I really need to wear my glasses

[Sean Troy]

I will never go without my reading glasses again. I was using my new 24" drum sander for the first time today. I had everything set just right after checking and rechecking the setup. I adjusted the height for feed and inserted the wood that was 22"x22", it started feeding beautifully when all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. A god awful explosion sound like the world was coming to an end, missiles are flying at me and every other direction there is. Out of instinct, I hit the deck but the noise didn't stop. I jumped up and hit the breaker for the sander on the other side of the shop and it finally got quite. I couldn't figure out why there was pieces of sandpaper all over the shop so I carefully,very carefully went over to the sander to see what happened to the wood I was feeding into this beast and see the wood was as fine as the second I started feeding it into the jaws of death. I took the top of the sander off and see the first drum only had a small piece of sandpaper left attached to the end of the drum. In about 30 minutes when my heart stopped pounding and I got my breath back, I call tech support and describe what I just went through and I thought he was going to wet himself. When he stopped laughing, he assured me he wasn't laughing at me but he's heard this story so many times before. First off the machine is fine and no damage and I'll just replace the paper on the first drum. Here's what I did wrong and I hope it helps someone else from having to buy a new set of under shorts. I didn't have my reading glasses on to see correctly when I was adjusting the height of the feed table and second and maybe most importantly, don't adjust the feed table height going by the height of the pressure roller, it's higher than the drum that actually does the damage. When you do this, there is way to much pressure on the drum and it doesn't like it at all. I might just work on the computer tomorrow.

[Clint Olver]

Next time, you could try lowering the table, feed your board through on a slow speed, and gradually raise the table until you hear the paper contact the wood. Then raise the table incrementally from that point on each successive pass depending on your grit (higher grit = smaller adjustments).

C

[Sean Troy]

Thats exactly what I'll do.

[Greg Portland]

...or install an aftermarket DRO. I added one to my Woodmaster and it's been a good time saver.

[Sean Troy]

...or install an aftermarket DRO. I added one to my Woodmaster and it's been a good time saver.

What is a DRO?

[Matt Armstrong]

digital read out

[Sean Troy]

I did a search for a Digital Read Out for drum sanders and came up empty. Who sells them?

[Matt Day]

I was waiting for the part where thing went flying in your eyes - I thought safety glasses not reading glasses. Hopefully you had those on for that episode!

[Thom Porterfield]

For events like Sean's, I think safety glasses is a definite must. But also, just perhaps, a Kevlar suit, as well.

[Sean Troy]

Yes, safety glasses were on. That may be why I forgot to wear my readers. I usually were the readers for setting adjustments then switch over to safety.

[Sam Blanchard]

I did a search for a Digital Read Out for drum sanders and came up empty. Who sells them?

Sean - glad to hear there was no permanent damage.
Barry Wixey sells great DRO's that can be adapted to fit most any application. Do a quick search and you'll find him with no problem

[Neil Brooks]

For me, it's come to this....

My shop glasses are polycarbonate, but ... I either wear a flip-down magnifier visor or ... my "surgical loupes" to see ... well ... almost anything



Problem is ... I STILL screw up Guess there's more than eyesight involved, huh ?

[John Coloccia]

re: setting drum sander height

I turn the conveyor only on, and feed the work through, watching the drum. When the drum moves, I stop lowering the height This way, I don't end up with that initial gouge in the board which is sometimes difficult to remove if you're already close to your finished dimension.

[Marty Paulus]

For events like Sean's, I think safety glasses is a definite must. But also, just perhaps, a Kevlar suit, as well.

Depends????