# Anyone have a drum sander?



## Gary0855 (Aug 3, 2010)

I'm thinking of adding a drum sander to my shop of toys, like a 16/32 Jet.
does anyone own a drum sander?
How well do they work?

I do inlay work on humidors and think this tool will be an aid in giving me a nice flat finish.

Thanks for any info
Gary


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## woody woodturner (Jul 9, 2010)

thay do make them flat but a word of warning dont sand to much at a time it will burn your job :thumbsup::thumbsup: .Double drum is better 2 grades of paper


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## Barry Ward (Mar 22, 2008)

*Anyone have a drum sander*

I have the performax 10_20 and coudn't live without it.About the burning,some woods birdseye maple for one will burn if your not carefull,I never go finer than 180 max,I then finish with a RO sander or by hand.You WILL need a dust collector,shop vacs will not do the job right.been there tried it.


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## Gary0855 (Aug 3, 2010)

Ken, as careful as I am with the belt sander and even the Orbital, I find I get dips in the different types of wood. As they are not all the same as far as hardness goes.
I hope the drum sander will get a level surface with the 180 and do a finish sanding with 220 on the orbital.

Thanks for your input
Gary


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I have this one*

Gary this is a great dual drum sander and will "thickness" sand to precise dimensions....but it's a pricey, around $1900 piece of equipment unless you're going to get a payback in a short time. I make small boxes such as the one you show and it's invaluable for thin glue ups. It makes a lot of dust!!!!

General Dual Drum:
 Steel frame and heavy-duty base for greater stability*

High quality variable speed conveyor belt for long service life
Dual v-belt drive - 3HP motor
Two dynamically balanced 5-inch aluminum drums for extremely smooth operation


 3 HP 220V Motor
Variable speed, 3 & 20 FPM
Magnetic switch
 

*


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## thewoodnerd (Sep 18, 2009)

Keep an eye on craigslist, etc. I picked up a Performax (pre-Jet) 16-32 and a pile of sandpaper for $225 last year.

Getting/keeping an open-ended sander aligned can be a pain, after much experimentation I hit on using a light and a straightedge: http://www.thewoodnerd.com/articles/sanderAlignment.html


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## WoodMark (Dec 18, 2009)

I had a Performax 16/32. Pain in the rear. Reset kept kicking out when I was sanding less the 1/64 of an inch off stock that was short and narrow. Have since got rid of it and purchased a 26 inch Woodmaster and love it


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## Hammer1 (Aug 1, 2010)

I owned a Performax Supermax. My intention was sanding larger projects than yours, things like all the casings for a house or all the doors in a large kitchen, it was a complete failure in these type of applications. Since the drums just rotate with no oscillation, heat builds up, the paper loads and it will start to burn the work. The sander ruined a lot of stock, the paper was very expensive and a pain to replace. You could never tell when it was going to start burning a nice deep brown stripe in your project. I had an industrial cyclone dust collector, took whisper light cuts. It might start burning in the first 6" with new paper or it might start after several pieces, generally in the middle of a pass, didn't matter what grit, 40 to 180. Even if it didn't burn your work, it left straight striations in the work that had to be sanded out anyway. It caused so much aggravation and expense, I got rid of it.


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## Tom Layman (Nov 4, 2009)

I'm building my own. Check out this link http://lumberjocks.com/YorkshireStewart/blog/3640 if interested.


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## Gene Howe (Feb 28, 2009)

Had a Performax. Huge alignment issues, carrier belt delaminated, in general, a royal PITA! Sold it and built a V sander. 
Couldn't be happier with it.


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

Nice work Gary0855.

OhioTom,cool links on building drum sanders.Theres a guy,Howard Grivna(started Timesaver co.)who sells a manual;Principals of Widebelt Sanding & Data Reference manual.Its a little pricey at $100 but as I understand it,its the number one resource on the subject(the engineering side of abrasive's).BW


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## Dvoigt (Dec 6, 2007)

Wow I see alot of bad comments here about the drum sanders. If I had just read this post I would think a drum sander is a waste of time.

I picked up a Jet 16/32 on C-list and have nothing bad to say about it. I had read alot of meh reviews about the Delta version. 

So with my Jet I have never had "major" issues. I have trip the breaker several times, but that is just a balance of the grit of sandpaper, depth of cut, and feed speed. I usually error on the side of slow... slow speed, not deep cuts. I usually never sanded any thicker then a full rotation of the height adjustment handle (about 1/16" of an inch). 

I have only burnt paper when I was trying to hurry and over loaded it. Maybe only use like an 80 grit paper if your goal is to just make everything flat.

I will say that the adjustment can be a pain. I spent about an hour setting up the drum and I'm a little less then 1/64 off across the length of the 16" drum. So I'm ok with that. I haven't sanded huge things, 18x24 is about the biggest and I have no complaints.

I say go for it, I think you will love it, especially for the thin inlay work.


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## thewoodnerd (Sep 18, 2009)

Dvoigt said:


> I will say that the adjustment can be a pain. I spent about an hour setting up the drum and I'm a little less then 1/64 off across the length of the 16" drum


I also had a really hard time getting the drum parallel. But I came up with a way to using a straightedge and a shop light to get within a few thousandths pretty painlessly. You need a very good straightedge with parallel faces, then you backlight it while it's on the bed. You can eyeball this very easily to see if the light is even or not. Check out http://www.thewoodnerd.com/articles/sanderAlignment.html for details.


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## Bob Chapman (Jan 5, 2011)

I have a Performax 16-32 and really like it but it requires care in set up and use. Set up requires time and effort to get the drum parallel to the bed. I find that if you use finer than 180 grit you may get burns. Do not lower the drum any more than 1/4 turn to avoid burns. Changing the paper can be challenging but just take your time. You will still need to use a ROS but not nearly as much.


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