Drum sanders, Jet, performax et al....

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
How many out there have the open style drum sanders? How much paper do you go through?. I have a Jet 22-44 and I had to rewind it 3 times today.... thats ALOT of paper! First of all, how often do you get pitch and gum buildup causing burning?. This is extremely annoying when working with Maple and cherry. It builds up so fast, and there is nothing you can do about it. Unroll the paper and try to remove it, but it never lasts. Anyone have any answers for this problem?
 

Phil S

Phil Soper
Staff member
Corporate Member
I have a Supermax 37" dual drum. I run 100 and 150 and rarely change the paper - my guess is every 10 to 20 hours of run time. I take VERY little off on each pass and adjust the conveyor speed to about 75% full (fairly fast) and have strong dust collection. I have no experience with an open style drum sander
 

redknife

Chris
Corporate Member
Chris, are you using something like this? (Rubber sander cleaner)
i have an open end Supermax and use the cleaner after each day’s use. It refreshes the sandpaper. If you are already doing that, I have nothing to add past what Phil said.
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Chris, are you using something like this? (Rubber sander cleaner)
i have an open end Supermax and use the cleaner after each day’s use. It refreshes the sandpaper. If you are already doing that, I have nothing to add past what Phil said.
Yea, Ive got one of those...
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Phil, I think you answered my question. I think my paper is too fine, its loading up , even with very good vacuum. I think for a single drum you need coarser paper. yours is removing material with the 100, large particles, easily vacuumed off and then a finish pass with 150 behind it removing almost nothing.
 

frankc4113

Frank C
Corporate Member
As Phil says, take extremely light passes. The drum develops a lot of heat as it is. However, the more you try to remove, the more heat build up and burning of the paper and wood. The trick of the whole thing is very light passes and I think I would only go down to 150 on the drum sander and the rest finished with ROS and hand.
 

Phil S

Phil Soper
Staff member
Corporate Member
Some points to ponder
If sanding a glue-up, run it through skewed so the glue line is not parallel to the conveyor
If I am sanding a glue-up panel that has finger detectable difference in plane, I would need to run it about 6 to 8 times. I move the depth adjust wheel maybe 20-30 degrees max - I suspect just a few thousands in depth of cut
Crank up the speed if possible
Hope this helps
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
As Phil says, take extremely light passes. The drum develops a lot of heat as it is. However, the more you try to remove, the more heat build up and burning of the paper and wood. The trick of the whole thing is very light passes and I think I would only go down to 150 on the drum sander and the rest finished with ROS and hand.
yes, thats all I use it for, easily removing planer marks etc. Extremely light passes, But, like I mentioned I will suddenly get typically a narrow area , many times no more than 1/4 " wide burned section and that builds fast. I only use prime, kiln dried lumber, so its not a moisture content issue either. I honestly think its the grit/material combination (maple and cherry) woods that tend to burn easily. Ive not experienced this with other woods.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
I use the Big eraser (cleaning stick) it works well, Keeps the paper lasting and the eraser is nothing more than a rubber art pencil eraser Supersize
 

cyclopentadiene

Update your profile with your name
User
I have a 22/44 as well. It sounds like you are taking heavy passes. I typically only do a 1/8 turn of the crank with each pass. It tales a lot of passes but rarely have a burn. Cherry is tricky and does require finesse to reduce burn as it burns easier than other woods. I usually take even lighter passes. I do run the speed of the feed belt relatively fast
 

sawman101

Bruce Swanson
Corporate Member
Light passes all the time should be your rule. It's the grit that cuts and removes the wood, but using heavy passes with any type of sanding papers means you are trying to sand with the substrate on the sandpaper, which will cause excess heat and burning to the wood, and damage to the sanding paper's substrate, which does not help to remove material from the work piece. I only have a surfacing 24" drum sander; I adjust the drum so just the grit comes into contact with the workpiece. When the drum is spinning, the paper and grit rise slightly from the drum.
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Im thinking you guys arent listening to what Ive said previously.... its not the entire width thats burning. And Im taking extremely light passes, This isnt my first rodeo.
 

Chris C

Chris
Senior User
I'm listening... and reading. I'm sure others are also.

I use 150 for smoothing guitar sides, backs and soundboards. I've run mahogany, oak, ash, maple, spanish cedar, spruce, bubinga, bloodwood, zebrawood, walnut, pine, sweet gum, and others through mine with no issues. Not sure what your issue is.

Maybe the grip nut is loose...
 

dancam

Dan
Corporate Member
It’s possible that the sanding drum may be out of parallel across the length of the table.
 

JohnW

New User
John
Several folks have already mentioned this but I'll highlight it because I've had similar results as you and this really helped. Speed up the feed rate. This advice seemed counterintuitive to me at first but on high sugar content woods like maple and cherry, it helped reduce burning and gum buildup.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
I don’t have issue with mine, 16/32 Jet.

It has it’s advantages with some applications and disadvantages with others.

I generally stick with 80 grit but would occasionally go up to 220, the latter taking very slight cuts. 80 grit lasts a few months, 220 not long.

In most general applications my planer and jointer does a better job and conventional blades seem to last forever. I can also clean up faster with a RO, as the drum sander leaves sanding marks which are difficult to get out. Drum sanders are very unproductive, they are slow and need multiple passes, not the kind of tool for a production shop.

This is where they come in handy though:

Dimensioning lumber if the objective is removing a very small cut to a final dimension. For example if one wishes to remove 1/32” or less.

Dimensioning veneer, using a sled.

Dimensioning glued up segmented rings.

Smoothing lumber which has extreme figure with alternating grain directions.
 

Mrfixit71

Board of Directors, Treasurer
Rich
Staff member
Corporate Member
I run 120 grit most of the time on mine. I have also experienced what you describe. Like the others have mentioned, I run it fast with light passes, and clean it often. Don't have the problem now.
 

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