I just want to remind everyone that the Large Powermatic 36” Belt Sander has several silent failure modes, meaning that the main power switch and light will be on, but the bed won’t raise or lower, and the conveyor belt and sanding belt won’t start. The belts might stop abruptly too. There won’t be any indication of the problem, but it can be one of two things: either the compressed air has turned off, or the sanding belt has shifted to the side and run into the tracking sensors. These are small levers, one on each side, that are triggered when the belt hits them. To check this, you have to open both upper side panels to look at the belt. If it has triggered these, you can turn the master switch off, reposition the sanding belt centered left to right and straight, then turn main power back on. If it hits the tracking sensors repeatedly, then there is a problem that should be reported. But we’ve had a lot of problem reports recently that were clearly one of these silent failures, and they are usually straight-forward to address.
Thank you! This is super helpful.
Could we add some warning lights that have the name of the issue attached to the warning light? Or a small screen that can show the issue to help narrow down the issue especially for newer users?
In theory, yes. But we’d have to decipher the electronics to intercept its internal stop triggers. This is non-trivial at best.
I assume the air pressure sensor will open when the air pressure is low. I assume the contactor that runs the whole sander is dependent on the sensors basically being connected in series for the low voltage to close the contactor. We could run an led that stays on when the air pressure sensor is closed.
The belt tracking might be trickier. I am writing this without looking at the electrical architecture of the sander. I could be way off base. It might all be on a board with relays.
