belt. There's the switch bang in the middle of the photo


New machines have feed belt tracking on air as well, this one doesn't

You flick that switch, and the upper roller drops down releasing the belt tension so you can "easily" change the sanding belt. I put easily in quotation marks, because changing 1200-1350mm wide sanding belts without tearing them is a royal pain! This one is just 900mm so it's pretty easy. I did see a nice attachment on a newer machine where you could mount a bar to the upper roller and let the sanding belt hang off that as you carefully slide it into position...I never worked with a sander that had this feature

The Anderson's are quite a good machine and provided they are well maintained give long service. Being one of the more simple designs they are simple to operate once tracking has been adjusted. As I recall, this model didn't come with pneumatic belt cleaning which could give problems with belt clogging (easily rectified with an old thong.) Good dust extraction is a must on these old girls. Check drums for lateral movement as bearing wear makes tracking hard work.
If the machine is in good order the price is good.

I promise you it's still easier than re-wrapping a drum sander.

I found the trick to changing wide belts is to get your whole torso inside; top of the belt resting on your head leaves both arms free to manipulate the bottom around the rollers. This one appears to have an extended top bearing housing to help with positioning