I have been trying to get a Delta 31-255x 18x36 drum sander working again. It is a machine at our community college where I volunteer. One of the students destroyed the nylon gears which I removed and replaced in about 3 hours with a set from boston gear. The modifications of those gears included a sleeve bearing to reduce for one of the gears and drilling some holes. All straight forward. The gears perform fine under no load. However with the belt installed, tensioned and the table leveled with blocks of wood as per the manual and several calls to a Delta Tech and having been through the leveling table shaking flange freeing prices numerous times the table will not raise and lower without binding. The table is flat, not bent . I checked that. The front right elevation screw either separates from its hex screw or if it doesn't the gears eventually bind. The rear left washers under the flange nut are not as free as the other two as well. It seems like there are so many variables that can be out of adjustment that going to some staring point is in order. Does anyone know more than what is published in the manual about how to get the table to raise and lower without the gears binding? I got it to crank all the way up level and then the gears would bind if i tried to lower it. To do that I had to reset the outboard front elevation screw about 3 times. But it went all the way up.
Any help appreciated. I Have invested many many hours in this repair to no avail.