I have a large powermatic feeder that I use on the raised panel shaper. The feeder is larger in life than what I thought it was when I bought it or I would have gotten a smaller one. The wheels are rather large which makes it a little hard to run the end grain on narrow panels. I was wondering how belts work on these, like the Weavers have on them? Can belts be put on any feeder or just certain ones? If the belts are a good idea where is a good source? Thanks
From contributor do
Try J&G Machinery OR Western Roller
(Or possibly Acrotech or Axiom??)
For my narrow panels i move feeder out the way and use a mitergage with a push pad to raise narrow panels. Dont forget the continuous fence if you dont have one already.
From contributor Mi
Thanks for the response door shop guy. The way I do narrow panels right now is to back it with another one that is wider, basically run two at once, the narrow one first. Works alright, just thought it might be a better set up with belts.
From contributor Ma
Mike,
I had a belt on a previous feeder I owned,I didn't like it as much as standard wheels.The belts are good if you run alot of short pieces that would normally get stuck between the wheels.The bad thing about the belt feed is you can't get the feeder as close to the cutter as you can with wheels.With standard wheels you can run much narrower stock since you can straddle the cutter between 2 wheels,you can't do that with the belt feed.I found the issue of shaping the ends of narrow pieces alot easier to overcome with wheels,than not being able to run narrow strips with a belt feed.
From contributor Mi
Ahhh!!! I see, brilliant advice. Thanks Max.
From contributor Cr
I have the weaver shapers with belts on the power feeders. Weaver makes a conversion kit to put a belt on your regular feeder
From contributor Ji
I have an old Holzher I converted with wheels and belts from Western Roller.
The belts are somewhat fragile and I've been using regular Gates drive belts (B31 in my case) and they last a loonngg time. I get maybe a year or so of continous use from a set of three at a third of the cost of the WR replacements.
From contributor rw
Mike,
I am assuming you have a 3 wheel feeder. The belt drives work great for most operations but as Max points out wheels work better in other cases. The great thing is you can switch back and forth from wheel to belt as you need it. I loved the ability to get the most out of the feeder with the versatility of having both options. buy the belts also.
From contributor Mi
I appreciate all the responses. I think I might just leave my feeder the way it is because of the point Max made.
From contributor Br
For the few narrow panels you would have I'd tape two together and run. We do this with short rails, end to end, works OK. I looked into a belt feeder ($1100.00) and a Western Roller conversion ($400.00) Haven't done either, still tape them together. Coulda, shoulda, maby?...
From contributor Mi
Bruce, I've had a lot of those coulda shoulda maybe situations. Thanks for the info. I'm going to stick with backing it with another which is close to what you're doing minus the tape.
