Interesting SCMI edge sander

John Rutter

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59
Location
Pacific Northwest
This SCMI/Samco Unilev 15 arrived at my shop last week. It is an early/mid 90s model - not quite old iron yet. Technomax markets the current model in Europe. This type of sander is more popular in Europe than here in the US. I haven't come across many of these, so I thought that I would share some pics.

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Rather than a long platen, this has a shorter 36" platen open on one side. The other side has a jointer type offset fence and strip platen, about 1-1/2" wide. The driven drum on the end can be used for inside curves. The dust hood is made to position wherever it will do the most good. I find it too big and will probably get/make a few magnetic hoods for faster repositioning.

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The entire belt assembly cranks up and down to use the entire belt. It is surprisingly rigid (the whole machine is 900 lbs). The strip platen is similar to a widebelt platen: It adjusts in/out and has a felt pad, steel flap platen (like a handheld belt sander), and graphite cloth wear surface. I may need to go to a harder pad for the light dimensioning work that I want to do with it. The table on this side is covered in plastic laminate and tilts up 45 degrees for bevels.

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The control panel rotates to whatever side you are working on. It has a 2 speed motor switch, and controls for the pneumatics that tension the belt and activate the oscillation. The oscillation is limited on the bottom by an air jet. The pressure of the jet and oscillation piston controls the height and speed of motion. I'm not sure yet if this has any significant advantages over a mechanical linkage other than being less fussy with belt changes. The drive motor is 4.8HP, so there will be plenty of power . . .
 
That sure looks to be a really versatile machine for many different sanding applications. The 4.8 hp seems to be a kind of "Standard" hp on a lot of SCMI machines, (that is what is on my MiniMax BS & JP). Good Find.:thumb:
 
i`ll be interested to hear your take on this JR? i`ve seen these but not used em`........can you hog with it or only finnesse?
nice score!
 
Hi Tod - With the way the platen is made, it looks like it is for sanding rather than dimensioning. I'm trying to free up a feeder to put on this to test it out. I did a quick 80 grit test on a piece of 4/4 maple when I was getting it dialed in. I offset the infeed fence 1/16" and fed the maple through at a speed that removed that much and straightened it. I would say it took 10 seconds for a 3 ft piece, so 18 ft/min. Not hogging, but not too bad. But I need to be at about 120 grit for a finished edge. All I need to do is tune up a straight line ripped edge, so 1/32" max, hopefully...
 
Hey John your sander is similiar to the one I got from Kundig. The side with the platten is used like a jointer. It also oscillates but not with air all electric also has electric tilt..great machine to have. Nice score.

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Doug
 
Doug - That Kundig looks very well engineered. I like the layout of the dust collection (Is it integral to the infeed fence?), which is a weakness on the SCMI.
 
Doug - That Kundig looks very well engineered. I like the layout of the dust collection (Is it integral to the infeed fence?), which is a weakness on the SCMI.

John the dust collection hooks on to the end of the machine in the direction of rotation. It doesn't work all that great but maybe I don't have quite enough suction. When I get done reorganizing my shop I'm going to try and get some more cfm to it.

Doug
 
When I get done reorganizing my shop I'm going to try and get some more cfm to it.

Doug

I'm still scratching my head a bit on the DC for this. Right now, I'm just using an available 4" flex line to the stock hood. I would like to do something inside the frame - maybe a 6" line split to run to each end with some shrouds. The insides were full of old dust when I got it, so maybe pulling down would help that . . . Does the Kundig have an internal run of ducting, as well as the top end?
 
I'm still scratching my head a bit on the DC for this. Right now, I'm just using an available 4" flex line to the stock hood. I would like to do something inside the frame - maybe a 6" line split to run to each end with some shrouds. The insides were full of old dust when I got it, so maybe pulling down would help that . . . Does the Kundig have an internal run of ducting, as well as the top end?


Yea it's got internal ducting. I think to work properly it needed a large volume of cfm from the dust collector.


Doug
 
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