Supermax dual drum sander conveyor tracking

[Phil S]

I have a Supermax 37-2 Dual Drum Sander. I cannot seem to get the conveyor belt to track straight. I adjust the back roller to be exactly parallel to the front roller and the conveyor belt will run straight until I start to sand some wood - I am sanding 2" wide poplar with 120 and 150 and very light take off. After I sand maybe 100 feet of the wood the conveyor belt will have shifted to the right side. I have tried to put more tension on the right and then the left but the belt always climbs to the right. What am I doing wrong. Help please

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

It's interesting that it tracks fine until you start sanding. It makes me wonder if one of the rollers isn't secured and is moving once there is a force applied to it from the wood being sanded.

 

[Phil S]

It's interesting that it tracks fine until you start sanding. It makes me wonder if one of the rollers isn't secured and is moving once there is a force applied to it from the wood being sanded.

The rear roller, the adjustable one, seem to be locked down well enough not to move.

The had a thought that maybe the sanding drums were not exactly parallel to the conveyor. I cut a 40 " piece of poplar in half and ran one half thru on the outboard side and the other thru the inboard side. I then measured the thickness of each - there is less than .001 difference.

 

[chris_goris]

This just started happening with a machine youve been using?

 

[Phil S]

This just started happening with a machine youve been using?

Yes but I put a new conveyor belt on a month ago and I have worked it hard the last few days. Must be the belt. It is an aftermarket belt that I paid about $50 for - guess I should have bought better

 

[chris_goris]

try turning it 180 degrees see if it changes the runoff

 

[Phil S]

try turning it 180 degrees see if it changes the runoff

I will do that, not looking forward to that as it takes about 2 plus hours

 

[Bill Clemmons]

I've had to change the conveyor belt on my 37x2 twice. After each time I adjusted the tracking by following the steps under "Belt Tracking" on pg. 9, Fig. 10. Once I got it adjusted it has never moved on it's own. I've bought conveyor belts from Highland and I believe Klingspor, both were good quality.

Just FYI: I've also bought the 3" abrasive rolls from a company called SuperGrit. Very poor quality. I now buy those exclusively from Klingspor.

 

[wooduser]

Just a thought, since you have used the sander a lot, perhaps the roller itself is now weak and flexing causing the belt to move.

Lecil

 

[mpeele]

I have your sanders little brother (supermax 16-32) and had problems with belt tracking. What cured my problem was making sure top of belt rollers were flush with table. I had to remove belt and use a straight edge to adjust rollers.

Belt also need to be tighter than you think, at least tighter than I thought.

 

[ScottM]

I have a Performax 16-32. I could never get the sandpaper conveyer belt to track correctly. I replaced the sandpaper belt with a rubber belt and it tracks perfectly. Sorry I do not remember where I got it.

 

[Willemjm]

Those belts are normally not glued true, which means measuring the rollers don't help.

With my 16/32 when it was new, I had to continuously tweak the adjustment, until is settled in after a lot of use. Now I never have to adjust.

 

[Phil S]

FIXED - THANKS Willem. I mistake I made was in the tension. I had started with exactly parallel rollers and then alternatively adjusted the right and left sides a quarter turn each until I got adequate drive and then only slightly adjusted to ensure straight tracking with only the conveyor running - but when pressure was added during sanding the belt started moving.
This time I adjusted the tension and paid attention to getting same tension on each side - I lifted each side of the belt off the conveyor and adjusted until equal. I then just for grins measured how parallel the front and back rollers were. The difference was almost 1/4" .238 to be exact. Thanks for all the responses