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Thread: Jet Drum Sander

  1. #1
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    Default Jet Drum Sander

    About 9 moths ago I bought a new Jet 18/36 drum sander and a stand. I have to say that it is the most disappointing machine I have ever bought. The results were not good to start with but I thought that this was my fault not being familiar with the machine. I took a good deal of time to reset everything and was very careful as to the depth and rate of feed of the workpieces but still no better results. The problems are many but the main ones are:
    1. The "Hermes" brand of sandpaper belts, provided by Carbatec, are a devil of a job to fit correctly.
    2. Belts break or come loose at the drop of a hat no matter how carefully they are fitted.
    3. Sanding any hardwood, be it a eucalypt or European species will cause burns no matter how slowly and carefully they are fed under the belt.
    Has anyone got advice as to how to improve this machine? I can see it being on eBay very soon if I cannot get it to work.
    Thank you in advance.
    Jim
    Jim Grant

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  3. #2
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    What grit are you using Jim? When you say the belts break or come loose at what point in the length of the wrap does it happen, is it only the connection points at the ends? I have a Carbatec 16/32 drum sander without the pin to open the rear connection clip and apart from it being a PITA to fit the sanding media to the drum I can't say I have any particular problems. I generally use 80 or 120 grit.

  4. #3
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    [QUOTE=aldav;2199594]What grit are you using Jim? When you say the belts break or come loose at what point in the length of the wrap does it happen, is it only the connection points at the ends? I have a Carbatec 16/32 drum sander without the pin to open the rear connection clip and apart from it being a PITA to fit the sanding media to the drum I can't say I have any particular problems. I generally use 80 or 120 grit.

    Thanks for the reply. I am generally using 80 grit as I found anything in the 240 range would burn on any surface. The belts seem to be about 25 mm too short on the ends to get a good grip and once they come loose they bend and turn over within the machine. I have destroyed four new belts in this way.
    Jim Grant

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    Take it back to the supplier, still under warranty. Make them run it IN THE SHOP to your satisfaction.

  6. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Grant View Post
    About 9 moths ago I bought a new Jet 18/36 drum sander and a stand. I have to say that it is the most disappointing machine I have ever bought. The results were not good to start with but I thought that this was my fault not being familiar with the machine. I took a good deal of time to reset everything and was very careful as to the depth and rate of feed of the workpieces but still no better results. The problems are many but the main ones are:
    1. The "Hermes" brand of sandpaper belts, provided by Carbatec, are a devil of a job to fit correctly.
    2. Belts break or come loose at the drop of a hat no matter how carefully they are fitted.
    3. Sanding any hardwood, be it a eucalypt or European species will cause burns no matter how slowly and carefully they are fed under the belt.
    Has anyone got advice as to how to improve this machine? I can see it being on eBay very soon if I cannot get it to work.
    Thank you in advance.
    Jim
    An elderly woodworker told me to stay well away from these drum sander when I was planning to buy one. He said the overheating will always be an issue most of the time even if I got it running. I end up with a 900mm wide belt sander. That was 7-8 years ago

    I later upgraded to a 1100mm wide unit. I sometimes put my hand on the stock came out of the WBS I can feel the heat from the sand belt, the sand belt is 1900mm long. I don’t know how you guys overcome the heart issue with a drum sander.
    SCM L'Invincibile si X, SCM L'Invincibile S7, SCM TI 145EP, SCM Sandya Win 630, Masterwood OMB1V, Meber 600, Delta RJ42, Nederman S750, Chicago Pneumatics CPRS10500, Ceccato CDX12



  7. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by riverbuilder View Post
    Take it back to the supplier, still under warranty. Make them run it IN THE SHOP to your satisfaction.
    The OP lives in Albury, the seller is probably in Melbourne (300km and a no go zone at the moment) but may have a branch in Sydney (550km) or if he's really lucky in Canberra (300km). Really helpful advice. We don't all live in capital cities.

    Jim, have you seen this thread - Jet 18/36 Drum Sander - it would appear that you're not the only person to have trouble with this machine.

  8. #7
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    Jim,

    I’m no expert on drum sanders, but if you are getting burns I’d be checking a) whether your machine is trying to take off too much material at a pass, and b) whether your dust extraction is clearing all the dust fast enough. Either can contribute to burns.

    Good luck,

    Brian

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    Quote Originally Posted by aldav View Post
    The OP lives in Albury, the seller is probably in Melbourne (300km and a no go zone at the moment) but may have a branch in Sydney (550km) or if he's really lucky in Canberra (300km). Really helpful advice. We don't all live in capital cities.

    Jim, have you seen this thread - Jet 18/36 Drum Sander - it would appear that you're not the only person to have trouble with this machine.
    I don’t know how I was supposed to be aware that the machine is in Albury? He didn’t say that. He just asked for any ideas on how to make it run properly. If it’s under 12 months old, it’s covered by a statutory warranty, that’s Australian law. I presumed that the supplier would have a policy of paying for return shipping, fixing the issue, and returning the item, but maybe they don’t. Just because someone lives “not in a major city” doesn’t mean they should get any less service than people who do, especially with a machine that is under warranty. If it was a car, or a tractor, a quad bike, a fridge, or whatever, it has to go back to the supplier, or they come out to fix it, simple.

