Getting stuck in a large sander

[Wade Lippman]

I don't even know what it is called, but I am referring to the large sanders that look like planners, with conveyer belts and all that.

Well anyhow, several pieces got stuck in and sanded down 1/8" or so; I finally managed to force it in and it ran okay then. My instructor said it is because I didn't have the sandpaper down far enough to grab the wood adequately, but that doesn't make much sense to me; as it should have been easy to push, and shouldn't have worn down the grove.

So, any ideas what I might be doing wrong so it doesn't happen again? And, any idea how to reduce the defect? It is too big a board to start over. An orbital sander hasn't hidden it at all. Taking off enough wood to actually flatten it will leave the wood too thin; I just want to mask it. It happened 3 times, but two of them can be on the underside of shelves; the third can't go away.

Thanks.

[Doug Miller]

Geez, Wade, you scared the stuffins out of all of us with that subject line!

I had visions of you with one arm jammed in the thickness sander all the way up to the shoulder, as you type frantically with the other hand, hoping desperately that someone will tell you how to get loose before you get pulled the rest of the way in and swallowed entirely! Glad to see it was only wood.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

[Wade Lippman]

Years ago I saw a cartoon showing a fax of a tie coming out of a fax machine. The captions was "Oh my God; there has been a terrible accident in out Boston office!".

No, just a few 16x33 pieces of red oak.

[Scarfinger]

About 20 years ago I was working in a cabinet shop, and heard a co-worker yell "Shut it OFF!!" I turned to see that he was running face frames through a giant twin drum sander. This was a serious machine, with 10hp motors for each drum, plus a separate 5hp motor for the feed rollers. The moron had reached THROUGH the frame to adjust the thickness with the hand wheel, and the frame had caught him above the elbow, pinching his arm against the infeed table. I ran over and got it shut it off before it sheared his arm clean off. He got away with a bruise, but my heart was racing the rest of the day.

Paul.