Sander was a mess when I came in, cleaning it up revealed tarred sap.
None of the sanding belts i found in the stewards cabinet or the one in the cabinet under the sander were the right size.
Red tagging it, @EricP could you please order some of the right size?
The belts are a consumable item, so people are responsible for purchasing their own. From time to time, the shop has put a belt on, but it’s not policy for the shop to supply sanding belts.
Gotcha, thanks for the clarification.
What’s the policy when an existing belt gets trashed and abandoned?
You need to bring your own belt. If there’s a useable belt there, you’re in luck. Again, they’re a consumable item. If it’s trashed, and you don’t have a belt, you can’t use the sander.
I used the drum sander yesterday afternoon so some of the damage might have been me but I thought it was still usable without notice. Looking at your photo the light brown mark in the middle was the one I produced running walnut. As you can see I tried to clean it and should have been usable as long as you don’t have “oily” lumber. The ones to the right were not there when I left. I usually clean the belt when I finish. When I started there was a note stating that the belt was defective that it was burning on the right side corner. This brings up a point, drum sanders create heat (result from friction) so when you introduce lumber that has oil content, silica, and excess glue if you take aggressive cuts, the produced heat will bring out the oil off the wood and transfer it to the belt as it is the hotter surface. Silica on the other hand invisibly cakes the abrasive with the heat and where it will only slide on top of the material instead of cut it. Padauk, cocobolo, and blood wood are some examples of woods that have oil that will trash a sand belt quickly if not done right (there are many others, though). Walnut is usually steamed (if you can find air-dried walnut you are lucky) that process leaves pockets of oil in the lumber, usually around or close to knots or cracks, that oil will put one of those lines quick on your belt. I’m going to stick my neck out and say the right two lines look like a result of glue. Excess PVA glue on lumber, when run on the sander, will cake yellowish to dark brown lines on the belt. Oil in lumber will create a dark to a black line. As a reminder, the drum sander is a finishing sander, not a planer. which means that light passes are a must and if using oily woods take the time to give a chance to both the stock and the belt a chance to cool off. It can be used as a planer but again you have to be patient and follow the light passes until you achieve your desired thickness. After all this, you also have to remember it is an abrasive and prone to eventually wear off, most times sooner than later as you can not control the abuse by inexperienced users. So have your own pre-cut rolls, maverick and 2sand abrasives have rolls that you can cut at a better price (at times better quality) than the pre-cut ones you get in woodcraft/rockler.
@JOSEGAYTAN thanks for providing some thoughts. If you cleaned up after yourself then it wasn’t you. I wasn’t even planning to use the sander last night, but when I came in around 6:30pm it was covered in dust and I just went to clean it before doing my own work.
In person, the two lines on the right were more black than any other color. @JoeN and I tried to scrape them off with a knife and a cabinet scraper but it was caked on real good, we assumed it was basically tar from yellow pine.
I left some signage on the sander but I guess if someone wants to re-install the sandpaper and use just the left half they can feel free to do that. If there’s any problem I can come in today or tomorrow and re-install the old sandpaper myself.
@JOSEGAYTAN nailed a lot of really good information there. I think it’s also important to remember, as Charlie said, sand paper is a consumable item. The sander should be treated as a machine you will have to set up every time you use it. Think of it as a hand sander. People sometime leave old pads on there, and if they were trashed, you’d simply replace it. I’m not saying it isn’t nice for someone to leave paper on the machine after they are done, or that old paper should always be removed, just that ruined paper shouldn’t be a reason to red tag the machine.
FWIW, if I plan on using the sander a lot, I make sure to have new rolls in the grit I’m going to need. That’s also another point to keep in mind. Using to high of a grit for your roughing passes can trash your paper faster as well. Using the proper grit and belt feed speed will get you great results. You’d be surprised how smooth 80 grit can be.
Another note about the sand paper condition. Just because they are gummed up with whatever foreign material doesn’t always mean the paper is ruined. The eraser works well, but you can also wash most sanding belts. I actually pressure wash my wide belt sanding belts, but I’m not sure it’s worth it for the smaller belts. As long as the abrasive is still on the belt, they can usually be saved.
Mostly just trying to add to the information on this post, and appreciate everyone who takes care of the sander. I do feel it is one of the machines that requires more finesse and care.
Is the roll size on the current drum sander the same as the old one? Or will I need to buy myself a new roll?
I just installed a brand new roll tonight.
Thinking back I don’t remember throwing the old one out, I must have left it lying around somewhere nearby. Sorry about that.
Like I said I wasn’t actually using the sander, either three days ago or today, just trying to clean up a mess I saw. Thanks everyone for the input and clarification.
Yeah, I was wondering what the drum/roll size was; sounds like I should get my own roll for occasional use.
The new sander is bigger than the old one. As far as I can tell, abrasives for 25" drum sanders are interchangeable, at least among the Supermax, Jet, or Powermatic 25" sanders.
I bought the SuperMax assortment 36/80/120 Grit: 25" Drum Sander
Is the belt installation the same as the old sander?
@Jon would Rockler or Woodcraft have these belts in stock? Feeling offended at Laguna’s $15 shipping fee lol.
I know, right?
Our Woodcraft didn’t have them in stock last time I checked. Don’t know about Rockler. I wonder if enough of us asked they’d start stocking them…
I bought a set of rolls at Woodcraft a few weeks ago.
If you’re going to be going through a lot of one grit, i’d recommend checking out Drum Sander Rolls – Maverick Abrasives.
You do have to cut the tapers yourself, but for the price savings, I think it’s worth it.
Thanks!
Requiring that everyone supply their own drum sander paper doesn’t seem practical.
Testing this model at the extreme makes it clear why this might be:
My experience is that the large majority of people use a drum sander only occasionally and only briefly at a particular stage of a project. At that stage they’ll want to make a few passes and move on to the next stage. It seems impractical to me at all members would be prepared to do what’s required of this policy.
This is the kind of consumable that Asmbly should provide, IMO, much like saw blades.
Sure, there will be abusers. Some people running businesses might wear out the paper. Some members might run tainted materials through the sander. Those responsible for improper use of the sander could be tracked down (video review) and be approached. Just like when a member irresponsibly blows a SawStop cartridge and breaks a bandsaw blade though obvious misuse, a consumable normally provided by Asmbly could become a cost borne by that member.
Since first reading this I’ve been thinking about if … sorry for the delayed input.
Would these work with our drum sander? Is basically any 25" wrap going to be ok or does it need to be brand specific?
Yes, the Jet wraps should be the same size/shape as Supermax. I’ve not tried them personally, but I’ve seen generic wraps sold that list compatibility with both sanders.
I don’t disagree with you in principle, but in practice it was prohibitively difficult to keep on top of. The sandpaper was just always wrecked. Cross that with the “how do you choose a default grit?” and we landed on BYOSP as a policy. What are the odds the Asmbly-provided paper is a grit suitable for your needs?
Once or twice I’ve found the installed paper to have a clean spot big enough to do a quick pass. If I have serious sanding to do, I take off the (probably wrecked) paper, put on mine, do my job, and put the old paper back. Like router bits, there’s often an assortment of perhaps-usable abrasives in the cabinet if I didn’t bring my own.
