Comparing Drum Sanders

[Dave Tinley]

Does anybody have any comments on the Grizzly 24 inch drum sander? How would it compare to the Performax 22/44?
Thanks
Dave

[Jim Hager]

Drum sanders. Dave, I have had 4 drum sanders, still have two of them. Some good ones and some bad ones. Bad ones on my list are the Ryobi 16-32 for lack of power. It also was open throated and did not stay parallel. Grizzly 1066 dual drum 24", worst piece of machinery that I ever bought. It had so many issues that I probably don't have room here to describe them all. The worst of them were, Paper won't stay on, Feed belt won't adjust, throws rp doors across the shop, and the list goes on. :mad: :mad: :mad: If I were you, I'd stay away from the Grizzly. Mine is now a trot-line sinker somewhere in a deep lake in Texas :mad: :mad: :mad:

I now have a General 24" dual drum. Fine sander. I also have a 18-36 delta sander that I probably will either sell or give to my son one of these days. It is a good sander just now powerful enough or fast enough for my needs

I don't know anything about the performax unit you ask about so I'll just not comment.

[Kevin Murdock]

I now have a General 24" dual drum. Fine sander.

First off, let me state that I do not own a drum sander and therefore have no personal experience with using one in the shop. I am however looking into purchasing one in the near future.

The only problem that I see with the General and other dual drum sanders of the same design is that it doesn't seem to have the minimum thickness for sanding veneer strips off of the band saw. It only goes down to 1/4", where as the performax can go to less than 1/32"

Has anyone used plate of some sort to use as a riser to allow veneer sanding less than 1/4" on the General double drum sander? I'd be concerned about the double sided tape not being enough to keep the two pieces mated when passing under the dual drums.

/Kevin

[Per Swenson]

Hello Kevin,
I have a woodmaster 18 planer, molder, sander.
This is not the dedicated sander that you can see here,
http://www.woodmastertools.com/s/drum.cfm.
I can't say enough about the quality of their machines.
Made in the USA. There customer service is top notch.
We will be expanding to larger quarters soon.
and the big sander is first on the list.
All the best.
Per

[Richard Wolf]

Dave, I own a Shop Fox 26" drum sander. It is basiclly a Grizzly in white paint. I think it does a great job. The paper is a hook and loop type which is always going to be a problem staying on the drum at the ends. The instructions say to wrap the ends with clear packing tape which seams to work very well. I have also sanded veneer strips with no problems. It requires the use of a carrier board (3/4" ply) with a small piece of veneer glued (CA) across the bottom to act as a stop. I've only had the machine a short time and it replaced a Delta 18-36 which in my opinion was a piece of junk. I got a great price on the machine, $1550.

Richard