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I bought a like-new Jet 10-20 Plus drum sander last night off Craigslist, with about 20 spare sanding strips for $300. I said to the seller, "It looks new." He replied, "Oh, no. I used it. See, it has some sawdust on it."

OK. End of gloat. Any tips for a 10-20 newbie? I expect I'll be using it mostly on Lutz, EIR, mahogany and koa sets. Hesh, you have one, IIRC.

Thanks,

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat,
I bought a 10-20 a few months ago... it works well, but was (and still is) a bit quirky about set-up. It's been hard to keep it exactly flat (or slightly ramped toward the outer edge). But overall, it works fine!

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

Pat, keep an eye on the belt. Keeping it tracking straight is a bit of a challenge. Set it up so that you can sand wider than belt pieces. This requires that the outer edge of the sanding drum be set parallel to the belt. Even thought the instructions tell you to measure the distance from the roller to the belt at the outer and inner edges - its misleading. On mine, it appears that the outer end of the drum is higher off the belt than the inner end, but it still sands evenly. Maybe others have a different experience. Rotate the drum by hand and vacuum out the sawdust frequently, oh and inside the upper housing. This sander seems to take more TLC and fiddling than the more industrial strength ones. Have fun.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Pat,

I also have a 10-20 that I got new a number of months back. I have not had any tracking problems at all. However, I found it finicky to set-up initially. Once I set it up, it seems to working fine - I havnt had to play around with the setup at all. I agree about rotating the drum to get the dust out.

Have fun!

Glenn

Congrats Pat and that is an excellent price.

Last night I got out some lessor quality tops and checked out my machine since it had not been on since my move. It turns out that there is a .002 variance from the inside of the drum to the open side of the drum. This is what my machine measured before the move too and certainly acceptable here at Flushtone.

These are excellent machines and mine has performed flawlessly for the 3-4 years that I have had it. Belt tracking is more an annoying thing than it is a problem. The belt always wants to go to the right stops no matter how much tweaking I have done. In the end I decided live and let live so my belt lives on the right side of the conveyor.

Interestingly the slight ridge that these open ended, double pass machines sometimes leave when sanding things wider than the 10" drum went away. Yep, when no belt is directly under the end of the drum the ridge goes away. And that my friend is a welcome thing too.

Some other things that hopefully will help you. I use 120 for softwoods and 80 for hard woods. Performax belts are excellent but cheaper alternatives are available - I just have not gotten around to trying any other papers. You can clean these belts too with oven cleaner and someone else had an even better idea but I am forgetting what the solvent suggestion was.

Only turn the crank 1/8th of a turn at once and on my machine that is about .005 - .008 of material removal. When you get close to your desired thickness run the material through without turning the crank. The first couple of subsequent passes without adjusting the machine will take an additional .002+ off leaving the crank as is.

For better dust collection use some masking tape on all of the cracks and spaces on the hood specifically the back of the hood.

The drum does get filled up with dust so I vacuum the fins (sides) of my drum slowing turning it by hand. If you let the dust build up too much in the fins you can feel an imbalance when the machine is running. Also a bent at 30 degrees acid brush (metal handled disposable glue brush) is great for knocking the dust off the inside of the top of the hood. Lots of dust gets stuck there.

Most importantly the belts are a little tricky to get on tightly and this is very important for the proper operation of the machine. When wrapping the belt leave about a 1/8" space between the wraps and this space will be somewhat taken up when the spring tensioner that you clip the last end of the belt to takes up the slack. Also, I usually cut off about 1/2" or less from the last end of the belt and find that the spring works better without a lot of excess belt to hold it from springing into it's resting position.

Congrats bro!

Good stuff. Thanks, guys!

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

That paper (if not Klingspor) is probably ok for spruce varieties. Klingspor makes some excellent paper for hardwood. Keep the paper clean with the eraser.

Sounds like you got a very good deal!

Mike

i would think that poor tracking is a result of too little crown on the roller, the feed belt will always seek the highest point on the roller, should be able to remedy that with adding duct tape to the idle roller

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Frank

First understand this is a finish sander not a hog off machine. Take your time if you need to remove a fair amount of material. Do it in many passes and all will be fine. Everyone complains about the belt tracking off. I adjusted mine to run straight with as little added tension as possible 2 years ago and have never touched it since. I think most try to keep the tension too high on the carrier belt adjustment and end up stretching the belt out which leads to constant belt adjustments nneded as athe belt wears. I have adjusted the drum to level when new to within .002" and it is still there today. F sanding a jointed top, be sure to use a backing board or carrier board. In fact I would always use one if possible. Slower is not always better I find mid speed is good if the cut depth is right.

DALE!!!!! Welcome to the OLF Dale!

Michael,

The guy who sold it seems to have thought that this sander would hog off large amounts, which is probably why I got it for the price I did. He mentioned that the overload protection kept tripping. We ran some walnut through it, taking off a smidge per pass and it ran fine. I'm not doing big numbers so lots of light passes are fine, sort of like French polish!

Thanks again, guys.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat, I've had a couple of 10-20s, with a 16-32 in between, preferring the accuracy of the 10-20. I have no trouble with the belt tracking, most people tend to overtighten the belt, it just has to not stop under hand pressure. Another good tip with all of the cantilever sanders is to make sure, when not in use, that the unsupported end of the drum is lowered onto a block so that it is not left hanging in the air all of the time. They do come with a plastic block when new but if you didn't get this then just use a block of wood and lower the drum so that it is just supported.

Also if the paper stops cutting efficiently, reverse the ends and you'll get a lot more life from it.

Always use a carrier board faced with 100grit paper for small items like rosette blanks, bindings or bone.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Thanks, Colin!

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com