My 1" X 42" Delta Belt Sander Died

[jerryd6818]

I'm having real trouble getting into baseball with cardboard cutouts in the stands!

Then you should be watching the Cubs if you can get the games. They don't have any cardboard fans in the stands. They do transmit a muted crowd noise but it is just a bit louder than pure silence.

As far as your new sander, I hope it works out for you. Several years back (read that a lot of years back) when I was accumulating shop tools I gave some serious consideration to Grizzly. Never pulled the trigger but thought about it.

[Colonel26]

I'm sure it'll be a great one Dale. A friend of mine has a Grizzly cabinet table saw with a 3hp motor that's a beast! It's a good saw.

[carrmillus]

My old Delta belt sander with the cast iron frame finally let loose after about 15 years of use. I think it can be repaired but I didn't have the time right now to disassemble it and put a new bearing in it. I happened to look at a flyer I had received from Grizzly Machinery and they had the 1 x 42 sander on sale for $219, $90 off the regular price. Although it did cost me 22 or $23 to have it shipped.
The Grizzly 1 x 42 sander appears to be identical to my Delta and its cast-iron construction and the placement of the sanding belt and the 8 inch disk sander. I tried to post Sunday about this, but for some reason my post dropped off or more likely I didn't enter it properly.

I will update you guys when I get it set up and how I like it. It's supposed to be here tomorrow.
New toy for my shop!

...........dale, it wasn't supposed to quit!!...........I drew some of the parts drawings for it when I worked there as a draftsman-1956-1978!!.......... ................................

[orvet]

...........dale, it wasn't supposed to quit!!...........I drew some of the parts drawings for it when I worked there as a draftsman-1956-1978!!.......... ................................

Well, it's only got 15 years on it and it's just a bearing that went out. I will fix it up with the new bearing and it will be good as new. Then I will have a second 1 X 42 in my shop. Then, maybe I will sell one, because I actually have a third one down to my dad's place that I'm letting him use because I really don't have room for it.

[orvet]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get these pictures of guys, it's been a very busy week and it seems like all I was doing was putting out fires cell phone issues (on my third new cell phone in five weeks. Customer service at T-Mobile has been good). And then life always has its issues and unfortunately so did the new Grizzly belt sander, but I will say their customer service was excellent! More about that later.

I tried to give you blow-by-blow pictures to give you some idea of what it's like to set up a new sander. I just kind of hit the high points because I didn't have time to do a video or a real in-depth tutorial.
I had purchased my Delta locally about 15 years ago so it was already assembled when I bought it. I have had various parts of the Delta apart over the years and I'm familiar with the layout, though some of the parts are different on the Grizzly than they are on the Delta, I was to discover much to my chagrin.

#1 – The box has arrived, 65 pounds of Grizzly 1 x 42 Sander

#2 – Top layer.

#3 – Its new resting place, right where the old one set.

#4 – unloading the top tray of parts

#5 – Second layer, bottom of the base of the machine

#6 – The belt housing assembly

#7 – The backside of the belt housing assembly.

#8 – Getting everything to bolt the two assemblies together

#9 – The two main components bolted into place without guards.

#10 – A casting problem with the upper idler wheel. A sharp edge sprue or something from the casting process that sticks up about .070". That will chew up the J weight belt in no time at all and the heavy belt just a little slower.

#11 – I always use some graphite cloth on the platens of my belt sanders. However the schematic for this Grizzly call so they built support. Regardless, some of the graphite treated cloth glued down with some tacky glue softens the support behind the belt and helps prevent chatter of the workpiece and also extends life of the belt.

#12 – Setting up the disk Sander and making sure the table is perpendicular to the disk.

#13 – The finished sander as I set it up for the test run.


I am going to close this post make another post world detailing some of the issues I encountered setting up this machine.
Nothing really major, just time-consuming.

[orvet]

I chose the Grizzly 1 x 42 sander because it seemed to have the same cast iron frame that my Delta sander had. My Delta sander had a bearing go out on the shaft that drives the belt. It makes sense it would go out because it's the one that receives the most stress - connecting the motor and the sanding belt. When the bearing in the Delta went out the squalling noise was unbearable. They are sealed bearings so I was not able to get any oil or grease into them and I stopped using it before I completely burn something up. Bearings are usually pretty easy to find but machined driveshafts are frequently not.

I put the Grizzly together and use their heavyweight 80 grit belt to give it a trial run. I felt it was louder than my Delta (before the bearing started going out) and it was definitely not as smooth, there was a lot of vibration in the new machine.

I really needed to get a 1 x 42 working because that's what I use to sharpen knives, especially kitchen knives and my wife has a pile of them for me to sharpen. I took the top idler wheel off of my Delta and put it on the Grizzly. It fit but the tracking was off, it would not adjust far enough to bring the belt fully on to the idler wheel. I noticed the tracking for the belt was a little bit difficult to turn. I took it apart and checked it out. The tracking bracket is made of cast iron and someone had buggered up the threads in the tracking bracket that the adjustment knob screwed into.
I also removed the bearing from the idler wheel and discovered that the bearing was pressed in the plastic or the plastic wheel was molded around the bearing I'm not sure which. There was no way to get the bearing back into the plastic wheel without possibly breaking it.
I was also missing a tiny little pointer that indicated the angle of the table on the disk sander.

