Drum sander blues ... parts slipping and shooting

[bradleyheathhays]

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?

 

[Monty]

You didn't say if it is a new sander or used.
If new, I'd contact the retailer about the issue. If used, I'd try to obtain a new mat.

 

[howsitwork]

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 ?

 

[egnald]

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

 

[GFHWoodWerks]

Alternatively stick the parts us8ng double sided tape to an MDF tray and put that through

I like this sled idea, fairly inexpensive and easy to try alternative.

 

[rherrell]

I have a drum sander and when I take too big of a "bite" I need to push the piece by hand. Try taking smaller bites, it's a finishing tool so if you need to remove a lot of material use a planer instead.

 

[leehljp]

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.

 

[Rob]

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.

 

[leehljp]

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.

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.

 

[jttheclockman]

Try turning the belt 180 degrees or replace with sandpaper belt like most drum sanders are.

 

[Mike]

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