Drum sander clogging

[Burkhardt]

I have a Jet 16/32 drum sander and find it very useful for many jobs. The sanding belt holds up for a reasonable time with most types of wood. However, recently I did some inlays in oily exotics like Cocobolo and Ebony and find even a light cut of a small piece will clog the abrasive with rings of hard caked and burned-in dust and that way I ruined several belts for good. These in turn will leave burnt stripes on the wood.

I tried one of the cleaning rubber sticks but no luck which ticks me off since the belts are nor cheap.

Anybody knows a trick to avoid that? A slower drum might do it but it is fixed speed.

Thanks, GB

P.S.: Learned one thing....hold on to the rubber stick. It slipped from my hand and jammed between the drum and the housing, stopping the drum from full speed in a fraction of a second. Impossible to move or pull out the squished stick and it took me an hour or so to nibble it out piece by piece. It bent the drum carrier frame a little but fortunately still running true.

[Kyle Stapleton]

What kind of sand paper are you using?

[cnc_works]

I have a love/hate relationship with my sander. Maybe a little more love now that I have come to some practices that aid use. These are not really production gadgets I don't believe, really need at least an oscillating drum for that. That being said, my 22" Performax became a great deal more useful when I began using the coarsest paper that would work for the job, take light cuts and run the drive belt as fast as possible. All of these practices keep heat down, which is the enemy of the process. And I buy my off brand sandpaper roles from my local Woodcrafters store for something like $6 each. Have to taper trim the ends, but that isn't much problem after I made a template. I hate it for all the challenges, but to be able to uniformly thickness 1/8" stock, flatten pieces too wide for my jointer and to even take paint off of surfaces with a 60grit belt puts a little of the love back.

[bleeth]

If you wipe down the board first very well with acetone it may leach the surface oils out. I know this will work for Teak but haven't tried it for coco or ebony.
Also can't say it will do enough to save your belts, but oily woods are a pain to sand.

[paul_z]

I agree with Donn. "coarsest paper ... and take light cuts"


Paul Z

[bob_s]

There is a commercial cleaner that you can spray on and it melts most stuff off when you rinse it with a garden hose A friend who runs a big shop with a 48" sander has some. It needs to be used with care as it will mess up your bare skin in seconds. I am traveling but I'll try and get the name of it when I get home. Possibly Klingspor has it?

[bleeth]

Came by these 3 comments doing a google:

If the belt clogs with wood resin especially like southern yellow pine etc... Wet a rag with Acetone and wad it up use it like the eraser. It will unclog the belt very quickly and make it almost like new.

I use the sanding cleaner sticks too, but don't overlook the ability to wash the belts (fabric backed) in a solution of Arm & Hammer WASHING SODA (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V9KW5I) (not baking soda). Soda, warm water, soak, brush, dry, put 'em back to work.
Simple Green - I swear we could not function in our shop without this stuff. Use only on cloth backed belts or the substrate swells. Spray on the belt (a garden pump type sprayer works really well here) and let it sit out of the sun for an hour or so. Then just scrub them down with a good bristle or plastic brush and rinse. Pressure washing with a wide angle tip works well to and is better for large numbers of belts. - See more at: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Cleaning_Sander_Belts.html#sthash.MyzuDpSP.dpuf

[jTr]

I have same sander, though mothballed as I just acquired a 43x75 wide belt.
When I did rely on it, the best paper for this issue was Aluminum Zirconia. Much less prone to clogging than the standard Alu-Ox red stuff. Only place I found it was Klimgspore's woodworkingshop.com.

Jeff

[Burkhardt]

Thanks guys, lots of good tips! I may try them all if needed and pull the clogged belts out of the trashcan to see if they can be salvaged.

Here is what I was sanding (trying to help my wife with her jewelry stuff). Interestingly, the rather hard stone inlay went off without much problem, only when touching the ebony (but same problem with Cocobolo) the mess started.
Since the parts are rather small I can not go coarser than 80 grit.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gMzh94jSIc4/VTVU466zw7I/AAAAAAAAFt4/PviBuT-YxTo/w1597-h677-no/DSC03080.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-I6XqvvaZfBo/VTVU5hC2XGI/AAAAAAAAFuA/ctNXv_7kYlQ/w1502-h853-no/DSC03087.JPG

[scottp55]

Off topic;
NICE Turquoise "Suite" in the Ebony G.
Didn't know you were a jewelry designer:)
Abranet with a "Hard" pad for 5" RO ?

