Drum sander blues ... parts slipping and shooting

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bradleyheathhays

bradleyheathhays

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2021
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130
Location
Lexington, Ky
I got this great little belt sander a couple of months back, and although I got it to save time and work, I'm still having to do quite a bit of work just operating it. Problem is, the conveyor mat doesn't grip the piece firmly enough to keep it from shooting back out. For every piece that goes through, I have to give it enough push support that I might as well be doing it on my regular oscillating sander.

Any advice on changes I could make to enhance the mat's grip? Blowing it off does no good. I guess getting a new one?

drum sander.JPG
 
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how about trying " belt dressing" spray ? This was designed for use on v belts to improve grip . Cannot hurt and might help make it a bit more " sticky" in use? Alternatively stick the parts us8ng double sided tape to an MDF tray and put that through - bigger contact area so better grip ?
 
Is it possible to close the sander down far enough that the drum will lightly kiss the belt? Although I don't own one myself, a friend of mine suggested putting on a fine grit, like 220 or so, then marking the belt with a crayon and lowering the drum until it just kisses the belt to roughen it up. It sounds reasonable but I'm guessing that even the slightest misstep could ruin the belt pretty fast. I'm sure it would be critically important that the drum and belt be as perfectly parallel as they can be for something like that.

I don't know, but maybe you could lightly touch the belt with a hand sander or with a sanding block as it is moving instead??? Of course, that might mess it up even more than kissing it with the drum.

In any case, I think I would make sure I had a spare belt ready to go before I tried anything -- just in case my fix somehow made things worse.

Dave
 
Is your DC working properly? I have that model DS and when too much fine dust got on the belt, mine did that. I had to change my DC piping up a bit (90° corners) hurt the flow.) but after that, and sealing joints on the duct work, the DC kept the dust off and it worked OK from then on. I didn't do as much as you are doing though. I use mine just occasionally.
 
Something isn't clear to me. That conveyor belt should be pulling the work into the drum. If that's the case it can't possibly 'shoot' the work back towards the user. I don't own the Grizzly sander but do have the Jet. Won't shoot out anything. Worst that can happen is the material is wedged between drum and conveyor belt and stops if too much of a bite is taken.
 
Rob said:
Something isn't clear to me. That conveyor belt should be pulling the work into the drum. If that's the case it can't possibly 'shoot' the work back towards the user. I don't own the Grizzly sander but do have the Jet. Won't shoot out anything. Worst that can happen is the material is wedged between drum and conveyor belt and stops if too much of a bite is taken.
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The grizzly belt does not grip real well and the feeder motor is not very powerful. For me, when the belt had too much fine saw particals on it the sandpaper would catch the wood and push it back. The feeder belt is just a bit sticky but that friction is overcome by an overload of the sawdust. Once I got my dust collector system working properly with no 90° elbows in it (or if I had a stronger DC-suction) the feeder worked OK for me.

There is one other part to it that Rick mentioned above. While that is often called "thickness sander" it is actually a very fine/miniscule amount of thickness sander. As mentioned above - it won't take off the amount that a thickness planer will per pass.
 
I don't have one of these, but I have found that my router pads stop gripping my table and the work and work will move around. I rinse the pads in the laundry sink to remove the dust and then wash them in warm water with Dawn dish soap. Let them dry a while and the grip comes back.
Might be difficult, depending on how hard it is to remove the belt.

Mike
 
Thanks for the advice on the rollers. This is my first drum sander so I wasn't entirely sure how everything worked. Turns out when I first got it the rollers were caked solid with hardened sawdust that made them at least 50% larger in diameter. After cleaning they didn't press down almost at all. After adjusting for more down pressure pieces are moving through fairly well.

There isn't an information plate anywhere on it, but I looked up Grizzly models because of this one's color and all the parts seem to match up. Forget the model just now but it's basically a Grizzly 10" drum sander.

Hey Monty, it's used. Only thing I've ever bought new is my Jet 1221 lathe.

howsitwork, thanks for the belt dressing and double stick tape advice. I'll keep those in mind in the future.

Thanks for the advice Dave. In addition to adjusting the rollers like I have I'll scuff up my feed belt like you suggest. Could only help.

rherrell, I just got a DRO on it last night so I'll be able to avoid taking off too much in one pass, like I was probably doing.

leehljp, I hadn't thought of the excess dust but I'm sure you're right. I've just been using my ~2.5in wet vac for collection. I've got a larger dust extractor with 4" hose but I've been lazy not dragging it over to the sander. I should start using it for health reasons if nothing else.

jttheclockman, I had no idea sandpaper belts were available for drum sanders. I'll look into them.

Thanks mike. Belt improvements on the way.
 
bradleyheathhays said:
Thanks for the advice on the rollers. This is my first drum sander so I wasn't entirely sure how everything worked. Turns out when I first got it the rollers were caked solid with hardened sawdust that made them at least 50% larger in diameter. After cleaning they didn't press down almost at all. After adjusting for more down pressure pieces are moving through fairly well.

There isn't an information plate anywhere on it, but I looked up Grizzly models because of this one's color and all the parts seem to match up. Forget the model just now but it's basically a Grizzly 10" drum sander.

Hey Monty, it's used. Only thing I've ever bought new is my Jet 1221 lathe.

howsitwork, thanks for the belt dressing and double stick tape advice. I'll keep those in mind in the future.

Thanks for the advice Dave. In addition to adjusting the rollers like I have I'll scuff up my feed belt like you suggest. Could only help.

rherrell, I just got a DRO on it last night so I'll be able to avoid taking off too much in one pass, like I was probably doing.

leehljp, I hadn't thought of the excess dust but I'm sure you're right. I've just been using my ~2.5in wet vac for collection. I've got a larger dust extractor with 4" hose but I've been lazy not dragging it over to the sander. I should start using it for health reasons if nothing else.

jttheclockman, I had no idea sandpaper belts were available for drum sanders. I'll look into them.

Thanks mike. Belt improvements on the way.
Click to expand...

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