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This unit gets the job done with precision and speed. Although I don't use this machine as frequently as some of my other tools -- when you need to sneak up on final dimensions,edge sand hardwood doors, drawer fronts of faceframes this machine is great to have around.
The hardest thing to get use to is the belts movement as I am so use to non moving belt sanders. Took about 4 hours to set it up on the base and learn the book and then it was off to make money. This is one smooth working critter. The spindle sander in three sizes that can be easily replaced on the end and which I did not know it came with, is a really cool extra. All in all, a great machine. Especially since we were thinking of getting one.
I really like it. sleeves get wasted due to the high speed and non-oscillating. A little set-up time and your done. I am a custom cabinet maker. As far as setting up for acurate indexing.
I have used this machine for about two years now. haveing used other edge sanders (Oliver) I found the oscillating belt awesome. My main use is face frames, drawer fronts, clean up of parts, etc. drum sander is pretty useless for someone to use as a dedicated sander.
The tracking - oscillating mechanism works good, but is dissapointing in that the drum sanding attachment does not oscillate. This statement alone was the biggest factor that swayed me into purchasing this machine. I can not tell when the head is in these positions, so I have to use a square for an accurate setting. This is a large heavy duty machine that basically works well. The 3 h.p. The cast iron tables are nicely ground and very flat.
The steel is fairly thick, approximately 1/8". Time will tell if this will hold up to long sessions of sanding or not. motor over the 1 1/2 h.p. motor of the Powermatic then maybe the additional cost of $900.00 would be justified. motor is quite powerful and allows agressive sanding pressure to be applied without bogging.If you need the longer sanding length a 108" belt gives over an 80" belt sander and feel that you will need a 3 h.p. I recently purchased this machine and I am quite happy with the sanders performance so far.There are some things that I would like to make any prospective purchasers aware of. Also the sanding head angle scale is difficult to read since the motor hangs where you need to place your head to get a straight on look at the scale.The two biggest disapointments are that the sanding platen is not constructed of cast iron but is fabricated of sheet steel and covered with a graphite sheet.
The thing that I found to be the biggest disapointment though was that the sander is made in Taiwan. I think that Delta needs to address the sanding head detents. The base that supports the whole machine is robust and gives the sander a stable feel to it. At 90, 45 and 180 degree's they would be nice to have, but have a very ambigious feel to them. The catalog that I found this machine in "Tool Crib" clearly and in color states "Prodly made in the USA". But for me I could have done other things with the money. If I would have known this I would have saved $900.00 and purchased the Powermatic, Taiwan made sander for $899.00.The sander does have some good to excellent features.
Even then, It is impossible to view the scale head on as the motor lies directly in your line of sight. This keeps the tip of the spring from jamming in the pin's raceway. Under belt tension, the table is off by a few degrees. I opted to keep the one I had because because the tables and fences were ground flat and true and "initial" alignment (see comments further on)was very good. My dealer also assures me that as long as they are in business, I will never have to worry about the warranty expiring.I was initially impressed with the way things line up.
If I didn't have the Grizzly oscillating spindle sander and if the Powermatic had a longer belt and allowed you to latch back its guards, I'd have bought the Powermatic. A remedy is to take two small thin right angle metal brackets and loosly wedge them in place between the table and the belt as you move the table forward. It would have been very easy for Delta to do this or for them to have used a prism mounted in a similar way.This machine deliveres excellent results when sanding straight edges and that is what it is all about. There is no oscillating action with these drums.
I should have looked it over more carefully. I walked the belt through several rotations by hand to check tracking. When I turned the sander on it quiclky destroyed the belt. As long as the belt is not under tension, the auxilliary table is 90 degrees to the idler drum even when raised all the way up to the auxilliary sanding drums. First of all, when you release the table locks to slide it in and out to the sanding belt, it is possible to push to table out of alignment. Visual inspection showed the the three bolts I had found at the bottom of the crate were missing from the underside of the sander where they mount the idler drum to the machine. This would not be a problem for normal edge sanding operations but would pose a hassle when using the miter guage.
I had to cut a few inches off two of the adjusting bars to compensate for the width of the sander.Assembly was easy and so was belt adjustment. There were also several bolts and even a piece of bearing race found at the bottom of the shipping crate. It was worth the effort as it now quickly comes into square.You can forget about trying to view the indexing scale with the supplied pointer. It took some carefuI adjustment to get to detent mechanism to deliver a repeatable 90 degrees. There is no provision to compensate for this.
My local dealer immediately offered to repair or replace the sander with a new one. The outer cover to the grarbox was also dented. For my pointer to be anywhere near where it is supposed to be it has to go all the way back against the indexing pin mechanism. Then set your table locks and you have repeatable accuracy. He assured me that the bearing race and a couple of other metal scraps are not from my sander. Once installed and readjusted with a new belt installed, the tracking worked perfectly. There is a certain economy to using the belt as opposed to an expensive sanding sleeve. I'm going to epoxy a small mirror to a block of wood with a triangular cross section then epoxy that to the motor mounting plate.
I used a Jet adjustable base rated for 1200 pounds. This was easy to remedy with a screwdriver. I like the way the drum covers latch back out of the way so you can sand boards longer than the table. Don't forget to slide the metal brackets out befor turning on the sander.The other problem comes with the built in detent locking mechanism for 0, 45, and 90 degrees. Dissassembly revealed a burr on the end of the pin itself which prevented it from smoothly disengaging.
I unscrewed the retaining cap on the pin mechanism and rotated the spring so that a flat edge now rested against the pin. I'm glad I rotated the motor by hand before plugging it in. All seemed OK. I've revised this review as of 1/8/04My sander arrived with the motor fan cover pushed in and rubbing against the fan.
My dealer sent out his service technician with the replacement parts and a new belt. Why would I not want to start out on the Grizzly. That will allow me to view the scale head on even though I'm viewing it at right angles from the front of the sander. It also revealed that the tip of the spring which thrusts the pin forward was lying in the cutaway wherein the pin retracts.
The quailty and consistancy of the grind and polish was excellent.This is a big and bulky machine and it takes four people to lift it onto its mobile base. I'll have to rough sand curved surfaces on this machine and do the final sanding on my Grizzly oscillating drum sander. The auxiliary sanding table which is made from heavy formed steel is at a true 90 degrees to the main table.The only other alignment problems that I see come from two areas. All oscillation is done with the sanding belt only.
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