"tor" wrote in message
oups.com...
Bob,

Thanks for the time. You are painting a good picture of what I can
expect. A shop here in town sells the performax 16 and it's got a few
rebates going on right now. I like it the most, I just don't want to
kill it. I appreciate the description of how you sand. That clarity was
what I was needing.

I am still very open to anyone with experience with the woodtek 13 wide
belt sander. In particular, how well it handles that sensitive place
where one uses finer grit papers.

thanks again Bob,

tor

One thing I may not have made clear. You want to feed the stock at the
fastest rate (10fpm) on the Performax to minimize the potential for burning.
To give you an idea of how light you'll be adjusting the height of the
drum - with both motors off, place the stock under the drum and lower the
drum while spinning it by hand. Lower it until it will not spin by hand and
stop. Now back off (raise the drum) until you can again spin the drum - it
will be rubbing on the stocking. Remove the stock, now start both motors,
feed the stock in at a slight angle and let it go thru. Without making any
adjustments, flip the stock and put it thru.

Now take a pencil and draw a couple of lines (one on each side of stock) and
feed it thru again - both sides. If you adjusted the drum properly (light
touch) you should still be able to see the pencil line on about 90% of the
stock. Since you haven't tweaked the settings yet or know the secret
handshake for minimizing snipe (yes - snipe does happen on a drum sander).
Keep in mind that the drum and paper will warm up with use. You may have to
tighten the roll after a bit of use. So be aware that as the paper and roll
warm up, any resins in the stock will cause instant loading up of the paper
and a long burn streak/s will occur on the stock followed by a loud "Ah
Sheeeeeeeeet.....!". Can't overemphasis it enough - light passes, 1/8th
turn max on drum height adjuster or pay the piper. You will anyway......;-)

When you get your Performax, come on back and ask how it's to be setup.
There's a couple of minor tweaks and a very small modification you can make
to the head adjustment which makes life a bit easier. If you get the
WoodTek, hopefully somebody here can offer some advice but at the moment, no
one is jumping in and saying anything about a Woodtek - have you noticed?

Unless you have some reviews or others saying it's a good machine I wouldn't
let a 3hp chiwanese motor be the decision maker. Get your hands on one or
at least make an agreement with the store you deal with about returning it
if you don't like it (and watch the restocking fee's).

Bob S.