As soon as possible. I have to remake a shaft then line bore the case for true alignment of the bearings.
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You should hold a class to teach woodworkers how to machine that
‘A woodworker’s hands are lean and nimble, his brains would fit inside a thimble’. - Paraphrased from a disagreement between a Mason’s Guild and a Carpenter’s guild in the 18th century.
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Zach, it will be ready for use right after your project is completed. We all understand this unwritten rule. 
The good ole Rotex can do anything this drum sander can. Just requires a bit more skill and attention while using it.
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Actually, no it isn’t. That’s the problem. I had to level out the cutting board on the slab mill, and I think that did something to the surface, because even after almost an hour with an 80 grit pad the other night, there is literally no difference. I checked with the vacuum off, and I’m not even creating any sawdust.
The Rotex without a doubt is very aggressive. Sure about the paper you were using? Start with 80 or less.
100% on the paper. I triple checked after the first 20 minutes of no difference. And 80 grit is the lowest we have there
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We will take a look
The Estimated Time of Arrival of a DMS Drum Sander is 11.20492 microseconds before the Estimated Time of Death. So if you can effectively estimate when it will next be down, you’ll be able to figure out when it will be working again.
And the lathe and bridgeport shall become as the drum sander. 
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I just used the rotex and 80 grit this evening to clean up some planer snipe and it chewed through maple and purple heart.
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Im happy to report that the drum sander is now functional.
I remanufactured the part last night & today.
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Thank you!!!
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Thanks @TBJK
Seems like this would be a good time to consider requiring special training for this device along with an RFID badge-in. Anyone feel otherwise? @Team_Woodshop
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More RFID access for tools covered in Woodshop basics or other training classes is always a good thing, IMO, but more gatekeeping is not. This is not that unsafe of a tool nor one that is that difficult to use. It does seem to be more fragile of a tool, in general, than some of the other high use tools we have. Do we feel the problem with this particular tool is the amount of use, or amount of abuse?
The real issue seems to be, if I have been tracking over time correctly, is that getting parts from Powermatic and/or just fixing the thing when it does inevitablly go down* takes an inordinate amount of time so that even one general breakage issue, e.g. electronics go kaput, might end up having it out of commission for weeks or more.
If there any options for North American made drum sanders, e.g. like OneWay or Robust in the wood lathe world, we should explore, IMO.
Many thanks to Tim, Andy, H.B, etc. for jumping into the breach when these things need fixing!
My mom used to leave Post-it type notes on refrigerator with various bits of information for us kids. I don’t want to become my mother, and little notes stuck to a machine is not a good look, but the most common misuse of this machine is someone doing too heavy a sanding pass.
Emphasizing one simple instruction informing them to go lightly, might be all that is needed.
I have fought with changing the sandpaper in that machine, it is a “B”. I don’t think the average person using it can or would change it, even if trained.
The taking too deep a pass issue will be resolved. We will be adding a resettable breaker to the sander that will disengage the feed belt drive motor when too deep a pass is attempted. The side effect will be that the wood slab could be half-way in the machine when the belt stops advancing and the drum will keep on sanding to the requested depth. Could be that a nice round trench will be carved into the surface. You will find that I will zealously protect both machinery and volunteer’s time investment from poor membership behavior. Adhere to proper woodshop behavior and enjoy all the shop has to offer, otherwise I guess those non-conforming members will encounter gate keeping as you like to use the term. It isn’t an all you can break membership, and it certainly isn’t tear things up and expect a very small team to use their precious time to repair the breakage.
We are actively exploring other sanding solutions that aren’t reliant on Chinese parts.
I’ve no issue with holding people responsible somehow for abuse of tools. The gatekeeping term is in regard to requiring additional “special” training IF training isn’t really the issue. You tend to assume the worst in DMS users because you are at a higher skill level and also have more skin in the game as you depend on the tools for your job. The drum sander is no more difficult to use than the planer, but goes down far more often…right? And it only take one person out of N to create a long-term outage for that tool… additional special training isn’t going to solve that “1 out of N” issue.
Seems to me that if most frequent cause of drum sander downtime is too deep of a pass/cut, then emphasizing that specifc point in Woodshop Basics would seem to be the most direct solution.
And to @jeffhess point, maybe how to change the paper, although that issue should be resolved with better understanding of the management of depth of cut and also emphasincing use rubber eraser on the belt before, after, and during use
Thank you, HB and Jeff Hess for the amount of time you have put into bringing the sander back to life.
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Actually I either own or have ready access outside of DMS to all of the tools I use for my work. There are plenty of tools in the shop that I don’t use professionally or as a hobbyist, but I do care that they are available to the other woodshop users. The one tool I may never use could be critical to another member’s current project.
Note: A huge issue we are confronting is when members watch a YouTuber video that is incorrect for our shop environment. This often leads to dangerous operations and/or adjustments being made to the machines that cause the next member grief, or worse.
I do look forward to you grabbing a stool daily and sitting beside these machines in order to catch and correct member’s behaviors. And after the breakage, shooing the core caretakers away so you can make the required repairs. You know, send @TBJK a PM saying don’t worry, I will mill the part. Maybe another PM to @got_tools, hey don’t worry about driving in from McKinney tonight to fix this, I will get’er done. Doesn’t sound very enticing, does it? 
What I have noticed over time is 30% of members are serious about conforming to the shop rules, they really want to be quality members. 30% are pretty careful unless it interferes with the project at hand. Frequently I have had members try to negotiate with me regarding banned materials or banned machining methods. Their logic is since it is only a few board feet, or a one-off project, is is okay this one time. 30% are truly ignorant and will conform once confronted with an infraction. They just couldn’t consume all of the wood shop basics in one pass. They will become good members with a little bit of guidance since they want to be a good member. That other 10% doesn’t last long(churn), but they do a hell of a lot of damage while they are around. Obviously these are tongue in cheek numbers, but hopefully you get the idea. I’m pretty much of the attitude everyone is a good member until they prove otherwise.
I would much rather require more training and place passive resource management systems(RFID) in place in order to gain compliance, vs nagging and trying to catch people in the act. Our cameras along with RFID badge info is a great way to track adverse events after the incident.
A bit regarding my woodshop management philosophy.
Membership Deliverables: Uptime, Gaining Skills, Projects you can be Proud of, and Fun!
- I always view volunteer time as the most precious resource DMS has.
- Uptime is sacred. People don’t like tossing membership fees into a vacuum. It really doesn’t matter if the machine works most of the time, for most of our members, they only care about the times when they need to use it.
- If it is good for the typical member, it is probably good for me.
- I approach very few policies/decisions in a vacuum. I discuss ideas with many stakeholders, newbies, power users, internal committee members, former and current committee chairs(across the space), and BoD members @Julie-Harris @j801496 @TJSmith before heading down a path. The policies I pursue don’t happen in a dark room during the middle of the night, they will commonly have very broad support.
Please keep this in mind when you are forming your thoughts. I/WE welcome constructive counter arguments, but once WE decide on a course of action, its throttles forward. Afterwards, WE are off to solve the next systemic issue. So much better than living in “Ground Hog Day” time loop that consists of repairing the same broken equipment or correcting the same behavioral issues with yet another new member because our training system is failing us.
I’m still smiling, hope you are too. Have a great day!
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