Delta 31-255X X5 18"/36" Drum Sander
Introduction
Wow. The first thing that springs to mind is: what the hell am I doing with this
beast? I have neither the talent, nor the income to justify this purchase, so what
exactly was I thinking? Personally, I blame
pinga. Ok, ok, I won't succumb to the
nobody's fault, especially not mine
school of thought. Drum sanders generally fall under the "nice to have" catagory.
Certainly not a necessary, core machine, but more out on the fringe. That's why
I call mine Christopher Walken.
The Setup
Once the haze cleared, I figured I might as well put this thing to use, so I guess
assembling it is the next step. Really not a big deal. Well, assembling wasn't a
big deal, but don't delude yourself, this thing is Heavy. Basically all you have
to do is bolt the legs on, then try to get it upright without causing yourself any
internal injuries. My method took advantage of one of the basic principals of physics:
cursing. Since I'm so good at it, I finished in no time at all.
Adjustment
After the beast is upright, all that is needed is to bolt on the cast iron table.
With the table in place, about the only adjustment that's needed is to ensure the
table is parallel to the sanding drum. The way this is done is to run a wide board,
which you have drawn lines on, through the sander, and make sure all the lines are
sanded off. This sounded wonky to me, so I used my own, shop-built method. I stared
at it good and hard and decided that it looked good to me. Now, what needs sanding?
I already gave the cat a haircut, although I did notice it still has some split
ends...
Spoiled
Well, the cat is still refusing to leave its refuge under the bed, so I found some
old dimensional lumber to use (read 2x4, unless you're from down under, in which
case read 4x2). The first thing I notice is the height adjustment/indicator. If
you're use to a planer with excellent pre-op indication of how much wood you're
going to hog off (see the
DeWalt 735), then you're going
to find that you've been very spoiled all this time. This sander has none of that.
You use the scientific method of guestimation to determine the amount of stock removal.
This was a not-so-pleasant suprise for me, since my guestimation skills lie somewhere
between my people skills and my opera-singing skills.
Test Run
In goes the 2x4, out comes a little-less-than-2x4. So what is the finish like? Well,
I used the pre-installed 80 grit roll, so it was rough. I switched rolls to 120
grit, just to see the difference. First thing, switching sanding rolls was relatively
easy. Of course, I used the officially licensed Delta Rolls, so they were pre-cut
and tapered to the exact size. Pretty cushy, I know. It took me less than five minutes
to make the switch, which is a lot faster than I was expecting given my level of
inability.
120 Grit
The 120 grit was, of course, smoother than the 80 grit. But, it was definately rougher
than hand sanding. This could be a product of the conveyer speed (I had it set to
a little less than half). I think I may use 220 grit as my default grit, since even
at 120 grit, it was way too rough. Some more experimentation is needed.
Real World Attempt
No time like the present, so I decided to try something I might actually want to
do with the sander (other than having nicely sanded 2x4's). So I decided to run
a panel through. This was a basic frame and flat-panel uh, panel made out of cherry.
I figure if I'm going to burn something, may as well be something easy to burn.
It's less work that way.
Observations
If
you're running something through that is wider that 18" (this requires you to run
one half through, then the other), support tables are a necessity. My attempts without
them left some serious snipping and rounding-over problems on the edges. Pretty
disappointing really. So, after having ruined my panels, the next things I did was
call up my friends in the rain forest and order the officially sanctioned Delta
tables (see below for some installation tips, and above for ordering). These tables
are pretty expensive for what they are. Basically you're paying for the support
brackets, the tables themselves are just raw (unfinished) MDF. Yeah, I couldn't
believe it either. But as has been shown time and time again, without proper support,
you're going to have a mess on your hands (see Teri Hatcher, etc).
Delta 50-389 Infeed/Outfeed Tables For Delta Drum Sanders
The instructions for the drum sander infeed/outfeed tables seem backwards to me.
Since I've always been considered backwards by my friends and peers, I didn't have
many problems. For those not as "special", here's the sequence of assembly I used:
- Install the roll pins, screws, bushings and nuts on the support arms
- Loosely attach the angle brackets to the support arms creating the support arm
assemblies
- Remove the cast iron sanding table from the sander
- Attach the support brackets to the steel mounting plate on the sander
- Reattach the cast iron sanding table to the sander
- Clamp the support arm assemblies to the support brackets on the sander
- Rest the outfeed table on the support arm assemblies
- Position the outfeed table where you want it
- Mark the location of the support arm assemblies' (angle bracket) holes on the underside
of the outfeed table
- Remove the outfeed table and drill the holes where you marked them
- Unclamp and remove the outfeed support arm assemblies
- Screw the support arm assemblies to the outfeed table
- Repeat steps 7 - 12 for the infeed table
- Attach the infeed/outfeed tables and adjust for level with the cast iron sanding
table
- Celebrate your victory with an adult beverage