Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've revised this review as of 1/8/04
My sander arrived with the motor fan cover pushed in and rubbing against the fan. This was easy to remedy with a screwdriver.I'm glad I rotated the motor by hand before plugging it in.The outer cover to the grarbox was also dented.My local dealer immediately offered to repair or replace the sander with a new one.There were also several bolts and even a piece of bearing race found at the bottom of the shipping crate.I opted to keep the one I had because because the tables and fences were ground flat and true and "initial" alignment (see comments further on)was very good.The quailty and consistancy of the grind and polish was excellent.
This is a big and bulky machine and it takes four people to lift it onto its mobile base.I used a Jet adjustable base rated for 1200 pounds.I had to cut a few inches off two of the adjusting bars to compensate for the width of the sander.
Assembly was easy and so was belt adjustment.I walked the belt through several rotations by hand to check tracking.All seemed OK.When I turned the sander on it quiclky destroyed the belt.Visual inspection showed the the three bolts I had found at the bottom of the crate were missing from the underside of the sander where they mount the idler drum to the machine.I should have looked it over more carefully.Once installed and readjusted with a new belt installed, the tracking worked perfectly.My dealer sent out his service technician with the replacement parts and a new belt.He assured me that the bearing race and a couple of other metal scraps are not from my sander.My dealer also assures me that as long as they are in business, I will never have to worry about the warranty expiring.
I was initially impressed with the way things line up.As long as the belt is not under tension, the auxilliary table is 90 degrees to the idler drum even when raised all the way up to the auxilliary sanding drums. Under belt tension, the table is off by a few degrees.There is no provision to compensate for this.I'll have to rough sand curved surfaces on this machine and do the final sanding on my Grizzly oscillating drum sander. Why would I not want to start out on the Grizzly?There is a certain economy to using the belt as opposed to an expensive sanding sleeve.
There is no oscillating action with these drums.All oscillation is done with the sanding belt only.The auxiliary sanding table which is made from heavy formed steel is at a true 90 degrees to the main table.
The only other alignment problems that I see come from two areas.First of all, when you release the table locks to slide it in and out to the sanding belt, it is possible to push to table out of alignment.This would not be a problem for normal edge sanding operations but would pose a hassle when using the miter guage.A remedy is to take two small thin right angle metal brackets and loosly wedge them in place between the table and the belt as you move the table forward. Then set your table locks and you have repeatable accuracy. Don't forget to slide the metal brackets out befor turning on the sander!
The other problem comes with the built in detent locking mechanism for 0, 45, and 90 degrees.Dissassembly revealed a burr on the end of the pin itself which prevented it from smoothly disengaging.It also revealed that the tip of the spring which thrusts the pin forward was lying in the cutaway wherein the pin retracts.I unscrewed the retaining cap on the pin mechanism and rotated the spring so that a flat edge now rested against the pin.This keeps the tip of the spring from jamming in the pin's raceway.It took some carefuI adjustment to get to detent mechanism to deliver a repeatable 90 degrees.It was worth the effort as it now quickly comes into square.
You can forget about trying to view the indexing scale with the supplied pointer.For my pointer to be anywhere near where it is supposed to be it has to go all the way back against the indexing pin mechanism.Even then, It is impossible to view the scale head on as the motor lies directly in your line of sight.I'm going to epoxy a small mirror to a block of wood with a triangular cross section then epoxy that to the motor mounting plate.That will allow me to view the scale head on even though I'm viewing it at right angles from the front of the sander.It would have been very easy for Delta to do this or for them to have used a prism mounted in a similar way.
This machine deliveres excellent results when sanding straight edges and that is what it is all about.I like the way the drum covers latch back out of the way so you can sand boards longer than the table.If I didn't have the Grizzly oscillating spindle sander and if the Powermatic had a longer belt and allowed you to latch back its guards, I'd have bought the Powermatic.
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Product Description:
The DELTA 31-396 6-Inch 3 HP Oscillating Edge Sander includes a versatile, innovative new design that gently moves up and down as it spins, making it a superior tool for contour sanding. The 3 HP, 220-volt oscillating edge sander includes an idle roller along the adjustable cast iron table that makes the sander suitable for both flush sanding and edge sanding irregular shapes. In addition, the sanding table can be moved both up and down, and forward and backward in conjunction with the sander's adjustable head, which has stops at 0 and 90 degrees with indent stops at 0, 45, and 90 degrees. A quick-release belt tensioning makes belt changing a breeze. In addition, the sander includes a spindle sanding kit that features three sizes of collars and drums.
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