I recently purchased a Delta 31-250 drum sander off CL and I have 100 grit paper installed right now. I was sending cherry flat panel doors thru yesterday and I get burning from some of the pitch pockets in the stiles. I am sure the sandpaper is the delta paper and was probably purchased at the same time the original owner bought the sander.
I have the drum at the slower speed setting and I tweaked the feed rates around some and I am still picking up the pitch and getting burns. I was wondering if any of you had the sander and knew where to get better paper for it. I see paper for it on Amazon but I obviously don't want to buy low quality paper. I am in a semi-production shop of my own and I want to spend my time doing more productive things other than cleaning pitch off of the drum.

RP wrote:
I recently purchased a Delta 31-250 drum sander off CL and I
have 100 grit paper installed right now. I was sending cherry flat
panel doors thru yesterday and I get burning from some of the pitch
pockets in the stiles. I am sure the sandpaper is the delta paper and
was probably purchased at the same time the original owner bought the
sander.
I have the drum at the slower speed setting and I tweaked the
feed rates around some and I am still picking up the pitch and
getting burns. I was wondering if any of you had the sander and knew
where to get better paper for it. I see paper for it on Amazon but I
obviously don't want to buy low quality paper. I am in a
semi-production shop of my own and I want to spend my time doing more
productive things other than cleaning pitch off of the drum.

You can get abrasives at any place that sells rolls. I get them from
Econ-Abrasives
https://www.econabrasives.com/products.php?cat=79

Buying in bulk means that you have to cut your own strips; no big deal, lay
out a length, put an old strip on it and snip, snip, snip. BTW, you want
cloth rolls, not paper.

Pitchy wood is a bitch to sand but I've never had a problem with any
hardwood, just soft. If you are getting burns it means stuff is getting too
hot so speed up the feed rate. The other potential cause - the more likely
one - is that you are trying to remove to much material at a time.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Maybe just ready for a change? Check it out...
http://www.floridaloghouse.net

On 11/2/2012 6:54 AM, RP wrote:
I recently purchased a Delta 31-250 drum sander off CL and I have 100 grit paper installed right now. I was sending cherry flat panel doors thru yesterday and I get burning from some of the pitch pockets in the stiles. I am sure the sandpaper is the delta paper and was probably purchased at the same time the original owner bought the sander.
I have the drum at the slower speed setting and I tweaked the feed rates around some and I am still picking up the pitch and getting burns. I was wondering if any of you had the sander and knew where to get better paper for it. I see paper for it on Amazon but I obviously don't want to buy low quality paper. I am in a semi-production shop of my own and I want to spend my time doing more productive things other than cleaning pitch off of the drum.




I do not have that sander but do have a Performax drum sander. It is
more technique than anything. One would think that there would not be
much of a learning curve with a drum sander but there is.

First off, take very lite passes, second of all take very lite passes,
you know the third and forth...

Basically if the wood gets hot it will burn and create hot spots on the
paper. This shows up on the paper as those dark shiny spots that are
very hard to remove. Once those are on the paper they will continue to
make burn streaks on the wood. Some times you can remove the paper and
remove that residue most the time it is best to replace the paper.

The paper must be in pristine and clean in condition.

Do not sand in the same spot on the paper every pass so that the paper
can cool down.

Except on the last pass run the work diagonally through the sander.
This helps also to prevent over heating the paper. About 15~30 degrees.

On 11/2/2012 7:47 AM, dadiOH wrote:
RP wrote:
I recently purchased a Delta 31-250 drum sander off CL and I
have 100 grit paper installed right now. I was sending cherry flat
panel doors thru yesterday and I get burning from some of the pitch
pockets in the stiles. I am sure the sandpaper is the delta paper and
was probably purchased at the same time the original owner bought the
sander.
I have the drum at the slower speed setting and I tweaked the
feed rates around some and I am still picking up the pitch and
getting burns. I was wondering if any of you had the sander and knew
where to get better paper for it. I see paper for it on Amazon but I
obviously don't want to buy low quality paper. I am in a
semi-production shop of my own and I want to spend my time doing more
productive things other than cleaning pitch off of the drum.

You can get abrasives at any place that sells rolls. I get them from
Econ-Abrasives
https://www.econabrasives.com/products.php?cat=79

Buying in bulk means that you have to cut your own strips; no big deal, lay
out a length, put an old strip on it and snip, snip, snip. BTW, you want
cloth rolls, not paper.

Pitchy wood is a bitch to sand but I've never had a problem with any
hardwood, just soft. If you are getting burns it means stuff is getting too
hot so speed up the feed rate. The other potential cause - the more likely
one - is that you are trying to remove to much material at a time.




OBTY I buy from Econ and cut my own paper to length.

https://www.econabrasives.com/products.php?id=162&size=

Except on the last pass run the work diagonally through the sander.

This helps also to prevent over heating the paper. About 15~30 degrees.

Thanks Leon for the very good tips. I think my mistake was sending the same sized door widths thru at all the same time, then the next size thru all the same time,etc. I'm sure I heated up the paper now as well as brought out the pitch. This is my first semi-production run and it appears that I need to stagger door sizes as I feed them thru.
I did some research before firing this sander up and just brushed them off on the first pass, then on the subsequent passes, I only cranked the table up 1/6 th of a turn. A full turn is a 1/16". I'll bet I only took off ..015 all told on 3 passes.
Thanks for the link on the sandpaper for the unit. I ordered 50 yards for less than $50 delivered. That beats the pants off pre-cut paper from Amazon and I can't be sure of the quality of the paper. The stuff I ordered is "X" weight and I'm willing to bet it will hold up for production runs.
I am about to start a large kitchen job of 40 small kitchens for a housing project and I don't want to sand my freakin' arm off. I already have some carpal tunnel issues as well as lots of pain in my elbow from overuse. I've worked with my hands my whole life.