[MogulTx]

NICE!

(I seem to remember that cocobolo is one of the ones that is a bit nasty on the lungs. Be sure not to foul up your breathing! Don't go on my recollection, but use protection as apporopriate!)

[Burkhardt]

.... Wet a rag with Acetone and wad it up use it like the eraser. It will unclog the belt very quickly and make it almost like new......
Yes, that did the trick. Thanks for the link! I wrapped 2 layers of paper towel around the drum, soaked with acetone and covered with food wrapper film, then let it soak for 15 minutes. The black gunk came right off, most stuck to the paper towel. Quite interesting that it became gooey and pulled off stringy like liquid rubber.


(I seem to remember that cocobolo is one of the ones that is a bit nasty on the lungs. Be sure not to foul up your breathing! Don't go on my recollection, but use protection as apporopriate!)
I believe you are right, although the evaporating wood resin smells really nice during sanding, somewhat like vanilla.
The drum sander can anyway only be run with dust collector or the abrasive will clog even faster. I have a 2-stage cyclone with HEPA filter and hope that will catch the nasty dust.



...Didn't know you were a jewelry designer:) Abranet with a "Hard" pad for 5" RO ?
Well, I am not. But my wife asked me if that Guilloche program can be used for more intersting things than scratching lines into brass disks.
The sanding can be done with an RO sander but it would be very tiresome and not as flat. Want to make some stone inlay buttons? It is really quick and easy.

[khaos]

That is amazing and so perfectly one of a kind. This is a great thread for multiple reasons. 5 stars!

[scottp55]

G,
May try inlay using chips like you, but more like an Inset for some of my funky stone shapes. Not so much jewelry, as display and embedding in wood objects around the house. Maybe wild grain wood, knots, etc for wall art embellished or a mobile. Have thought of pendant size in Ebony/Cocobola, And the cat has already pre-chipped a bunch of Malachite and Iron Pyrite "sand dollars" for me that were on window sill, so may try some like yours(also opal chips).
Again....Great Job! :)
scott
LOUSY spur of the moment pics:( but...
Maybe some more like Dianne's piece?

[Burkhardt]

Scott, good collection of pretty stone! Now you got to beat me and make a fitted v-carve inlay out of solid rock ;-) Well, maybe soap stone would work.

Tip: I found thin CA glue an excellent filler/matrix for the stone chips. It creeps into the crevices and fills all voids and when done, a quick whiff of accelerator spray sets the surface.
It is also easier to sand than epoxy which may smear. Just make sure the pockets are closed or, for my project with through pockets I closed them underneath with tape.

[scottp55]

Ah, Didn't know they were through pockets! Solves the dilemma of pendant flipping:)
Did you just export the Guilloche pattern? and then let VCarve stop at the radius of the bit?
May try to use Desktop to do a Cuttlebone casting mold casting mold for Sterling and try a simple steam cast, but metal casting is a whole different $$$ discipline:(
Thanks for CA tip---Good bond? or did you clean with acetone/denatured?
Did your wife like? and you have a new profession? :)
scott

[Burkhardt]

....Did you just export the Guilloche pattern? and then let VCarve stop at the radius of the bit?...
Yes, exported the bitmap, vectorized and milled through pockets with a 0.04" diameter endmill. Pretty fragile bit but not much material to remove, anyway. Even at 0.7ips and 0.04 deep this strip took only 20 minutes to cut.


....Thanks for CA tip---Good bond? or did you clean with acetone/denatured?....
No special cleaning. I filled the cavities right after cutting. This is not a load bearing furniture joint and the glue is not stressed. You may notice there are 2 dowel holes at the ends to find the zero again for the cutout after sanding and finishing.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KotoOwLj0Q0/VTVU2lRh8eI/AAAAAAAAFtg/Aa_F_lkdnZM/w1598-h789-no/DSC03076.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a4-2hbm9g54/VTVU4LJ1jkI/AAAAAAAAFtw/7GxgMmWFaMA/w1597-h662-no/DSC03078.JPG

[scottp55]

Thanks for pics G.
That board could be pretty all by itself, if designed with something in mind:)
Also lends itself to Vinlay I would think? :)
Also thanks for all the belt cleaning tips everyone, stationary belts from 220G up were getting retired fairly fast from Padauk and Bloodwood.
scott

[jamesburrus]

Oily wood is tough on a drum sander are a wide belt sander it mess up the belts and it clogs it up