Converting SuperMax Drum Sander to Hook & Loop Sandpaper with Vic Tesolin! EthAnswers 

The only way over the years I learned to get the pitch and burned in resin out of the "sandpaper" and salvage it is to soak in warm water with TSP (tri sodium phosphate) added then pressure wash it clean, can't imagine that hook and loop paper would hold up, and no those rubber erasers are only minimally effective.

A few yrs ago I had made a video on my channel for my 19-38 describing how to attach the paper in the motor side clip for a friend (ie the one that is hard to see what to do), and that video has ended up quite popular and helped a bunch of people. I can see this video being useful and popular as well, I would wonder how much that extra height would throw off the thickness gauge and if you have suggestions to adjust that so you can pay attention to that again. I have never had the loose or overlapping paper when I installed my normal sandpaper on my 19-38, but then again I do not change the paper very often and took a lot of time to hold it tight and get it right when i do change it. Very cool option in any case. :) Will the acetone take off any remaining adhesive if you decide to go back to non hook and loop?

This was a fantastic conversion guide! Especially helpful was seeing the detailed process of applying the velcro to the drum and how you can use a wire or rope to measure the diameter and then figure out the angle to cut the velcro and sandpaper. I was curious though, have you tried using this method with different grits of sandpaper besides the 80 grit shown in the video? I'd love to hear how it performs with finer grits or those that tend to clog easier. Looking forward to future updates on this conversion!

Good idea although I think you would have to be careful to take light passes so that the heat doesn't affect the Velcro adhesion (or melting the Velcro).

I just purchased a used Grizzly baby drum sander that needs the velcro replaced (and I bought some on Amazon, but my initial test with it suggests the adhesive isn't good, and I'm going to try to use some 3M spray adhesive to overcome this problem). One question I want to ask here after watching the video: I think elsewhere I saw people wrap the sandpaper onto the velcro so that the seams between each wrap of sandpaper are opposite/crossing over the seams of the velcro (in other words, wrap the diagonal of the velcro in one direction, and then wrap the sandpaper in the other direction). That is not what happens in this video, but should that be considered a best practice / preferable, or is that completely unnecessary?

This machine was by far the biggest mistake in my shop . Will I spend $7.00 a foot on Velcro to convert it . Not in your life . Great presentation guys but I hate the sander . To many burn marks on my wood . It’s very difficult and to swap paper . Overall I would rate the machine at a 1 only bc ya can’t give it a zero n. Thanks but maybe iffn the price on the Velcro come down as well as the paper ,I might reconsider. Thanks for the video ! Cheers

How do you know what length to buy?