Drum sander feed belt won't track properly

[Jim Eddy]

I've had my old Performax 22-44 drum sander for 20 years (and it was used when I traded for it). I've always been able to find the balance point in tracking the conveyor belt, but no longer. For the past year the belts have tracked to the inside (the closed end with the motors) and there is nothing I can do to make it go the other way. It has ruined 2 belts so far (one from Klingspor Sanding Catalog). I just bought a new belt from Highland Hardware. It too runs to the inside even when I reverse the belt. If the inside is tensioned enough to move the belt, it tracks to that side, whether the outside is tensioned or not. I only tension a belt to the point that it no longer slips on the feed roller.
Many years back I had to replace the bronze bushings for the feed and idler roller after they wore oblong. When I disassembled the machine the bushings have no visible wear.
Jet apparently made ceramic guides for their later models, but they are discontinued and no longer available.
The entire machine is a very simple device, so I can't understand why it's performing as it is. If the axles of the rollers are farther apart on one side than the other the belt should move away from that side. Except that these days it doesn't. I'm stumped. I hope that someone here has some advice on what might be wrong.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Jim Eddy

[jim gossage]

I'm not familiar with your machine but I had pretty much the same problem with my Delta drum sander. With a little help from the crowd I got it working. You might check out my thread: tracking problems on delta drum sander 31-260x

[Mel Fulks]

You don’t mention the “electric eye” . Does it have one? If not is one made for that machine ?

[Jeff Ramsey]

At one point back in 2018 I asked Klingspor about ceramic blocks when one of mine fell off and broke when I was changing the belt. The response I received follows. I pulled all my blocks off and the belt tracks fine, after fiddling with the tracking. You might want to try getting replacement blocks, but I'm not a big fan of them.

Hi Jeff, those ceramic blocks are to assist with conveyor belt tracking. If your belt tracks fine, I would worry about it. If your belt was not tracking properly, it would usually go to one side. If that becomes the case, a single ceramic block on one side would work. We could order a set of blocks for 39.95
Regarding the conveyor belt. Ours is a lot thinner than the belt which came on the machine. It’s thinner, but it tracks well on the smaller machines. If you have any questions or problems, give me a call.
Thanks
Ray
Ray Woods <RWoods@woodworkingshop.com>