Feed Belt Tracking on Drum Sander

[BKHam]

i have a performax 16-32 i bought used recently. a real good deal but it needs a little tuning. you can see on the right side of the brand new feed belt, it tracks toward the motor side where it gets bunched and wears out that side.

the provided tracking adjustments don't seem to get the job done. if i get it tight enough to hold the belt snug there isn't enough play to get it to track.

so i thought i would make the troublesome side larger with tape and get it to taper a little.

i kept adding and adding tape. still it walks right up the tape and bunches.

i'm out of ideas. maybe just let it bunch up until finally it stops? not a great solution. anybody run into this?

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

Are you making adjustments to both sides? Loosen the right side and tighten the left side. You should be able to make it want to go to the other side and then find the happy setting where it stays in the middle.

 

[BKHam]

my process is to adjust both sides until the feed belt lays pretty flat. then i'm making adjustments / expanding the motor side while leaving the open side un-adjusted. i have it really tight on the motor side to try and push it back to the middle / keep it in the middle. it just doesn't feel like its got enough room for expansion in order to do that. even if i have the open side totally loose, it walks toward the motor side.

i have taken the entire feed belt assembly off this morning to try and fresh approach and see if i can get at the root cause

 

[Skymaster]

If you have the manual read thru the process, it is tricky. If you have tried all you can CALL Jet they have the most awesome customer service you can ask for, dont do anything further until you call.

 

[Pop Golden]

Several years ago when I did the set-up on my new 16-32 my son used a caliper and adjusted both sides of the belt within a couple of thousands. Haven't touched it again in years.

Pop

 

[Phil S]

Back in my days as an equipment service rep where I serviced high-speed paper transports using wide belts, I learned that flat belts would self-center over crowned rollers - rollers that had a larger diameter in the center. If the equipment service documentation and help do not correct the issue, I would add some tape to the center of the roller

Hope this helps

 

[BKHam]

Back in my days as an equipment service rep where I serviced high-speed paper transports using wide belts, I learned that flat belts would self-center over crowned rollers - rollers that had a larger diameter in the center. If the equipment service documentation and help do not correct the issue, I would add some tape to the center of the roller

Hope this helps

i will try that at my next adjustment. i've got it pretty stable for now. the box housing the electric components for the feed motor has set screws where it attaches to the roller bed. its definitely not an obvious item to tune up but seemed to do the trick. i think it will still walk but i've slowed it down. i'll try centering the tape next time.

 

[CDPeters]

We deal with conveyors of all sorts in my paid job, dealing with side travel is a regular occurrence for us. The very first thing to do is check that the rollers are co-planar horizontally - even a slight twist in the bed will be problematic. If they are not co-planer, you will fight side travel until you're blue in the face with no satisfactory result.