I have a Sandya 3 widebelt sander and the feed belt needs to be roughed up a bit, I was wondering what the proper steps are to do this? Thanks
From contributor JR
60 grit or rougher belt.
Make some marks across the width of the feed belt. I use sharpie.
Raise the table until the auto stop kicks in.
Start up conveyor and sanding head and raise the table by hand until the sanding head is just kissing the surface. You should hear and smell this.
Let the conveyor feed run and keep an eye on your line(s). Raise in small increments until the line is erased.
Back the table down again, change belts, done!
From contributor sc
Thanks for the help, I will give it a try!
From contributor Ad
never dress the belt until you confirm your head is level to the existing belt first. This is done by sanding two identical strips on either outside edge of the machine (about 1" off the edge) to confirm parallelism. Then it's okay to dress the belt. You do not want to grind your belt with an unlevel head.
From contributor Ch
A few things to consider before you dress your conveyor belt....age of machine, running hours, condition of your contact drum, and condition of your conveyor bed plates. If you have wear in the drum, bed plates or both you could create other issues.
If you are able check your bed plates for wear, use a straight edge and feeler gauges. On some machines you can loosen the conveyor belt up enough to slide a straight edge in between the conveyor belt and plates. Otherwise you may have to pull the bed to properly inspect you plates. Anytime you change your conveyor belt you should be checking your plates for wear.
If your rubber drum has never been dressed, chances are good you will have some wear to it. Its rubber, its going to wear, no different than the rubber tires on your vehicle. And yes a steel drum will wear as well, just not as fast and probably not as much. More so if you are using a cloth belt versus a paper belt only because of the backing on the cloth belt. However I wouldn't recommend using a paper belt on a steel drum even if the drum is serrated. You will create heat faster on a paper belt than a cloth belt and it will most likely burn.
If any of the above are worn, you will mirror/dress that wear onto your conveyor belt which may create tolerance and stock removal issues.
When I dress conveyor belts, I try to verify all of the above. Yes it may be labor intensive at times, but I save my customers a whole lot of headaches and downtime later by verifying the condition of those components. It's also piece of mind for them to know if there are hidden areas of the machine that are worn and often times gets overlooked. Also in most cases I will use a 60 grit cloth belt. I never use a paper belt to dress my conveyor belts.
