I’m not sure what your thinking was, but you damaged the conveyor belt. Maybe you were checking alignment of the conveyor, but that’s not the way to do it. Please submit a problem report before you try to make adjustments that result in equipment damage.
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Might’ve been trying to sand something too thin? I think I almost made this mistake a few weeks ago until someone stopped me.
I would agree with probably sanding to low. I’ve made that mistake at home. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was lowered until they touched, but sometimes the conveyor belt floats up when a small piece is put on it. I guess that would mean to low, does the sander have a minimum thickness recommended?
Minimum thickness from the manufacturer is 1/32. There is a burn mark all the way across the belt. It was lowered into the conveyor while running with sandpaper on it. It likely happened when the machine was burning one side a week or two ago. I haven’t seen the conveyor belt float, like you mention, James. The shortest length is 2 1/4 inches, for what it’s worth, according to the manual.
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Make since. It’s very unfortunate this happened.
Perhaps this is something that should be addressed with better education / training / qualification ? Some posted basic usage signage on machines ?
There seems to be a rash of (seemingly ?) basic “user error” issues occurring over and over. Maybe they are preventable ?
I see lots of after the fact point by point quick fix attempts. Where is the board on this ? This is a systemic and strategic issue that seems to permeate throughout many aspects of tools / equipment/usage.
Your points are spot on. As we speak, I’m working on maintenance and repair plans with the Stewards team. Those will also include Do/Do Not signage for basic tips at most machines. The maintenance plan will have regularly scheduled maintenance, which doesn’t exist for the most part.
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I took a quick look at the drum sander before tonight’s safety class and the damage is definitely from someone lowering the drum all the way down with it still running. I have a Supermax at my shop and the feed belt will not raise up enough on its own to cause that damage. While technically you can lower the drum all the way down, there should never be a need to go that low. In fact, it actual takes a little effort to go all the way down given a full rotation of the lifting handle is 1/16”. The only benefit of the doubt basis I can think of is that the person did not realize the drum was still spinning after being turned off.
Highland Woodworking has conveyor belts for the Supermax at roughly half the price of Laguna.