Thread: Jet 22-44 Drum Sander - help needed with setup/usage

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for some info from people who have Jet (Performax) drum sanders. Mine is a 22-44 but I guess the particular issue I have may have come up with the 16-32 model as well.

The issue - when I lower the drum head down to sand to approx 3mm or less, I hear contact between the sanding belt and conveyor belt. This only happens on a certain section of the conveyor belt and it appears to be around the "join" in the conveyor belt. The belt seems to have a slight "bulge" upwards both in front of and behind the join. As this is a new machine (< 4 months old) and hasn't been heavily used, I don't think this has been caused by wear. I noted that my previous Jet drum sander had the same issue.

My question is whether other Jet owners have experienced this issue and if so, how they rectified the issue. I don't believe this is a drum alignment problem. I feel confident I have aligned the drum correctly and accurately. I believe I have tensioned to conveyor belt as per the Jet manual. I'm wondering whether further tensioning the conveyor belt may lessen the "bulge" but I am wary of overtensioning and perhaps bending the rollers.

As a final question, am I asking too much to be able to sand guitar back and sides down to 2mm without using some sort of sled (which would probably eliminate the isue)? Although Jet describes the lower limit as 0.8mm, is this just not possible given the conveyor belt construction?

Would a poly belt fix this issue if they are available for the 22-44?


I hope some experienced drum sander users will be able to shed some light on this issue for me both in terms of set up and usage when they sand guitar backs and sides or similar thin strips down to final thickness.

Thanks,
Steve.