Supermax 1632

[Gregor1]

I got a new toy today. A Supermax 1632 drum sander. Seems to be a well built machine, but it's the first time I have ever used one, so what do I know. I do have a question for anyone who has one of these sanders. Is the feed motor suppose to turn off when you turn the sander off? Mine does not. Maybe I am not understanding the manual correctly. It say the plug in for the feed motor is "switched".

Thanks Greg

   

[KC]

I got a new toy today. A Supermax 1632 drum sander. Seems to be a well built machine, but it's the first time I have ever used one, so what do I know. I do have a question for anyone who has one of these sanders. Is the feed motor suppose to turn off when you turn the sander off? Mine does not. Maybe I am not understanding the manual correctly. It say the plug in for the feed motor is "switched".

Thanks Greg

Feed motor is separate from the drum motor on the Performax models.

[BrentDH]

The feed motor and the sanding drum motor are switched independently.  Here is a little tip that I do all the time based on that fact.  I set the height of the drum higher than the workpiece and then turn on the feed motor at a relatively slow speed.  The drum motor is OFF.  I place the workpiece on the feed belt and as the workpiece is travels under the drum I lower the drum and watch the drum/motor interface to see just when the drum starts turning.  At the point where it rotates that means the workpiece is in contact with the drum.  I back it off and lower it even more slowly to make sure I am just "kissing" the surface.  This tells me exactly where to start for my first sanding pass.

[kurt18947]

Brent has a good idea. I have the older version and one of the first lessons I learned is that it is not an abrasive planer, take light passes. I imagine your machine has 'smart sand' or something like it which will slow the feed speed if the motor is too heavily loaded. I don't have that so added an ammeter to monitor motor load and manually vary the depth of cut to keep it at 15 amps or less.

[KC]

I'lll add that the conveyor motor is fairly quiet.  Easy to forget to turn it off if there's other noise going on.  If your belt tracking is wanky (not uncommon) and you leave the motor on overnight, you'll be buying a new belt.  I'd like to say it only took me one time to learn this lesson... but I can't.  

[Terry W]

"Here is a little tip that I do all the time based on that fact.  I set the height of the drum higher than the workpiece and then turn on the feed motor at a relatively slow speed.  The drum motor is OFF.  I place the workpiece on the feed belt and as the workpiece is travels under the drum I lower the drum and watch the drum/motor interface to see just when the drum starts turning.  At the point where it rotates that means the workpiece is in contact with the drum.  I back it off and lower it even more slowly to make sure I am just "kissing" the surface.  This tells me exactly where to start for my first sanding pass."

Thanks. I never thought of doing this but it makes perfect sense. Great tip.

[lincmercguy]

I have the same one and really like it. I agree with the others about the light passes and the drum-off measurement method.

I'd recommend the infeed/outfield tables, they make life easier. Also, those big sandpaper cleaning erasers work really well for this.

[kurt18947]

+1 on the 'eraser', it lengthens sandpaper life. I had one other thought. Don't bother with real fine sandpaper e.g. 220 grit. 120 - 150 grit is as fine as probably makes sense. At least that's my experience.