Wide Belt Sander Conveyor Replacement

Since getting this sander set up and running is a big part of this table project, I'm going to document the process a bit here. I also could not find any information online about doing this, so maybe this will help somebody someday. This machine arrived needing some TLC. Its a great machine, but most of the "wear parts" were, let's just call them worn for simplicity sake. This involved the recovering of three rubber rollers, and the replacement of the conveyor belt that feeds the wood through the machine. The rollers are back in, along with the new bearings. The conveyor replacement is kind of big deal, as you have to remove the entire bed, which I'm guessing weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-500 lbs. This is usually done via forklift. I found the next best thing being on the second floor of the building where forklifts can't go.

It started out like a million bucks. I picked up the lift downstairs to facilitate lifting the conveyor belt assembly out of the sander. Including moving the sander to a more convenient working location, blocking it up and moving the lift into position-the conveyor bed was out of the machine in an hour! I was sure this was going to be a cake walk since the hardest part was done. Or so I thought.


I measured the old belt that I cut off the machine and ordered the new one the same size. We went to slide the new belt over the side of the bed closest in the photo, and it would not fit. It was close, but close doesn't cut it here. The old belt was a lace up, that is it has a joint that comes apart-so you don't have to remove this whole assembly. The new belt is better, and is seamless. It's a $600 custom made item, and has got to work. Here starts the downward spiral of the rest of the afternoon.






Here is a close up of the side of the conveyor bed assembly. The two plates on the right end that hold the emergency stop bar had to come off. They were welded in place and  stopping the belt from making it onto the roller. 

I cut them off with a grinder, and also put a 45 on the top and bottom to give more clearance. We tried the belt again and still no go. I was threading the adjuster bolts on the right side roller to move it in as far as it would go when one of them broke off. Spent the next hour drilling out the broken bolt and re-tapping the hole. With the roller pushed in to the limit of the slot, the belt still wouldn't go on further than about 6 ". Back to the grinder.

Here is what the end looked like when I was done. The opposite side was about the same as well. It worked though.




I will have to re-weld those parts back on, or make a new bolt on plate to hold the e stop bar.

Here is the belt being slid the last few inches. Its almost tight enough that the tension adjustment bolts might not need to do much.

                         Here is the machine with the bed removed. 

                                  And here is it going back in.

The next steps will be to finish cleaning up the inside, installing the monster pulley on the end of the contact drum shaft, and putting dust shroud and the covers back on. Then on to setup and adjustment.