Small widebelt sanders?

[Dave Cav]

I'm considering upgrading to a small widebelt such as the Grizzly G9983 or G0527 to replace my Woodmaster. I can probably afford the G9983 now but the G0527 would be a stretch. I don't have the space, dust collector or amp capacity for a used Timesaver or other full size pro model. I don't do face frames so the width isn't a huge factor.

As far as I can tell the last "small widebelt" thread was about two years ago. Anyone want to comment on their experiences with these or their fraternal twins with white, gold or other paint jobs?

thanks

[Carl Beckett]

Hi Dave,

Not exactly your question - but I have a grizzly dual drum. A used 24" widebelt I picked up off CL. And then also a small 13" Reliant 'widebelt'.

Im going to sell the dual drum. And eventually the Reliant just because its redundant but I want more experience with the larger machine first.

That Reliant works great! The only time I go to the drum sander is with a wide panel. I picked it up for $200 off CL (a steal, but even if double that would easily be worth it) - has become my favorite. The 24" full size widebelt I got for $1000 used (and put a static phase converter with it).

[Paul M Miller]

I have had the G9983 for about 5 years and could not be happier. I use it for almost every project. I joint, plane, and then sand to final thickness, all rail, stile, and face frame pieces. But where it really shines is on glued up panels. I try to keep under the 15" width so I can run in one pass. I tried a wider panel (completed door) once, and got some waves from the oscillation. I think that can be fixed by adjusting the platen, but I didn't mess with it. Changing belts takes about 30 seconds, and the belts last a long time. I've never used a drum sander so I can't compare the two, but from what I've read, a wide belt is a lot faster. I have it mounted on 3 laminations of 3/4" plywood and 4" casters. It has really cut down on the time I spend with my ROS. Can't say enough good about it. If you were closer to Michigan, I'd be happy to demo it for you.

Paul

[Dave Cav]

Thanks for the input. Mostly what I do is furniture so the relatively limited width is probably not an issue. If you have been using yours for five years and are still happy with it and it's doing it's job, then it's probably a good machine. I have been using my Woodmaster for a year and a half, and some days I would just about give it away.

[Bruce Page]

Dave, what don't you like about your Woodmaster? I love mine.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Dave, what don't you like about your Woodmaster? I love mine.
Ditto! I like my woodmaster more the more I use it!

[Dave Cav]

I don't know; maybe I just need to use it more and refine my technique. I was having a terrible time with it wrinkling and tearing the paper and burning, and so I finally replaced the velcro and it works MUCH better. I still find it cumbersome to change the paper, and I'm still getting a lot of parallel marks across the boards that take a lot of time to sand out with an ROS.

I will admit that for quick utility sanding it's hard to beat. I was making a base to hold three of my sharpening stones, using a piece of second or third hand 3/4" plywood that was pretty beat up. A couple of quick trips through the WM and it was clean and flat, so for stuff like that it's great.

[Jim Andrew]

I've had the G9983 for a couple years now, and it is great. I read everything I could find about drum sanders, and decided to skip them. I did have experience in a shop with a big widebelt, so knew what they are capable of. Only difference I can tell from mine and the big ones, is your belts are much smaller, and you have to reverse the wider panels and run them twice.
Glued up panels sand down great, even wide ones, my method is to surface my lumber to 7/8", glue up the panels and then use the widebelt with 60 grit to get them close and then switch to 120 grit to finish. One caution, get the glue off your panels before sanding, and don't sand boards on edge. Use your edge sander for edges.

glue up

[Dave Cav]

Thanks Jim, more good info. And I already have a nice Acme edge sander. One of my favorite tools.

[Steve Kohn]

I've had the 9983 for about 2 years. I bought it after running a Ryobi 1600 drum sander attempting to sand panels flat. Did I mention that I absolutely hate sanding! I gave up on the Ryobi due to the well documented issue of keeping the sandpaper on the drum. I hate sanding so I decided to drop the bucks on the WB. I love it and use it for almost every project. It is simply so useful. Yesterday I used it to sand some 1/8 inch strips that became shim stock for the current project. Then today I used it to flatten a glue up that is 48 inches long and 24 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Oh by the way, did I tell you guys on my feelings about sanding?

+1 on the comment about removing the glue before running thru the sander. Those belts are pretty darn expensive to gum up with glue.

[David Kumm]

If you find a nice 10 year old or so Sandya Win consider it. Last of the small euro sanders. Polyurethane glue- generally not my favorite- is great for panels. Doesn't muck up the belts and is particularly good in a drum sander as they burn pretty easily. Dave

[Steven Hsieh]

The Grizzly G9983 sander beats the shop fox W1813 and the Steel city 55225. (shop fox and steel city are both made in same factory, dont know about grizzly)
Grizzly beats both of them of their horsepower (5HP). Steel city is 3HP and Shop fox is also 3HP.

The shop fox W1689 is the same thing as Grizzly G9983. Just repainted and rebrand. 200 bucks more if you buy it on ebay.

Take your pick of color.

[Kelby Van Patten]

I have the G0527, and have been using it for about a year. Overall, it is really a nice sander. Simple to change belts, and there is no snipe at all due to the four rollers. I have, however, had a couple of issues. The tracking on the sanding belt has been inconsistent, and I have struggled to get it adjusted perfectly. Second, I've had some kind of problem when the belt is under load, and it travels past the trip switch and shuts the machine down. I've spent a lot of hours with Grizzly customer support on the phone, and while the problem has improved, it's not completely resolved. Still, I would rather deal with these relatively minor issues than the huge headaches I had with my old Delta 18x36 drum sander.