I can't be the only one

i have a jet 16-32 and i feel your pain,i hate having to change the paper it’s just not very easy even with the special hook tool that came with it.id never get rid of it though it works great and saves me a lot of sanding time.

-- working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

OOPS!! I got the name wrong. I have a Supermax, not Performax.

-- You can lead a horse to water, but you can't tie his shoes. Blaze Foley

OOPS!! I got the name wrong. I have a Supermax, not Performax.

- hairy

-- working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

I’ve had the same problem with my 25/50.

yes you are not the only one, sometimes i just wanna take a sledge hammer to it, it gets so frustrating trying to get the clip to grab the paper, then when you think its hooked, you fire up and wap, wap, wap, it didn’t stick right. ugh.

-- Living the dream

Yeah, they are a pain. I start at the outboard end and work to the inboard. They should really improve that clip on the inboard side. I will say that it has gotten easier they more I change the rolls, but it is not what I would call a snap by any means.

-- Bondo Gaposis

I have a Grizzly, so I dont know if this will work on the Supermax. I converted it to hook and loop with this conversion kit
The kit is for Grizzly’s dual roller models so I had some extra left over but the end results are worth the waste. It was easy to convert, just clean the roller and install the self-sticking hook. It makes changing paper much easier. I found that the paper lasts much longer because the added “cushion” greatly reduces heat build up, and there is no more “burning” of the paper. I did the conversion over 2 years ago and have only changed the paper twice, and that is using the sander on a regular basis.
The downside.
The conversion changes the diameter of the roller, so you have to custom cut paper from a continuous roll. I buy 50’ rolls. Before I did the conversion I could take about 1/128” depth of cut (1/4 turn of my wheel) without causing the machine to bog down. That has been reduced to 1/8 turn, so the sanding is a slightly slower process. Again this is caused by cushion the hook creates. On my machine there is a chip deflector running the length of the roller. The increased diameter of the roller caused the paper to rub on the deflector. I removed the deflector and ground off a little bit of the leading edge so it would clear the paper.
Overall this changed the paper changing ordeal from a multi-hour, swear inducing, nightmare, to about 15 minutes of “that’s no to bad”. I highly recommend it.

Yep – it’s a pain. I would rather sand with the wrong grit than change paper! I’ve developed a technique. It’s likely nothing new for you but I’ll share…

1. Start at the inboard side.
2. Feed enough into the clamp so the strip fills about half the width of the jaws. It’s hard to see, but get close.
3. Wrap the strip holding it tight to the drum. Keep the gaps between each pass to less than 1/16”.
4. Stuff the end into the outboard clamp. Get it as tight as possible.
5. Tension the strip against the outboard clamp.
6. Work any slack back to the inboard clamp.
7. Open in inboard clamp.
8. Feed the slack into the jaws of the inboard clamp.
9. Set the jaws of the inboard clamp as close to the outside of the drum as you can. This gives the spring on the clamp room to take up any shifting of the paper.
10. Repeat 5-9 until there is no slack. I usually repeat the set once.

I can get the job done in about 20 minutes

-- Steve - Impatience is Expensive

I have the Jet JWDS 16-32 and they seemed to have fixed the problems on earlier models. The paper is easy to load or change as long as you have the right width of paper. If the roll is much narrower than 3”, it won’t make it across the entire drum.

Earlier models were quite problematic.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

Amen Brother….thus the reason I seldom change paper!!
Love the sander….hate changing paper!

-- Mike

Yep – it s a pain. I would rather sand with the wrong grit than change paper! I ve developed a technique. It s likely nothing new for you but I ll share…

1. Start at the inboard side.
2. Feed enough into the clamp so the strip fills about half the width of the jaws. It s hard to see, but get close.
3. Wrap the strip holding it tight to the drum. Keep the gaps between each pass to less than 1/16”.
4. Stuff the end into the outboard clamp. Get it as tight as possible.
5. Tension the strip against the outboard clamp.
6. Work any slack back to the inboard clamp.
7. Open in inboard clamp.
8. Feed the slack into the jaws of the inboard clamp.
9. Set the jaws of the inboard clamp as close to the outside of the drum as you can. This gives the spring on the clamp room to take up any shifting of the paper.
10. Repeat 5-9 until there is no slack. I usually repeat the set once.

I can get the job done in about 20 minutes

- sras

Thanks everyone!

Steve, I do it kinda like you do. I start at the inboard end because it is so hard for me to reach. I try to get all the slack out at the outboard end. I’ll try it your way next time. Thanks!

I just watched a youtube video, the guy cuts rolls from a big roll. I might try that, I can make them a little bit longer. That might help.

I have only used the rolls from Rockler, made to fit the SuperMax.

-- You can lead a horse to water, but you can't tie his shoes. Blaze Foley

I have the same Jet model as Willie that I bought a few months ago. Like him, I have no trouble whatsoever. The biggest problem I ran into was cutting the taper on a few of them before realizing the user manual was showing it with grit side up, and I had the grit side down. Duh.

I buy my rolls from supergrit.com for a decent price. I go for the blue zirconia alumina when I can. Finer grits seem to be aluminum oxide only.

-- Half of what we read or hear about finishing is right. We just don’t know which half! — Bob Flexner

man all this sander talk is making me cringe im just about ready to change mine again,damn!

-- working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

I’ve not had a challenge getting my 19/38 loaded. I got mine down at Cinci Rockler, and when I was going out a guy was coming in, and he had just taken one home a bit before me. He was pretty convinced the little clamp piece on his on the infeed side, (near the motor) was bent. He was talking about a problem getting the roll to stay tight.

Is that sounding familiar? The Manager was taking care of him, and he acted like he knew the issue. Have you been over there to check hairy?

I cut my own paper from stock I get here. I get the 3” wide X weight x 10 yards. It leaves me with a slight amount over, but I can glue that down to fettle planes, sharpen odds and ends, whatever. The only tip I will give is lay your template piece down, and cover it GRIT UP DAMHIKT…..

-- Think safe, be safe

The only people who think you should cut sandpaper grit side up—especially 60 grit heavy cloth backed—are the manufacturers of utility knife blades.

-- Half of what we read or hear about finishing is right. We just don’t know which half! — Bob Flexner