Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

Barry Irby

I struggle with this too.

The belt should run toward the tighter side. IE "uphill".

Try spreading the rollers apart, making the belt tighter on the side away from the motor.

The belt that came on my used Performax ran perfectly for about 6 or 8 years until it wore out. I finally got the second one to run correctly. The third one is killing me. I gave up on the traditional cloth backed one and ordered a film backed one from Klingspor. Its better, but tracks slowly to one side away from the motor. I continue to fiddle with it, but mostly I just watch it and move it back about once an hour.

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

mkauder

Thanks, Barry. I will give both the adjustment and the alternative drive belt a try.

Mark

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

Barry Irby

One thing I have noticed about the film backed belt is it Must be tight. The back is really slick and if the rollers are not tight, the belt slips.

Also, the belt is "brittle". Tough as heck but tears easily if that makes any sense. Kind of like some plastic bags. Can't rip it to save your life until you put a little knick in it and then you can tear it with two fingers. Mine runs over against some machine frame and the edge is getting ragged. I have to watch carefully.

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

john lucas

Mark I've been fighting that also. There should be a thread on it about a year ago when I was fighting it the first time. I was given this machine and had to replace the platen belt. I purchased it from Klingspor but would have to take a closer look to see what backing it has. I worked for Xerox and adjusted many belts to make them track correctly and knew how to do it. However on my machine no matter what you do it tracks toward the motor side. Hopefully in the next week or so I'm going to take it all apart again and play. What I plan to do this time is make the outfeed roller crowned in the middle. I'm going to try doing it with tape at least temporarily to see if it works. I'll wrap about 2/3rds of the middle with the first layer. Then about 1/2 then about 1/4 or so to give me a 3 layer crown. Have not idea if this will work but it's easy enough to try.

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

Ken Krawford

John, Here's my experience with a 16/32 belt tracking problem:

Several calls to Jet always started with the same question - what brand belt are you using? I'd struck out on 2 different (non-OEM brand) belts. This time I got the 3M brand belt that Jet sells specifically for this sander. It is much thinner with a finer grit than the others I tried. It tracked much better than the other belts initially but slowly had a tendency to drift right. Here's where it get interesting. The belt must be LOOSENED on the side it it drifting towards and TIGHTENED on the side where you want the belt to move to. This is totally opposite to what the manual says. I ran the conveyor for at least 45 mins. yesterday and made small tweaks to adjust the belt position.

Now I'm wondering if I could have accomplished the same thing with one of the previous belts if I had been adjusting it properly.

All's well that ends well I guess.

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

Barry Irby

John, I grew up on a farm and we used flat belts driven by a roller on a tractor to run some implements. These belts were abut 8" wide and the tractor and the machine were about fifteen feet apart. You jockeyed the tractor around for alignment so you can imagine it was not precise. The pulleys had significant crowns. At least 1/8" or more. Once you got the set up right, they worked reliably. Belt dressing and the weight of the belt provided the tension.

I believe I tried the tape business you are about to try and did not get it to work. When running the farm belts seemed to acquire a hollow or concave shape on the back that matched the pulley. Not sure, but that is a dim fifty year old memory. I think I reached the conclusion that by the time I got enough tape on the Performax to work the bulge in the center would be above the height of the table and interfere with work going in and out of the machine by holding it up. And I suspect the film backed belts are so strong they would only be driven by the center of he bulge and slip.

I also had to scuff my drive roller with coarse sandpaper to provide good surface friction.

Re: Performax 16-32 Belt Driving me Crazy

John C Lucas

I figured out immediately that the manual was wrong. I e adjusted a lot of belts in my day a d they track toward the high side so tightening one side should 8n theory move the belt to that side.