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The other problem for me is that the finer grits tend to burn the wood and seem to get worn too quickly. This is a nice sander for the home workshop but if you are into more serious sanding you might want something more powerful. I find that I have to make many small incremental passes to get the job done even with coarse sand paper. Maybe it is operator error. The hardness of the wood does play a role.
I had the same problem that an earlier reviewer had with the pressure rollers exerting too much pressure. I took some plastic tubing that just fits over the bolt and has a wall about 1/16" thick, slid some 1/2" long pieces over the bolts, and held them in place with nuts. I also get about 0.004" of snipe and have not been able to fix this. I have had this unit for over a year now and have been fairly pleased. This causes the bars to move down less and therefore exert less pressure.
It went together well and does a good job of sanding pieces flat. There is a fix for this. Both roller bars are connected to the sides of the machine by a pair of brackets that pivot. The downward travel of the bars is limited by a bolt that the brackets rest against.
Two days later I assembled the sander only to find that the whole drum casing was actually warped. They had just closed when I called. I have tinkered with it in hopes it would stop the Snipe but to no avail. Will try tomorrow. Busy Bee was very good about exchanging the drum assembly as it was perfectly clear the unit was defective. This causes more work sanding out the Snipe marks as well as some burn lines at the outer side because the panel is 23" wide.I called Black & Deckers Head Office in the USA and was told to contact their service dept. No problem. Also the tension in the bars is too high when trying to start a piece of wood.
I expected better from Delta. I had to dismantle the unit carry it upstairs and into my car. I purchased the Delta 31-360-X Drum Sander on July 27, 2009. I then assembled the new unit and found it needed a few adjustments. Then came time to test the unit.First piece was 6" wide, 24" long and 1" thick.
This machine could really use both an in-feed table and an out-feed table. in Mississauga. It was not parallel to the in-feeder. It came out with SNIPE at both ends. Unhappy customer.
I tried some finished panels I am using on a job and they also have Snipe at both ends.
Fit and finish is very good. I use these machines for several applications, but mostly for precise sanding of musical instrument parts.I bought the Delta because it has a moveable cast iron table, which I thought would be much more precise than the Performance and Jet mcahines. When feeding stock into the sander, it is very difficult to get it started through the infeed pressure bar, which is too tight and is not adjustable. This happens even when removing five or six thousandths of an inch from narrow material.
Wider stock is obviously worse. The sander came with an accessory inflatable drum sander attachment, which I installed and imediately removed because its rotation didn't even resemble concentricity with the shaft that drives it. I have experienced stalling when removing fifteen thousandths of an inch from oak, maple, etc 8 inches wide. I have owned an earlier version of this machine for six years and have also had several years experience with the Performax 16/32 and the Jet 22/44 drum sanders. The machine is well built. The precision is there, but that's where it ends. Changing sanding strips is difficult to say the least, given the inaccesability of the spring loaded clips that hold them to the drum.
My experience has shown me that I should not have underestimated the durability, strength and precision of the Jet/Performance machines and that I made a mistake when bought the Delta.I would'nt buy the Delta machine again, at any price. I also bought it because of its 18 inch capacity. When the stock comes up against the outfeed pressure bar it stops, causing the drum to dig into the stock, ruining glue surfaces or worse, destroying expensive instrument parts at critical thicknesses, unless you physically keep feed pressure on the stock to prevent it. The motor stalls under loads when it clearly should not.
The height of the drum w.r.t the floor is fixed and there are no external infeed and outfeed supports. I have several complaints. There is also a tendency to snipe at the beginning and end of a workpiece. I have used both 100 and 220 grit paper and noticed significant tendency to burn when using the finer paper. This is a fine example of a low cost tool that produces professional results even for the novice user. I recently used the sander to finish a 120" x 26" x 1.5" maple table top. The mobile base recommended by Delta does not fit, it is too large. This required infeed and outfeed support that had to be adjusted after each pass through the sander.
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