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Grant View Post
    I am generally using 80 grit as I found anything in the 240 range would burn on any surface. The belts seem to be about 25 mm too short on the ends to get a good grip and once they come loose they bend and turn over within the machine. I have destroyed four new belts in this way.
    I wouldn't be using anything over 150 grit on a solid drum, the finer grits need to have something soft behind them to absorb the pressure; our old double drum sander had felt covered drums for cushioning and the new wide-bet sanders have air cushion pads for fine paper.

    I also wouldn't be using Hermes anything as my experience with their paper is terrible.

    What's your depth of cut?

  11. #10
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    I use the big twin Carbatec drum sander . It was useless with finer grits . I now use it with two drums of 60 grit . Absolutely fantastic results . One day I’ll try 40 grit but haven’t really needed to yet . I forget the name of the paper I have atm . It’s on a super tough fabric not a paper . Used on floor sanders I think . Black German stuff that is available. I use this sander more like a Thicknesser and dead flattener preparing glueing surfaces than a pre polishing sander . Rob

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Grant View Post
    About 9 moths ago I bought a new Jet 18/36 drum sander and a stand. I have to say that it is the most disappointing machine I have ever bought. The results were not good to start with but I thought that this was my fault not being familiar with the machine. I took a good deal of time to reset everything and was very careful as to the depth and rate of feed of the workpieces but still no better results. The problems are many but the main ones are:
    1. The "Hermes" brand of sandpaper belts, provided by Carbatec, are a devil of a job to fit correctly.
    I can't help with this as I have no knowledge of the quality of "hermes" brand sanding media
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Grant View Post
    3. Sanding any hardwood, be it a eucalypt or European species will cause burns no matter how slowly and carefully they are fed under the belt.
    Has anyone got advice as to how to improve this machine?
    Assuming that the machine is set-up correctly, have you tried
    1. adjusting the depth of sanding so that the paper just kisses the material being sanded. If the board being sanded is not perfectly level to begin with -- i.e. if it is higher at one end -- then the drum sander will likely bog down and burn the material being sanded.

    2. if the "hermes" brand paper is rubbish, try cloth backed paper from someone like "the sandpaper man", who is a forum sponsor.

    3. Dust extraction. Do you have a high volume DC connected to the machine? If no, connect one as your first "upgrade"


    I have a Performax 18/36 currently in storage in Australia. I have not experienced "burning" even when using 240 grit paper. However, I am very careful to seriously limit the depth of sanding cut.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  13. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by riverbuilder View Post
    I don’t know how I was supposed to be aware that the machine is in Albury?
    Top right in every post is the posters location, I see that you're in Berowra Waters. We don't all have something usefully informative recorded for our location but many of us do.

  14. #13
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    Thank you all for the advice and ideas. To answer some of your questions: the depth of cut is no more than 1 mm and I have been very careful of making the first cut to to have the work-piece just kissing the belt. I have a 2 hp dust collection system installed and it is always running when the sander is running. The belts are 86 mm wide.
    I guess I will just have to keep trying. I may try and put small reinforced extensions on the end of the sandpaper belts to see if that helps.
    Thank you once again.
    Jim
    Jim Grant

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Grant View Post
    Thank you all for the advice and ideas. To answer some of your questions: the depth of cut is no more than 1 mm and I have been very careful of making the first cut to to have the work-piece just kissing the belt. I have a 2 hp dust collection system installed and it is always running when the sander is running. The belts are 86 mm wide.
    I guess I will just have to keep trying. I may try and put small reinforced extensions on the end of the sandpaper belts to see if that helps.
    Thank you once again.
    Jim
    Jim,
    Good to hear you are using dust collection with your drum sander.

    I don't know what the pitch of the drum feed screw is on the Jet sander -- but on my Performax (which I believe is a bolt for bolt copy of the Performax), one turn of the drum elevation screw lowers the drum 1/16" (1/16" approximately equals 1.6 mm). So a quarter turn of the feed screw should move the drum 1/64" (which is about 0.4 mm).
    Can you try adjusting the sanding depth by a quarter turn at a time and report back.

    The value of reinforcing the ends of the paper will depend on the quality of the paper and its backing material.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  16. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Grant View Post
    Thank you all for the advice and ideas. To answer some of your questions: the depth of cut is no more than 1 mm and I have been very careful of making the first cut to to have the work-piece just kissing the belt. I have a 2 hp dust collection system installed and it is always running when the sander is running. The belts are 86 mm wide.
    I guess I will just have to keep trying. I may try and put small reinforced extensions on the end of the sandpaper belts to see if that helps.
    Thank you once again.
    Jim
    Hi Jim, are you able to do just 0.3mm per pass? I only do between 0.3mm and 0.5mm per pass on my wide twin belt sander when its sanding 900-1100mm wide. I may get away with 1mm pass if I am sanding something narrow but I normally use planer to get it to the closest 0.5mm and then use the sander.

    even at 0.3mm I can feel the residue heat on the stock.
    SCM L'Invincibile si X, SCM L'Invincibile S7, SCM TI 145EP, SCM Sandya Win 630, Masterwood OMB1V, Meber 600, Delta RJ42, Nederman S750, Chicago Pneumatics CPRS10500, Ceccato CDX12



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