[superhooperduty]

Hello, first timer here. Just purchased a SM 19/38 drum sander, I have followed all the adjustments mentioned in the manual. Issue is, I tried sanding a 1”x3” piece of solid stock on edge, it was cut almost perfect on table saw, just wanted to try new sander and clean up saw marks, made very light pass and ended up with more material being sanded off in the middle of the piece when compared to either end, so when butted to anther piece of wood, there is a void between the two pieces. Anyone know why this happened?
Thank you in advance!

 

[superhooperduty]

WElcome to the forum.

How long was the piece of stock?

20”, the tension rollers seem to be adjusted to allow the stock to be held down firmly but not so much that I have a hard time getting the stock under them and the belt pulls the stock without slipping, thanks for your reply.

 

[superhooperduty]

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you!

 

[superhooperduty]

You can use your router table as a jointer to give you a perfect, straight edge. You need a split fence. You place spacers behind the outfeed side of the fence and line that up with the edge of your bit. Difference should be maybe 1/16th inch farther forward than the infeed side. Cut your pieces slightly proud so your dimensions are correct after jointing.

Also, the blade you're using in the saw leaving a rough edge or saw marks. I suggest you get a new, GlueLine blade from Freud. It's a rip blade but it gives an extraordinary smooth cut edge. If you want to perfect it, you use a little sandpaper wrapped around a block. Make long, full length strokes. I almost never use anything finer than 220 grit sandpaper for such tasks. It can also be smoothed with a hand plane.

Here's the blade:This is the premium (industrial, full kerf version, which has extra heavy tips so you can get it sharpened many times more than the consumer (red) version. It also cuts a flat bottom so you can use it for splines.
View attachment 403429

Personally, I think the sander is a bad choice for this task because as you move it back and forth, the center gets more sanding than the ends, giving you the gap you mentioned. One last detail. Pop for a Wixey digital angle gauge and set your blade to precisely 90 to the table. For glueups, that makes a huge difference. With that blade, I don't have to sand for glueup panels.

Thank you for the suggestions, I’m making the apron for a table, I’ll try using your suggestions!

 

[superhooperduty]

I think, the conveyer belt is not level. The two end rollers are probably higher that the middle plate(?) supporting the the belt. The rollers at the end should be level or a little lower.

I checked the rollers, they seem to be level with the table; perhaps I’ll drop them a touch, thank you.