Performax 16/32 Plus Feed Belt Slipping: Suggestions?

[Scott Vigder]

It seems no matter what I try to sand, at what level of pressure, the feed belt slows or stops and the aromatic smell of burning wood permeates the shop. I have slowed the speed to a crawl, increased the speed, lifted the drum to reduce pressure, aligned the rollers, tightened the belt, gone up to 320 grit paper, and it still slips.

I have it nicely balanced side to side. On long pieces (4-feet plus) I will invariably get slippage after the first foot or so. I have to manually push the piece or help rotate the belt by hand (who needs all that skin, anyway?). The belt motor seems strong.

Suggestions, comments or direction is greatly appreciated.

[Paul Johnstone]

If you have new sandpaper on the drum head, usually you only get burning wood when you are being too aggressive.
Feed too fast, or drum taking too big of a bite.

Lower the feedbelt table, run a piece of wood through without the sander head touching it.
Make sure this piece of wood has been joined and planed. You want the surfaces to be parrallel and flat.
Now, run the piece of wood through again (at the same setting). Stop the feed belt when the wood is under the sanding head.
Now, SLOWLY turn the crank adjusting the distance between the wood and the sanding head. Wait until you just hear the sound of the paper hitting the wood. You want very little pressure, especially if you are using 320 grit! Maybe even slightly back it off the first time. Now, let the wood feed through. If the feedbelt still slips, you might need to tension up the feedbelt.
However, the felt belt should be kind of loose. If you bought this machine new and from the factory (and did not tinker with it)
the feed belt tension should be fine.

I would suggest debugging this problem with the coarsest grit of sandpaper that you have.

[keith ouellette]

I noticed you say you smell burning wood. Is that every time? That sounds odd to me as even if I have mine adjusted to low so it takes to big of a bite my motor breaker trips before I burn any wood.

Is this happening on all parts of the drum. I mean to say if you ran a 3" wide piece through does the same thing happen? If it on;y happens on 16" plus wide boards I would say the drum is hitting the wood at one end or the other.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

You could have too much tightness on your feed belt. If the feed motor cannot move the feed belt at the lowest setting, it's too tight.
Do you have the infeed and outfeed tables? If you're sanding those long boards without infeed and outfeed support, its a lot for that tiny motor to move.

[david brum]

You probably already know this, but I'll say it anyway just in case. The drum height for the initial pass is supposed to be adjusted so that the drum just barely touches your board, but you can pull out your board without causing the drum to rotate. Then advance the height adjuster handle 1/4 turn down for your first pass. Then don't advance the handle more than 1/4 turn for successive passes. Anything more than that will cause something to stall. On mine (an old one) the drum motor will trip a breaker if I try to take a bigger bite.

BTW, finer grits of sandpaper make my sander work harder. If I'm fine tuning a thickness but not going for final finish, I use 80 or 100 grit.

[Scott Vigder]

Thank you all for responding. I was a little agressive stating I smelled burning wood, it really is only scorch marks but still frustrating.
It may be a too tight belt...I'll back off the tension and try that. I have put through a piece and stopped it to make sure I had good contact across the entire board. Yes, I have the infeed/outfeed tables and use external supports when something gets longer than four feet or so.

[Neil Brooks]

My OhByTheWay is ... I liked my 16/32 a CHUNK better once I put on an Accura Polypropylene Conveyor belt.

www[dot]accuramachinetools[dot]com

[keith micinski]

THe only time I get scorch marks is if my paper on my drum has gotten loose and overlapped itself. My motor will kick out if I have tried to take to big of a bite but it wont scorch anything. The feed belt slipping and not allowing the piece to move may cause the wood to overheat I guess. If it isnt tension related then the only other thing I could think of is the rubber roller that runs the feed belt has somehow gotten dirty and is slipping.

[Scott Vigder]

I agree....I see the rubber roller rolling along and the belt not moving; that's why I tightened it up even more!

[Carroll Courtney]

Assuming that you have dust collecting which is a must on all drum sanders.Sometime dust will provide a lube inside the conveyor and the feed roller which equals slippage.Just my guess,and if you do solve the problem,please let us know.Good luck---Carroll

[Paul Johnstone]

I agree....I see the rubber roller rolling along and the belt not moving; that's why I tightened it up even more!

Are you talking about the feed belt.. The sandpaper "loop" on the conveyor belt that carries the wood through to the spinning drum? Is that what's slipping? Or are you talking about a different belt?

[Scott Vigder]

The feed belt......

[Jeff Monson]

Scott if the rubber rollers are moving and the feed belt stops, that indicates the feed belt is not tight enough, or you are too aggressive on your cut. If you are burning or scorching wood, that indicates too aggressive of a cut.

I raise my table until it just makes contact with the wood, (should still be able to turn the drum by hand) then 1/8 turn, each pass no more than 1/4 turn. If I stick to these rules, I never burn.

[Larry Edgerton]

Sell it!

That would be my suggestion after owning one. It is a miracle it made it out of my shop without getting smashed to bits. One day some guy stopped in just after it had ruined a stair stringer, and it was out of my life. Sold! I'd rather hand sand than have one of those things ticking me off.

You are absolutely right, no matter what you do to make it right, its going to put divits in your work.

P.S. Don't sell it to a friend........

Larry