Woodmaster Drum vs Grizzly Widebelt Sander

[Darrell Bade]

I have been saving my pennies for a 15" wide Grizzly widebelt sander because I have no doubt that it is a better option than the Jet 110 Volt drum sanders even though it is a bunch more money.

I was wondering about the Woodmasters. They have 5 HP which is no comparision to the Jet and are on sale for a reasoable price comparable to the widebelt. Does the widebelt still stand above a drum even when you get up to a serious drum with good HP like the Woodmaster?

[Gary Max]

I have owned a woodmaster planer for 15 years and give the company high marks.
Several years ago I needed some parts and they went way out of their way to help me and keep the cost down.

[Matt Meiser]

This is based on my experience with small drum sanders, my friend's Woodmaster, and his 15" wide belt.

There commonality between a drum sander and wide belt sander really pretty much ends at them both being wide sanders, assuming the Grizzly you are looking at has an oscillating belt. Drum sanders leave a straight scratch pattern and because the paper is "reused" quickly tend to heat up more meaning finer grits tend to load and burn more quickly. On the other hand the wide belt can leave an almost finish-ready surface and the large belt has a lot more time to cool before it comes around. And the oscillation feature obscures the scratch pattern.

When I took my kitchen doors to his place, we used the Woodmaster to level any joint unevenness, then used the wide belt on all of them. After, they just needed a quick sanding with 220 and all the edges broken to be ready for finish.

[Rick Fisher]

A Wide Belt typically sands with a platen .. That is the biggest difference. I had a Wide Belt 15" without a platen and it was slightly better than a drum sander.

I have owned a few drum sanders and they where good machines, saved me buckets of time ..

I have a wide belt now and love it .

The thing to consider is power. The Woodmaster is 5hp .. so it should run on a 30 amp 220V circuit. The wide Belt of similar size will start at 10HP 220V
And probably require 3 phase power after that. Mine has a 12hp x 220V PH3 motor and its only a 25" wide machine. If it where a 36" it would come with 18hp.

The wide belt is a much more capable machine.. throw an 80 Grit belt on it and you can literally hog off mountains of material. The thing is .. I never do .. lol

End of the day, if you get a decent quality sander with some power.. you will use it way more than you think.. Even for just making something a touch thinner. You can run glue-up's through or make 1/2 x 1/2 square stock ..

[Rick Lizek]

The big seperation between the widebelt and drum sander is:
1 Longer paper...rums cooler.
2 Oscillation...minimizes linear scratches.
3 A platen...the big difference as it yields a finer finish which alllow the piece to go right into the finishing process. A drum sander leaves small scallops similar to a planers which must be random orbit sanded.

My personal favorite sander based on 40 years industrial experience is the stroke sander. Yields a great finish, very affordable and doesn't need huge three phase motors. In one shop we had a widebelt and three different types stroke sanders, one being a through feed production machine.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Stroke-Sander/G5394
Also used in the metal working industry. Stroke sanders are very versatile machines. More than a widebelt, by far.

[Kent A Bathurst]

My personal favorite sander based on 40 years industrial experience is the stroke sander. Yields a great finish.........very versatile machines. More than a widebelt, by far.

Rick - I have a couple questions. I have never seen, much less used, a stroke sander.

1] It seems that a drum or widebelt would be more consistent at leveling uneven surfaces?......[although the stroke would certainly be a step up from my ROS]
2] Dust collection.....is it even possible with a stroke sander?

Thanks

Kent

[Rick Lizek]

Of course dust collection is possible on a stroke sander.
If you glue panels with the right procedure you only need to sand the surface, not use the machine to level the panel. Sanders only remove wood in the thousandths, unlike planers. We used stroke sanders to sand veneer panels which shows the sensitivity of the machine with a skilled operator. Just because you don't see stroke sanders in the hobby mags or Norm didn't have one, that they are obsolete.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Of course dust collection is possible on a stroke sander.
> A-HA!!. I opened the operator's manual on the Grizzly - I had not seen a photo of one with dust collection connected. Now I get it. I was struggling with how to put a pick-up at the platen - hadn't considered pickups at the belt drums.

If you glue panels with the right procedure you only need to sand the surface, not use the machine to level the panel.
> Yep - I'm all over that. I nearly always only need a card scraper along the glue joints, often not even that, sometimes a scraper plane. I was asking the question from the standpoint of understanding the operations and capabilities of a stroke sander v. drum sander and/or widebelt, not from the standpoint of good v. poor glue-up techniques. I take it from your reply that the other two are better suited to leveling and, I'm guessing, thickness sanding thin material.

Sanders only remove wood in the thousandths, unlike planers.
> Oh, I COMPLETELY understand the difference - thanks. ;) For example, I literally just finished emptying out a 55 gal DC drum that was filled mostly with planer and jointer shavings. The Fein vac bag connected to my ROS was replaced when I last emptied that drum, and it is not half full yet, and it is in use many, many more hours than the other two........

We used stroke sanders to sand veneer panels which shows the sensitivity of the machine with a skilled operator.
> Makes perfect sense. Someday I might get into veneering - good to know.

Just because you don't see stroke sanders in the hobby mags or Norm didn't have one, that they are obsolete.
> Dropped FWW years ago; never got into Norm. I don't think I implied that I thought they were obsolete - I was just askin' about something I did not understand.




Thanks for your insight.

Every time I am in the middle of table tops [3 out of 8 done, and one of the remaining is 42" x 86"], sitting here in the evenings with my headphones on, ROS in one hand, beer in the other hand, I start thinking about sanders...............And - not just leveling/sanding table tops. Legs, aprons, stretchers, chair arms, the endless army of square spindles on A&C designs..................I almost can't afford the beer necessary to spend all that time driving an ROS. :D

Kent