Carbatec 400 mm Drum Sander Issues

[ozziebluesman]

I have a Carbatec 400 mm wide drum sander that has been a great work horse for nine years and I have used it carefully especially only taking small thickness passes so not to overload the machine. Early in its life the motor that drives the feed belt stopped operating. Carbatec replaced the motor and the machine operated fine for a few years but it died again. Carbatec informed me they could get a new motor for me however it was going to be about $300. Ouch! So a good friend who is a mechanic made one good motor out of the two swapping a few parts. So the machine worked again for a few years but recently it died again. Carbatec said the motor is no longer available.

Has anyone else on the forum had this problem as I know a few of you use this machine? Can a motor be sourced here in Australia? It is a pity I can't use it as the rest of the machine works well.

Any advice or heads up would be greatly received.

Cheers

Alan

[Crafty Fox]

The Hare & Forbes DS-1632 machine looks almost identical to the Carbatec one, so perhaps they'll be able to help?
Let us know if you have any success. Good luck.
I have a love/hate relationship with my Carbatec one; the motor trips very easily. But one soldiers on..............

[ozziebluesman]

Thanks Ken.
I will try them.
I feel the same regard the Carbatec machine.
I know it well now and fitting the paper is not the difficult job it used to be.
Just take it easy and it did the job for me.
Cheers
Alan

[kiwigeo]

Bldi drum sanders....the feed belt on my Jet 16/32 has never tracked properly. The entire belt feed assembly is out of whack and will have to be replaced. Sick of dicking with the thing.

[peter.coombe]

I have one, probably close to 20 yo now. Never had a problem with the feed belt motor but I still hate changing sanding belts.

[kiwigeo]

Pete have you had to change the feed belt? My problems only started when I stuck a new belt on.

I have one, probably close to 20 yo now. Never had a problem with the feed belt motor but I still hate changing sanding belts.

[peter.coombe]

Pete have you had to change the feed belt? My problems only started when I stuck a new belt on

.

No. When it was new the motor was noisy and I was expecting it to fail, but with a bit more use the noise went away and has been problem free ever since.

[PeterG]

I've had a Performax 16-32 for around 17 years, given it hell and it's never missed a beat, Never had to touch the tracking.
Probably until tomorrow!

[kiwigeo]

Let's touch base after you've replaced the feed belt

These machines have a number of weak points. The feed belt motor/gearbox is a single unit. The gears are cheap plastic with a dollop of lubricant applied during assembly in the factory. If one of the gears strips as happened to me....you're up for a whole new motor/gearbox.

I've had a Performax 16-32 for around 17 years, given it hell and it's never missed a beat, Never had to touch the tracking.
Probably until tomorrow!

[J.F. Custom]

Just for the benefit of everyone that might have read this;

I reached out to Alan directly to ask a few more questions as what he had been informed by Carbatec did not sound right, but I thought I knew what might have caused the wrong information. The short of that is this -

The Carbatec machine has not changed in over ten years and is still the current model, albeit blue now. Parts are still available, including the feed/conveyor motor Alan requires, along with other parts should he need more than that. The confusion has come from a well-intentioned, but misinformed staff member who confused two older model machines . You see, Carbatec have also sold the JET wide drum sander models 10/20, 16/32 and 22/44 over the years, along with the current 18/36. Unfortunately these older JET model parts can no longer be sourced. The manufacturer no longer makes and can not obtain parts for the old models, at least at this time. Hence, JET can not supply and Carbatec can not supply them in turn, aside from anything they already had on hand (not much)...

So Alan will be able to be helped with his Carbatec unit , but those of you with JET models may struggle should anything go astray in future.

As an aside, I also used to have the same Carbatec model and it was my go-to machine for many years. Outside of the frustration of having to work within its ability when I really just wanted to do a faster, heavier cut (?!*%$), I also never had any issue other than gummed paper or stalling. Sold it only when I moved state and sold most of my gear...

Cheers.

[ozziebluesman]

Hi to everyone,

I would like to give some feedback on the Carbatec 400 mm drum sander issues I posted sometime ago.

After talking with Jeremy via a few emails we arrived at the parts that were required to fix the sander. The three parts were the feed belt motor, the PC board and the feed roller. I decided to bite the bullet and order in the parts as the rest of the machine is in very good condition. This machine is just so handy to have in the workshop. After the parts were assembled we then had an electrician check it over to make sure the motor and PC board were safe. Today we assembled the sander with the new parts and away she went. I even have a belt speed control again now which is a big advantage. I need to spend time with the sander to get the right tension on the feed belt but everything looks and sounds good.

I would just like to say a big thank you Jeremy for his help and I am very happy to have my drum sander back working better than ever.

Cheers for now

Alan