RP

On 11/4/2012 9:32 AM, RP wrote:




Except on the last pass run the work diagonally through the sander.

This helps also to prevent over heating the paper. About 15~30 degrees.

Thanks Leon for the very good tips. I think my mistake was sending the same sized door widths thru at all the same time, then the next size thru all the same time,etc. I'm sure I heated up the paper now as well as brought out the pitch. This is my first semi-production run and it appears that I need to stagger door sizes as I feed them thru.
I did some research before firing this sander up and just brushed them off on the first pass, then on the subsequent passes, I only cranked the table up 1/6 th of a turn. A full turn is a 1/16". I'll bet I only took off .015 all told on 3 passes.
Thanks for the link on the sandpaper for the unit. I ordered 50 yards for less than $50 delivered. That beats the pants off pre-cut paper from Amazon and I can't be sure of the quality of the paper. The stuff I ordered is "X" weight and I'm willing to bet it will hold up for production runs.
I am about to start a large kitchen job of 40 small kitchens for a housing project and I don't want to sand my freakin' arm off. I already have some carpal tunnel issues as well as lots of pain in my elbow from overuse. I've worked with my hands my whole life.

RP




The thing to remember is to take lite passes. ;~) I generally will run
work through with only the conveyer and the sander turned off to
determine the proper starting height, "just" touching is what I am
shooting for. This tends to be slower but the first pass can easily be
too deep and that begins the problems. Turning the adjustment 1/6
sounds about right, IIRC I turn my adjustment about that much too.

The paper I referred to holds up well but will still get hot spots so
continue to be careful. With the Performax the paper length is pretty
critical to be long enough to fit under the start and end clamps. Too
long presents it problems too. I first used a factory cut piece of
paper as a guide. I clamped the end it to the end of the new paper and
stretched it out full length to determine correct length and cutting
angles for the ends. I used a "fine" Sharpie to mark the paper. That
is the relatively dull tip Sharpie basically.

I cut with a cheap pair of aviation snips.

Test fit before cutting additional pieces until you get the hang of it.

Also, those 1.5" square by 12" long rubber sand paper cleaners work well
for cleaning the paper however not worth a damn against hot spots. What
ever you do you want to avoid sanding too deep and getting those hot spots.

Good luck! The job can tedious and time consuming but you get great
results with exorcised patients.

Good luck! The job can tedious and time consuming but you get great

results with exorcised patients.


Nice! Thanks again for the experienced tips.

RP wrote:
Except on the last pass run the work diagonally through the sander.

This helps also to prevent over heating the paper. About 15~30
degrees.

Thanks Leon for the very good tips. I think my mistake was
sending the same sized door widths thru at all the same time, then
the next size thru all the same time,etc. I'm sure I heated up the
paper now as well as brought out the pitch. This is my first
semi-production run and it appears that I need to stagger door sizes
as I feed them thru.
I did some research before firing this sander up and just
brushed them off on the first pass, then on the subsequent passes, I
only cranked the table up 1/6 th of a turn. A full turn is a 1/16".

What grit abrasive?

I mostly use 40, 80 and 120. The 40 is for surfacing rough stock, I
generally take off 1/2 turn at a pass. With 80 and 120 I normally take off
1/3 turn, sometimes 1/4. I have finer grits but almost never use them.

How much you can take off at a time depends on the wood hardness, width
too. Ditto speed. I rarely use 100% speed, more like 70%; for something
10" or wider I am often down to 40-50%.

As Leon said, light passes work best. Be aware that it will take 3-4 passes
to totally remove the amount you have changed your setting. I don't much
bother with that until my final passes; I then run the wood multiple times -
both sides - at the same setting.

FWIW, I always sand stuff from the drum sander with a 1/2 sheet sander
starting with whatever grit I had on the drum as it will leave striations.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Maybe just ready for a change? Check it out...
http://www.floridaloghouse.net

On Sun, 4 Nov 2012 13:54:10 -0700, dadiOH wrote
(in article ):

RP wrote:
Except on the last pass run the work diagonally through the sander.

This helps also to prevent over heating the paper. About 15~30
degrees.

Thanks Leon for the very good tips. I think my mistake was
sending the same sized door widths thru at all the same time, then
the next size thru all the same time,etc. I'm sure I heated up the
paper now as well as brought out the pitch. This is my first
semi-production run and it appears that I need to stagger door sizes
as I feed them thru.
I did some research before firing this sander up and just
brushed them off on the first pass, then on the subsequent passes, I
only cranked the table up 1/6 th of a turn. A full turn is a 1/16".

I have a Performax 16/32.
With 120 grit or less I usually crank down about 1/3 - 1/2 turn. This is with
Oak. Feed speed is set depending on board width, but I usually set to '30' on
the feed dial which is about 1-2 inches per second.

120 grit gets 1/4 - 1/8 turns and a slightly slower feed.

-BR



What grit abrasive?

I mostly use 40, 80 and 120. The 40 is for surfacing rough stock, I
generally take off 1/2 turn at a pass. With 80 and 120 I normally take off
1/3 turn, sometimes 1/4. I have finer grits but almost never use them.

How much you can take off at a time depends on the wood hardness, width
too. Ditto speed. I rarely use 100% speed, more like 70%; for something
10" or wider I am often down to 40-50%.

As Leon said, light passes work best. Be aware that it will take 3-4 passes
to totally remove the amount you have changed your setting. I don't much
bother with that until my final passes; I then run the wood multiple times -
both sides - at the same setting.

FWIW, I always sand stuff from the drum sander with a 1/2 sheet sander
starting with whatever grit I had on the drum as it will leave striations.