Delta Thickness sander?-Yea or Neigh?

[Tom Frei]

I am reading these reviews: http://www.epinions.com/reviews/Delta_3 ... ander?sb=1

They generally say its crap. Did they use a backer board when sanding? Who knows. I know one guy who has one, seemed to work ok. Just take light chunks off, but is it accurate enough for 100's of an inch?

[Randy Roberts]

I've used the 31-250 for about 7 or 8 years now and have to say I've been extremely happy with it.

You have to realize a number of things. It is not a planer, don't expect any thickness sander to do what it's not made to do. You need adequate dust collection, a shop vac is not going to hack it. You are generating a lot of heat sanding with these and need to both get the dust out of there but also cool the drum and wood. It will take bothering to get it tuned up correctly to get it to work accurately, just like any other tool you will be using.

Once adjusted accurately, mine has needed almost no screwing around with for most of those years. Granted I am an amateur builder, not a production line. It tracks accurately, it routinely thicknesses with 1-2 thousands variation across the board, and has been maintenance free.

I think it's design (fixed rigid drum and adjustable table) is far superior to the Jet, Ryobi, etc., that have an adjustable drum. I see no possible way of having an adjustable drum and not have it flex under load.

I would highly recommend it as long as you use it like a thickness sander is meant to be used. It does not work well as a planer or a hammer or a drill.

[Bob Gramann]

I agree with Randy. I've had the Delta 31-255x for several years. I had to tweak it to get everything into adjustment. Every now and then, I have to tweak the feed belt. It likes to wander sometimes and it moves so slowly that it takes hours to see if it is adjusted right. I'm guessing that I've made 60 guitars with it so far. I've had to replace the drive motor once (the gears that wore out were not available alone) and had to tighten some of the moving parts. I haven't seen another sander that I think is better. I would buy this one again if I didn't already have it.

[Tom Frei]

VERY COOL - Mine seems to be a newer model, I think it may have some of the table issues ironed out? This is 120V, Correct?

[Bob Gramann]

Mine is 120V. I didn't know there were table issues. Other than a little tweaking, I haven't had any problems with the table. The instructions on aligning it were pretty clear. I just looked at the reviews you linked to above. It's like they're talking about a different sander. I haven't had those problems. I tweak the feed belt adjustment occasionally. I had to replace the feed drive motor when a nylon gear wore out. After a few years, I had to realign the table once. That's it. It has worked consistently for me. One of the reviewers must not know to sand across the grain on resinous woods to keep the sandpaper from loading up. My sander is a reasonable tool.

[Darrel Friesen]

I have the 260X. Over the 3 years I've had it, it has been a good solid machine. As per Bob. I do tend to have to tweak the feed belt occasionally but that isn't very difficult. I would definitely buy one again.

[Paul E Buerk]

I have the 260X, purchased after a fairly long shopping period comparing various machines and considering building one myself. Overall, I'm happy with it as long as I use it for what it was designed for. The only thing I don't like about it is the height adjustment mechanism which consists of a toothed belt going around the posts. I'd rather see a more solid feeling drive like a chain, but adjusting the table periodically isn't difficult to do. For really thin pieces, a backer board is practically required for just about any drum sander. For things like headstock plates, binding, and other items down to about 1/16", it seems to work fine without it. Yesterday I did some thinning of binding down to .10" directly on the belt feed and it was within .01 the entire length of the piece.

IMO, if I had unlimited funds, I'd go with a nice wide belt sander, but unfortunately that's not the case. The Grizzly G0458 was my second choice, over the usual Jet 16-32, but wished it had a 4" dust port instead of the 2.5" shop vac port. The dust collection bag on the G0458 doesn't strike me as sufficient by itself, but I could be wrong. The G1066R 24" double drum was in the budget, but I couldn't get over taping the sandpaper to the drums. If that machine had the same attachment mechanism on the drums that the Delta had, then I probably would have got that machine. The guts of the machine look primitive but solid and I like that both ends of the drum were supported. The G1079R would have been a more attractive machine if it just had 2 more inches of width. The G0459 12" Baby Drum is worth considering if you can live with sanding plates to thickness and then joining them.