Performax was purchased by the parent of Jet, WHT. They kept the name for awhile, but eventually changed to Jet and associated white paint scheme.
Parts should be available from Jet.
Some folks love drum sanders, others hate them.
I have a Performax 16/32, purchased in the late 90's. I initially had the same problem mentioned by Gene Howe - my conveyor belt would not track properly. At the time this was new, called Performax and they told me the same as the instructions. I could never get it to track correctly.
I later ruined the belt by sanding thin material (< 1/8in) for a friend. The drum contacted the belt in spots and the belt lost its abrasive, so the wood slipped.
I bit the bullet and purchased a new belt. Tracking problem solved. So the original belt was the issue.
The drum sander produces a LOT of heat. Take light passes, as in 1/4 or max 1/2 turn.
Drum sanders can easily burn the wood. I had some instances when I put on a new strip of abrasive and the first pass developed gum/resion streaks which burned the wood and I had to throw away the strip. This was with very light passes. Some woods more than others.
It is very easy to burn the wood with a drum sander. The heat can melt resins in the wood, they solidify on the belt, then burn the wood. If you see dark streaks, this is what happened.
I switched to the Klingspor blue zirconia abrasive. More expensive, but it develops much less heat and so far has not gummed up, so I actually get good yield.
http://www.woodworkingshop.com/categ...MINUM+ZIRCONIA
Another problem I had was that no matter how I fed the wood, and despite the light passes, I would get a dip in the centre of the wood compared to the ends. Since I only have used this one drum sander, I cannot tell if it is my technique vs the machine.
