Sorry for the tool gloat - couldn't help myself though......
I bit the bullet and ordered a G0527 a short while ago. It arrived mid-week and is now up and running nicely. I waited and saved for several years for this wide belt sanding machine. I'm very impressed with it so far - the build quality, accuracy, setup, everything, seems to be just spot on!
I know the specs say that it will only sand down to 1/8", but it works just fine way below this limit. The limit switch on mine was set at 0.165". I adjusted it to 0.070" which is about as low as I'll ever want to go on the thing I'm sure. There seems to be no issue with the belt contacting the conveyor belt at this setting - there's a good amount of daylight between the two, and the machine runs perfectly.
I'd read on other forums that people had difficulty getting it off the pallet and handling it in their workshop. It is pretty heavy at 890lbs, but I had no problems handling it all by myself (using a long steel bar as a lever, a 2.5 ton car jack, and several handy pieces of scrap wood). I had some heavy duty Wood River tool casters and decided I was going to put them on BEFORE taking it off the pallet. I found a couple of 22" long pieces of 3.5" x 0.25" steel bar in the shorts bin of a local metalworking company and got them for a few bucks. I mounted the casters on these (four small bolts each), then bolted them to the underside of the G0527 U-channels with 1/2" fixings in the holes that the machine was bolted to the pallet through. The casters worked out perfectly - I can push it around the workshop with relative ease if I want to.
Couple of pictures (click 'em to see the hi-res versions):
As a quick test, I sanded a Lutz spruce top from 0.170" to 0.110" in about 3 minutes - would have taken over a half-hour on my 16-32. I'm keeping the old Performax machine as it will be useful for short stock still.
Cheers,
Dave F.
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