Sander!

Finally, after a month and a half of haggling, hemming, and hawing, my new (to me) sander made it into my shop yesterday. This is my biggest equipment investment to date, since I started out in my 500 SF garage 6 years ago. Back then it was a Performax 22/44 Pro. Then 2 years ago, I got an Extrema 37" double drum. But as the business continued to grow, and with an eye to the future, I realized that I really needed a wide belt. The business has settled into a niche doing custom cabinet doors - so we're pushing a lot of flat stuff through the sander. And as I do work for more shops, I keep hearing that they want doors that are practically ready to finish on arrival. I went to AWFS to look at sanders and was impressed with the SCMI.

While I was trying to figure out the best way to pay for one, I came across a used 1999 Sandya 5. After more investigation, it turns out that even with the age, it had low usage, the owner having upgraded quickly to a larger machine. I paid a tech to inspect it under power, and he reported that everything functioned and that he was surprised by the good condition overall. So I feel like I got a machine with lots of life left in it. The feed mat looks all but new and the rubber contact drum on the combi head has only minor wear at the edges because the previous owner was running 44" belts with reduced oscillation to try to squeeze more width capacity out of it.

Some of the cool features on this machine are shown in the pictures. Each contact point has pneumatic control from the front panel. You flip a switch to activate the steel calibrating drum, the rubber combi drum, and the platen in any combination you please. It doesn't have the newer go-to type thickness controller, but the digital display is more than I have now. We only run a few standard thicknesses anyway. There is a controller for the platen that is synched to the feed speed. It can be set to lower the platen when the leading edge is halfway past it, and raise it when the trailing edge is halfway through. This prevents any rounding of edges. It also has an oscillating blower to clean the polishing belt.

All in all, I hope it will be able to take things to the next level.

Bravo!
I hope it gives you MANY hours of faithful service.

yahoo! that`s a nice machine.......you`ll be wondering how you ever got by without it before long...congratulations!

Congrats John. That is a beautiful beast.

John, nice wide belt sander. It's an Italian sander.
I developped wide belt sander for 18 years till my retirement.
First for the Dutch compagny Linden machines, till 1996, and lateron till 2001,
for the American company Timesaver Minneapolis.
Take good care of maintaining this machine, in my opinion it's better to set the sanding depth of the contact rollers by hand than pneumatic.
Anyway, I hope you have a lot of fun with this sander.

John - Excellent score. I will bet cash (not my cash - lets say some of tods) that once you have felt your way round this machine you will wonder why you wasted so much time thinking about it. I have its baby sister (Sandya Win 630) and it is one of the most useful tools in the shop.

Thanks all - I'm so ready to have this up and running. I spent an hour detailing it this morning. I know it will just get dusty again, but it's like a new car and I want to start out fresh looking.

We'll be pulling new circuits for it and the new rotary screw compressor (another gloat?) sometime next week. Also a sub panel upgrade to accommodate another fun tool that will hopefully be here in another week. More on that when there are photos.

Ad - The Netherlands is my favorite country in Europe. I took a Eurorail tour many years ago and kept looping back for that friendly, accepting attitude and beautiful countryside. What do you recommend for routine maintenance on a machine like this? And what will be the wear points to keep an eye on?

Hi John, I hope for several years to bring a visit to the USA, special to bring a visit to four corresponding friends I have overthere, that would be great to meet them personaly, it's nice to correspond with them, but nicer when you can shake hands, and hear there voices, and having a nice conversation with them. Only my wife don't speak English, she understand it more or less, but for sure she's not a conversation partner, that's make it a bit difficult for me, with planning a vacation trip to the USA.
About your sander, keep it free from dust as good as you can, by using an airblower ( handoperated), a very good suction system will help alot.
Other delicate points are the oscillation system, electronic or pneumatic, keep it clean, and of course the bearings of the contactrollers, lubricate them periodically, to avoid getting dust into the bearings.
I think that the beltcleaner is placed above the tension roller, I suppose it's a pneumatic nozzle cleaner, most of the time they are, so keep also an eye on this.
It's really important to sand with a clean belt for the best sanding results.

I wish you good luck. Ad

John

Hey great news! Congratulations on your business success, l hope this purchase makes things even more prosperous.

Jay

Congrats on the Sandya, John.
Although I'm not going to buy such a unit any time soon, I'd appreciate if you could keep us posted how you like the sander in the long run.

Regards,

Christian

WOW, that's quite a sander John. Congratulations! Although I will never be in the market for such a sander, I look forward to hearing about your experience with it.

With any luck it will be operational this week. It is one of those projects that relies on a whole series of events being ticked off of the list.

Rethink production layout. Lots of little paper cutouts is still fastest and most creative for me. Lean everything out again. Looks like more tables to create work cells rather than carts. Typical order has 40-60 doors + drawer faces: 200-300 parts.

The old compressor wouldn't be enough, so research and buy compressor setup for the long haul - 10 HP rotary screw, refrigerated air drier, receiver tank. New circuit, disconnect, conduit, etc. Hmm, now the old "distribution system" (a single hose!) isn't going to cut it.

Of course the 200A panel in the leased building is packed, so plan to upgrade sub panel in rear of building, try to figure out what goes where (why don't people keep panel labels up to date?!), balance the 120V circuits, double 20A breakers for light use circuits, pull new wire, etc, etc.

Schedule, reschedule, reschedule electrician.

All while riding one of the busiest months ever. We should be ready to run with some major new equipment just in time for the slowdown in the housing market to hit us .

Anyways, I will definitely be wanting to share my results with the sander. With any luck the 3M rep will get back from vacation and hook me up with some sample belts. Uneeda is sending a selection of grits to try out as well.

-JR