I have a rather new 16 32 Super Max drum sander. I don't use it as often as I thought I would so the installed paper installed at the factory worked until I decided it needed changed. I purchased extras when I brought it at Woodcrafters in Dayton, Ohio. Replacing the paper is a genuine pain. I followed instructions and the tail end of the spiral wrap quickly tore off. I tried again with another piece - same thing. I go on youtube and watched several videos and the procedures they illustrated. I was doing it exactly the same way they did. I tried again - same result. I am frustrated and right now I think I would trade the entire unit for 5 minutes in a phone booth with the engineered who designed it. Does anyone have experience with this? If so - any suggestions?   

Have you called their tech support to see if they can offer any help?

John Moody has one.  Maybe he will chime in.

You need to use the tool. It is not necessary to stretch the paper tight just wrap it evenly on the drum and it will be tight. If you get a loose spot smooth it to one end and take the slack out with the clip.You may get some stretch in the belt from time to time so just repeat the smoothing out to get that out.

 

To me the hardest part is that small clip but once you learn to use the tool it is easy. Key is it does not require muscle.

Another thought... You might be trying to hog it instead of lightly sand it on each pass..I think over the years on all the wood working sites taking to much at each pass is whats causing the sand paper to ripe out or the boards are sticking under the paper and burning black gaps in the wood with the rollers and having lots of lots of bad luck with their machines.....until they learned how to use them..........

  I was the doing the same things with my machines until I realized its the person thats cranking it down too much that is the main culprit....

  I have a 22-44 drum sander and yes it will do the same as your machine until I learned how much to turn the crank for each pass....I also have a Grizzly 16" double drum sander and it started out tearing the  paper off the drums until I learned what I could and could not do.

John, I'm wondering if the problem is the strips you bought; you did say the end tore off. What brand are they?

6 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

John, I'm wondering if the problem is the strips you bought; you did say the end tore off. What brand are they?

Thanks for the input everyone. I will try to address each of your comments in one response. I purchases the SuperMax sanding strips specified for the machine. I am only taking very light passes (maybe .010 to .015 per the digital read out) and I have a soft pine board to use for set up. The instructions say you should "butt" each wrap to the proceeding one but a video on the Supermax site says leave a small gap. Maybe I wrapped it too tight and maybe I should have left the 1/16 or so gap. I am out of sanding strips so I can't try again until they arrive tomorrow. Its a 45 min drive one way to Woodcrafters. I will try again tomorrow.

One suggestion is to never ever run pine thru a thickness sander. It will clog your belts and may even cause burning more easily.

Gerald makes an excellent point, ban any softwood from your DS. It can clog the belts before they break.

I have a SandFlee DS, and they use a narrow strip of what's really "scotch" tape (or packing tape) that wraps around the edge of the paper to keep it down.  Might try that?

 

And fwiw, I sand pine all the time and have not noticed any clog.

Edited November 19, 20205 yr by PeteM

Pete, our pine is lot's dryer than some. Might be the difference. 

Moved this topic from tips to general woodworking main forum.

I'm in Maine . We use a lot of pine . I use my belt cleaner constantly but I'm having trouble with the strips breaking 

It's a brand new Laguna 16-32

Is this an adjustment thing?

Does anyone have a utube of the "tool" used to change the strips ?

Thanks in advance 

Tom

12 hours ago, Tom said:

I'm in Maine . We use a lot of pine . I use my belt cleaner constantly but I'm having trouble with the strips breaking 

It's a brand new Laguna 16-32

Is this an adjustment thing?

Does anyone have a utube of the "tool" used to change the strips ?

Thanks in advance 

Tom

Can't help with the problem Tom as I don't own one. Have you contacted Laguna, Customer Service? Everything I know about them beyond being a great partner here is their CS is typically very responsive and helpful (others statements; I have no personal experience).

 

That aside, sorry for your problem, but great that you found us so welcome to The Patriot Woodworker. A great place to share, learn and help others. Numerous talented individuals on-board with lots of experience. We'd love to have you as a regular here sharing your projects as well as chatting around the old virtual workbench. Hopefully someone will stop by soon with some additional input to your dilemma.