Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | Oct 24, 2009 08:13pm | #1

   Jerry, I'm surprised no-one's responded to your query.  Sadly, I don't have a drumsander, but I did a little web surfing and came up with a couple of hints to get you started.

   First of all, there's this Greenville Woodworkers shop manual for the Delta.  I don't know if it's an inhouse manual, or a duplicate of the Delta manual, but there are instructions re: speed in Section 3.

   This page sponsored by Shopsmith explains how speed and pressure interact with each other, and gives speeds for their machine.  Might be helpful to you in getting a general idea about making decisions.

   The quality and type of paper you use may influence the best speed also.

   Good luck, I hope someone else comes along to help out.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   
1. 
   Aftonwood | Oct 24, 2009 10:09pm | #2

   Forestgirl,Thanks so much for the helpful response. I believe I got all of the original documentation with the machine when I purchased it used, but it didn't have the info on speed that was in the Greenville Woodworkers shop manual that you referenced, so that was very helpful. It is not nearly as easy to experiment with the drum speed as it is with the belt speed, which is why I thought I'd try Knots for insight.My limited experience with the drumsander has been great. I got a good price on it through ####Craigslist ad - well under 1/2 the cost of a new one for a sander that was obviously used very little and in great condition. Though it is a bit slower than I expected at stock removal, it excels at leaving a flat surface and -best of all - with my dust collector connected it picks up 99% of the dust.Thanks again for taking the time to go above and beyond in answering my question.
   Jerry

1. 
   forestgirl | Oct 24, 2009 10:29pm | #3

   Glad to help, Jerry, enjoy the sander, it must be a treat to have in the shop. 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 10/24/2009 8:50 pm by forestgirl

2. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Oct 25, 2009 03:07am | #4

   Hi Jerry,

   I have a 16/32 Performax drum sander and I echo your success with it.  True, it isn't a hog interms of material removal but everything comes out deat flat.

   As to speed I have found that faster is generally better, along with light cuts/passes.  I work mostly cherry and I swear it burns just looking at it. 

   Another thing I've found is the width of the material.  The wider (more surface) you are sanding tends to slow down the feed rate ever so slightly with the Performax that it can cause some burning.  I haven't worked much hard maple with it, but have run birch, ash and some oak thru.  Don't work with much softwoods.

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

1. 
   mrbird90 | Oct 25, 2009 06:22am | #5

   Bob, I found that what sand paper you use (brand name) is very important. The sand paper that came with the 16/32Performax was Klingspore and I had all kinds of burning with doing cherry and hard maple. I tried the same grit 120 form Industrial Abrasives and I rarely get any burning. I usually run at 70% or faster speed and this also helps reduce the burning.  I usually only crank the thickness down 1/8 of a turn  per pass with cherry. Sorry to hear about your robbery. Hope you get evey thing back soon.

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Oct 26, 2009 04:03am | #10

   When I got the sander it came with several boxes of varying grit and am still on those, (factory) so will be looking for new fairly soon.  I've heard about better belts so am anxious to try some out.

   Got the tools back and all is almost back to normal, whatever that is.....  Thanks for asking.

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

2. 
   Aftonwood | Oct 25, 2009 06:39am | #6

   Bob,Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. I'll get this thing figured out sooner or later, and with some help from folks like you and Forestgirl it won't be too much later.Jerry

2. 
   bones | Oct 25, 2009 04:53pm | #7

   I've had my 18/36 for several years now. I've only used the one setting and it's handled everything I've put at it and worked well.  I'd not fret and just use it.  

   One thing I will mention though, if the bed ever gets off, good luck getting it back.  Mine's been down since I moved.  The movers must have sat something on it because I noticed it was a bit off and rought going up or down.  I followed the instructions for calibrating those four posts and even spoke with a tech on the phone and still cannot get it fixed. I'm down to now having someone come on site to repair.  Looking  back probably should have gone with performax. 

   I was married by a judge - I should have asked for a jury.
   George Burns

1. 
   Aftonwood | Oct 26, 2009 12:44am | #9

   Bones,I just went through the table alignment procedure and after a little head scratching I found the difficulty to be more physical than anything. By that I mean I spent some time on my back looking up at under the table in order to figure out what was going on, and then I decided to take the motor out in order to get a better view of the four posts and drive belt. That is just ####matter of removing three screws but they aren't real easy to access and the motor is quite heavy considering the awkward position you are in when removing it. If I were doing this again I wouldn't bother to remove the motor but doing so helped me some. As you know, what the table alignment directions do is tell you how to level the right side to the left side but they assume that it is correct from front to back, or at least assume that some slight variation won't matter (which is true I suppose). But mine was way off from front to back (I think the belt had skipped across one of the corner posts while turning the other three. That made the table stiff to raise and lower. Once I took care of the f-to-b problem by taking some measurements on the front and back and getting it pretty close, then I could follow the left to right alignment procedure in the manual and the table now raises and lowers easily.If the explanation doesn't make sense just holler and I will try to give you a more detailed explanation of what I did.Jerry

3. 
   Omah | Oct 25, 2009 09:54pm | #8

   I've had one for a while now and all I can say is start slow and easy and work up from there. Do not try to run without a vaccum attachment. Slower rpms for hard wood. you can get away with a faster rpm with soft wood. In the end its still a cheap tool and a little under powered. But with patience you can get satisfactory results. Its not a substitute for a big comercial DS. But it doesn't cost 10,000.00 either. Omar.