Thread: Wide Belt Sander

How well do the 2 passes match up ?

OK but not brilliant

Does it leave a ridge, etc ?

Yes. needs further hand sanding to eliminate

Is the area of overlap noticable ?

No.

There is a small amount of flex on the open ended units which is probably the main cause of leaving a ridge.

Question you didn't ask.
Are these sanders worthwhile for wider panels?

Yes, despite having to do a bit of finish off sanding, though in a commercial situation if you need to regularly sand wide panels you will be better off getting a proper wide belt sander instead of one of the 400mm wide drum sanders.

For occaisional commercial use no worries.

The Bees Knees for cabinet doors

I've got a Jet bought second hand. With careful setting up according to the manual I have sanded items wider than 400mm with no ridge.
However there are some negatives. Pine clogs the sanding drum with resin. Gum veins in eucalypt species burn on to the drum. Even boards that look completely free of gum veins can cause a burn on. You need to take very light cuts on eucalypt species.
But the drum sander is a great machine for levelling difficult boards that would suffer tearout on a thicknesser. Slow, but effective.
I've had excellent results with Qld Maple, Black Bean, Silver Ash to name a few.

Kind regards
Brian

My use of the drum sander is purely hobby use. I am renovating my house with a new kitchen, bathroom and living room cabinets, etc.

I pretty much excluselively use pine as I gather it from the scrap piles of building sites after the builders have left.

Is the pine clogging of the sanding drum a real problem ?
Can the sand paper be cleaned ?, or do you have to replace it once it is clogged ?

A replacement sand paper roll is about $15 so if you have to replace them to often it could get very expensive.

I currently use a hand held belt sander but the results leave a lot to be desired.

Thanks
Gazza

Hi Gazza,

I have a performax drum sander, and I can tell you pine is a no no. You'd gum it up in a couple of passes.

In some cases you can scrap the gum off the sand paper, but another side effect is that you burnish/burn the timber. I've also found the same problems with sanding off most old finishes.

On sanders with variable speeds you can try taking faster/lighter passes but its still a hit an missed situation.

With all of these types of sanders you also need good dust collection, a decent 2hp dusty as a minimum.

Having said that, its a great tool and time saver, I wouldnt be without mine.


Joez

Originally Posted by Gazza

Is the pine clogging of the sanding drum a real problem ?
Can the sand paper be cleaned ?, or do you have to replace it once it is clogged ?

A replacement sand paper roll is about $15 so if you have to replace them to often it could get very expensive.

#1 The abrasive can be cleaned with the rubber stick cleaner, except for pine resin, once on it's buggered, unless someone can save mine.

#2 I don't buy the pre cut abrasives for $15, I buy by the metre and it costs about $9, use the old one to cut the end tapers, and do it the right way or it won't fit (disclaimer, not saying I have done it but it could be expensive )

GAza,

What everyone says, specially Qld Woodie.

I've got a Jet/Performax and it is relatively easy to adjust to get no ridge at all. I know others with slightly cheaper brands have not been able to achieve that.

Pine clogs sandpaper really quickly, and is a pain, HOWEVER the cloth backed abrasive rolls can be cleaned thoroughly by dunking them in lacquer thinners (Cheap gunwash) and giving them a blast with the old GMC pressure blaster.

This can be done half a dozen times at least.

I also use a rubber thing a few times before changing rolls.

I buy complete rolls (well I've only had to buy one) they'll set you back as much as the machine, but are far cheaper to use, I mean FAR cheaper to use.

Somewhere on this board, in the last twelve months, someone published a comparison of prices of sanding consumables from various suppliers. I can't remember who had the best deal.. Gary Pye came close as I recall.

Perhaps someone can remember and post here??

Or you could buy Ozwinner's 900 wide sander!

Cheers,

P

Pine resin can be removed by soaking the belts in turps then using an old stiff brush to clean them.

But radiata pine is a major pita
Baltic would probably be quite good

Well, got myself a Carbatec 400mm wide belt sander.

When running for the first time I did not have the sanding sheet tensioned properly and when putting the first piece of timber thru it went crunch and ripped the end of the sanding sheet off where it enters the locking tab.

The sanding sheet is now about 1" short of the locking tab.

Can anyone suggest either a way to fix/use the sanding sheet as I have 2.3m of perfect sanding sheet with a torn end....

Thanks
Gazza

Originally Posted by Gazza

Can anyone suggest either a way to fix/use the sanding sheet as I have 2.3m of perfect sanding sheet with a torn end....

Thanks
Gazza

Re cut the taper on the abrasive and leave a gap between the windings.
A gap shouldn't make any difference, it's overlaps that cause problems.
The abrasive should be fabric backed, I tried paper backed and it committed suicide very quickly.

Originally Posted by Iain

Re cut the taper on the abrasive and leave a gap between the windings.
A gap shouldn't make any difference, it's overlaps that cause problems.
The abrasive should be fabric backed, I tried paper backed and it committed suicide very quickly.

Thanks, but I already tried leaving a gap and the abrasive is still an inch too short.

Bu**er Dude!


My solution would cost more than a new strip of belt - you need a roll of the 3M high strength fiber-reinforced tape that they use to joint linisher belts - unfortunately its likely to cost you about $50 a roll, if you can find anyone that still stocks it on-the-shelf. Penfolds used to have it, but they have 'gone to Gowings' as it were . Just make a new tab end from the tape with a bit doubled back to stop it sticking semi-permanently to everything.

When I get mine, I'll be buying a carton of sanding belt with it.

http://www.collinsid.com.au/Abrasive...ductlist.phtml