Delta 18-36 Sander Owners.....A Must Read

[Jim Tabor]

About two weeks ago I posted a thread about the unavailability of replacement plastic table elevation miter gears for the Delta 18-36 series sander. The parts are: PN 406130510007, which mounts on the left front timing gear, and PN 406134060001, Gear shaft assembly, which includes both the plastic miter gear and 3/8” shaft. These parts are used on models 31-250 through 31-260X and according to all Delta parts suppliers that I contacted, they are obsolete and will not be replaced..
With the help of Creeker Jim Falsetti who provided a drawing with dimensions of the gear, I was able to find a gear made by Boston Gear and available from Amazon.com, PN GP1632Y for $13.12 each that can be made to work. This is not an exact replacement for the original gears, however with minor modifications it will work perfectly.
To replacement the gear attached to the timing gear, drill two 13/64” holes for the mounting setscrews. To replace the gear on the elevations shaft, you will need to reduce the bore size with a 3/8”x1/2”x1” bronze bushing that’s available at most hardware stores, and you will need to drill a 1/8” hole to accommodate the roll pin that secures the gear to the shaft.
By placing the sander on a work bench and removing the drum motor, it becomes a fairly simple repair.
First picture:New replacement gear on left, old gear on timing gear in center, and old shaft gear on right.
Second picture: Shaft gear with reducer bushing and roll pin.
Third picture: Completed installation.
These replacement gears saved my sander from the junk pile, hope it will be of help to you. Many thanks to Jim Falsetti for the drawing.

[Andy Pratt]

That's really nice of delta to not offer these as a replacement part. Kudos to you for finding a workable solution and shame on delta for making you go through all that to replace a part that they should stock.

[Chris Padilla]

That is very cool...I knew someone would find a reasonable solution. I do love the sander.

[Jim Neeley]

Jim, it sounds like this alone just justified your Contributor fees here for life.. and kudos to the SawmillCreek community for the help!! Good people, working together, with a common love..

[Dave Aronson]

Thanks, I have a Delta sander and hope that I don't have this go bad but now I know what to do if it does.

[Ryan Baker]

Jim,

Thanks for posting this. My sander doesn't need this yet, but if the time comes I will now have a solution.

Ryan

[Jim Falsetti]

Jim, thanks for the pictures. I would add a note of caution to everyone - in the shaft for the gear, the hole may not be centered (the shaft I have is not). So we had to drill the roller bearing hole in the plastic gear off-center to match the shaft. Regards, Jim

[John Terdik]

A few months ago I was given a Delta Drum Sander 31-255X that was not working and had several parts missing. I've gone through hell getting all the necessary parts. Just today I received what I though would be the last part only to discover that one of the gears (PN 406130510007) in my unit was defective. It failed because one of the two screws that hold it in place was missing. I can only assume that it fail out allowing the gear to shift and because it was out of position the other gear wore off some of the teeth. I inspected both gears and only the one gear is damaged. Amazon still offers the GP1632Y part but now it is almost $20 however this should work.

[Gene Takae]

I don't own this sander but just wanted to give you thumbs up for your hard work and diligence in solving this problem and for sharing the info.

[michael sheridan]

thank you ,thank you . saved my machine and my sanity. also one of screws that connect lift table came lose so be sure to check all connections.

[Bruce Page]

I bought one of the Delta 18-36 sanders when they were first put on sale ~2001. Back then they came with metal gears. It's a shame that the bean counters got to take over the design and ruin a perfectly good machine.

[Chris Padilla]

If you rotate these gears SLOWLY, they do okay. You just have to baby them...crank 1/2 turn...pause...crank 1/2 turn...pause....

[Charles Lent]

You should be able to buy direct from Boston Gear and they quite likely have the same gear in aluminum or brass.

Charley

[Gene Takae]

I own a Performax 16/32 but just wanted to applaud you for your efforts and for sharing the info with other owners.

[Matt Roylance]

Thanks for this post. I recently bought a Delta 18-36 off of our local classfieds list without doing my homework first. The lift mechanism elevation gear had about 4 teeth left on it, so in theory the table could go up and down, but it took a lot of cranking. I stupidly thought - no big deal, I'll order the replacement part. Ya -big mistake. So, thank you again for this post. You can still order the gears on Amazon, but they are $25 now (ouch). I ordered two, but the one attached to my timing gear was still good, so I just replaced the elevation handle one. A couple of notes. I bought a nylon bushing to make up the difference between the rod and the ID of the gear. Also, dropping the motor greatly helps this whole process (however, that sucker is heavy).