I talked to the gentleman in the customer service department at Grizzly on Saturday, he checked his computer and found all the pieces I needed were in stock and he would send them out on Monday. Instead of sending a bearing and a tracking bracket he is sending the entire assembly which I thought was very decent of him.

I will wait until I get this Grizzly set up the way that I like and get the new parts installed before a pass judgment on it. I think it's a good basic machine and I think with the 8 inch disk sander it makes a very good price to value ratio for the dollar conscious knife mechanic.

I'll be happy to answer questions as best I can. My parts are supposed to be mailed on Monday so it will be a few days before have it running properly.
Feel free to ask questions, I'll answer as best I can.

[glennbad]

That looks like a dandy belt sander, Dale! What I find amazing is that you have that much available bench space.

[orvet]

That only because I took everything off the table and put it on my work benches.
To make you feel better Glenn I will post a picture of the benches.

[jerryd6818]

And you didn't consider a Jet or was a Jet too expensive?

[orvet]

And you didn't consider a Jet or was a Jet too expensive?

I didn't see the Jet until you mentioned it. I looked it up online and looked at a breakdown of it and it appears to be a direct drive not a belt drive, and I think that would be a very good system. It's a couple hundred dollars more but it'll probably last twice as long as the belt drive version. It's also probably much smoother and much quieter. I may have to go check it my local Jet dealer and see if he has one. It looks like the bomb!

[jerryd6818]

I considered buying a Jet in the mid '90s but went with the old familiar Delta brand. I've never been sorry. Unfortunately, it appears that Delta doesn't make that one anymore.

[orvet]

No, but that Delta is repairable I believe. I think it's just the bearing on the shaft that drives the sanding belt. Probably a $10 sealed bearing in a little bit of work.

[cudgee]

I chose the Grizzly 1 x 42 sander because it seemed to have the same cast iron frame that my Delta sander had. My Delta sander had a bearing go out on the shaft that drives the belt. It makes sense it would go out because it's the one that receives the most stress - connecting the motor and the sanding belt. When the bearing in the Delta went out the squalling noise was unbearable. They are sealed bearings so I was not able to get any oil or grease into them and I stopped using it before I completely burn something up. Bearings are usually pretty easy to find but machined driveshafts are frequently not.

I put the Grizzly together and use their heavyweight 80 grit belt to give it a trial run. I felt it was louder than my Delta (before the bearing started going out) and it was definitely not as smooth, there was a lot of vibration in the new machine.

I really needed to get a 1 x 42 working because that's what I use to sharpen knives, especially kitchen knives and my wife has a pile of them for me to sharpen. I took the top idler wheel off of my Delta and put it on the Grizzly. It fit but the tracking was off, it would not adjust far enough to bring the belt fully on to the idler wheel. I noticed the tracking for the belt was a little bit difficult to turn. I took it apart and checked it out. The tracking bracket is made of cast iron and someone had buggered up the threads in the tracking bracket that the adjustment knob screwed into.
I also removed the bearing from the idler wheel and discovered that the bearing was pressed in the plastic or the plastic wheel was molded around the bearing I'm not sure which. There was no way to get the bearing back into the plastic wheel without possibly breaking it.
I was also missing a tiny little pointer that indicated the angle of the table on the disk sander.

I talked to the gentleman in the customer service department at Grizzly on Saturday, he checked his computer and found all the pieces I needed were in stock and he would send them out on Monday. Instead of sending a bearing and a tracking bracket he is sending the entire assembly which I thought was very decent of him.

I will wait until I get this Grizzly set up the way that I like and get the new parts installed before a pass judgment on it. I think it's a good basic machine and I think with the 8 inch disk sander it makes a very good price to value ratio for the dollar conscious knife mechanic.

I'll be happy to answer questions as best I can. My parts are supposed to be mailed on Monday so it will be a few days before have it running properly.
Feel free to ask questions, I'll answer as best I can.

Does sound like good customer service, sadly lacking in a lot of companies in todays world, but the customer service you talk about sounds good.

[glennbad]

Have you been able to get things going with your grinder, Dale? Curious how it is treating you.

I have finally got my 2 x 72 NWG built and running. I still have a lot of adjusting and tweaking to do, but I feel like I'm getting closer to putting this thing into regular use.

[orvet]

Sorry Glenn, I forget to keep up with this. I'm trying to make some room in my shop and get rid of some of the junk that doesn't need to be there so that I can spend more time working instead of moving things so I have a place to put something I just worked on only to spend hours later on looking for the thing I had hidden from myself.. I'm making progress on the shop clean up though.

When I first got the the replacement parts in for the Grizzly 2 x 72 and got them installed I didn't like the vibration in the machine. So I did some adjusting and some dialing down on it and I still wasn't really happy with it. But the first time I used the Disc Sander on it I knew something wasn't right. I had a loose set screw that was causing the vibration. Now that I've got it all set up properly and tighten down I think it is an improvement over my old Delta. Hopefully the extra bearings the guy from the factory sent me will fit my Delta and I can get them both up and running. It would be handy to have one set up exclusively for sharpening.

[carrmillus]

.....the pictures sure brought back some memories!!!!.............. ...........