adding a DRO to a widebelt sander

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:23 pm

I am thinking about adding a DRO to my new widebelt sander.

I came across two units both made by Wixey- the same company that made the tilt box that I bought.

This one is intended for a lunch box planer, but looks to be a good fit for the sander. It is dirt cheap at $45. I am not wild about the way the amazon user adapts it to his powermatic planer, but feel it would better adapt to the big boxy sheet metal sander. http://www.amazon.com/Wixey-WR510-Digit ... 506&sr=1-7

This one is a tad more expensive- $80, but adds a remote read which may be nice http://www.wixey.com/remote-planer/index.html

Working against doing this is the fact that the platen cams in and out of location which would change the accuracy of the readout. There is also potential variation in the thickness of different grit sanding belts.

Any thoughts?

Pete

rbeche · Post by **rbeche** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:17 am

Pete, We used an Accu-Rite on our dual head sander. It was most helpfull by telling you how much to remove per pass. The belts were not inexpensive and if you removed .007-.010 per pass you could use the same belt for 4-5 weeks. When you overload them and pack them up you spend more time changing and cleaning belts rather than sanding. Ron

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 7:26 pm

Hi Ron, Thanks for the input. Was the accurite specifically intended for wide belts? Any link to it on line?

Pete

rbeche · Post by **rbeche** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 7:56 pm

Pete, They seem to work easiest on planers and sanders. Other machines would be harder to adapt them to. I think at the time it was $450.00 but we easily saved that the first 6 months in belts. Ron

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:06 pm

Ron, I am still unclear. Are you using a standard DRO and mounting it to the sander, or is this a unit intended to be mounted on these machines. In either case, how do they deal with zeroing it?

Pete