Drum sander insanity?

[Allen Grenz]

Hey Creekers.. First post for me. Not a big poster but have been reading for yrs. I'm up against a wall on sanders right now... I have a lot of time based projects looming and find myself short pressed for a drum sander.... This of course is a want item but money is not unlimited if you know what I mean. I'm fairly new to wood working and have previously done scrape?sand work by hand.... I have a Grizzly 604x jointer and Dewalt 735 planer..... both have Bryd shelix heads in route as I'm tired of playing with HSS knives....This means sanding out scallops I assume with the shelix heads, as well as being limited in the flattening department due to already crunched width capacity.. Upcoming I have a few built-ins, a few cabinets with maple glue-up tops and a cherry staircase to make from scratch among other things.... My question for you.... the more experienced .... is this... I can pick up a jet/perfomax 22-44 for 1000 bucks... is this a good sander? Will I actually be able to run up to 44" material like doors and counter glue ups on this machine..? If not how about the Supermax machines? Theres no way I can afford a Wide belt sander so what are the limitation on these open ended drum sanders... ? I have run across a few 26-37" supermax and grizzy machines used, would this be a better all around option..? considering more money of course,,,, thanks for the help cause I feel like I need it right now...lol

[Mike Cutler]

Allen

The 22/44 is a great machine, but it is slow. It will take a lot of passes to get everything done.
I think for your requirements you would be better served with a dual drum sander. Be advised though that they require a pretty good dust collector to be used. I have a 26" dual drum sander and my Jet DC1100 is nowhere near enough.
You need the dust collector to stop the sanded particles from falling back onto the wood surface in between the drums, not just the health issue aspects. It's gotta be a good one.

[John Lifer]

Agree with Mike, but it would be better than a hand sander. You will need to ma

[John Lifer]

Agree with Mike, but it would be better than a hand sander. You will need to ma arggg tablet. Make numerous passes to remove much material. I like my 16/32 but I think a big job would be pushing it. If you do a lot of big jobs I'd be looking for a used dual.

[Mike Wilkins]

Agree on the dual drum sander, and its requirements for adequate dust collection. Don't try to think a single stage unit will be up to the task. The dual drummer is used mostly for sanding after the wood has taken a trip through the planer, to remove the scallops. You still have to do the finish sanding before the finish.

[Rick Potter]

You might want to check out the woodmaster line. Built like a tank, with really good dust collection. They are not open ended, so that is something to consider. I bought a 36" wide model thinking I would use it to run completed cabinet face frames through, but found, in my case, that I prefer to run the parts through first and then assemble, because of the cross grain scratches that needed to be worked out. In either case, you need to finish sand, but doing the parts first keeps that to a bare minimum. What I am trying to say here is that, being a hobbyist, I should have bought the 24". Lately, I have been planning to split the drum into two grits, side to side. Just another option.

Hope this helps,
Rick Potter

[Jeff Duncan]

My recommendation would also be a decent drum sander. I had the Powermatic for several years and it did a fine job as long as you learn to use it within it's limitations. Before that I use an open ended Performax 16/32 which also worked fine....again, within it's limitations. I did not like to sand anything wider than 16" as with a cantilever design it's very difficult to keep things perfectly flat.

My second recommendation would be to find someone in your area with a widebelt willing to either rent you time on it, or sand pieces for you. Having a widebelt to use will be like going from a handsaw to a table saw, it saves you huge amounts of time and enables you to flatten and sand wide pieces like table tops in minutes vs hours.

good luck,
JeffD

[John TenEyck]

OK, I'll take the opposite tack. If you are a pro woodworker, definitely get a dual drum sander or wide belt sander. Faster, better, all those good things that a pro values and needs to make money. But it sounds like you are a hobbiest, like me. I have an 18x36 Delta open end sander. Bought it used for $500, and I have sanded hundreds and hundreds of BF on it with no complaints and excellent results. These things are not abrasive planers. As others have said, you can only take off a little per pass; realistically 0.005 - 0.008", max.. Anything more and they will stall. But they do a great job of getting rid of planer marks, flattening a glued up panel, and making anything you run through flatter and more uniform than you've ever achieved by hand. I generally plane about 0.020 - 0.030" thicker than finished thickness, and then take two or three passes per side to get to my final thickness. Sure it takes a while, but when it's done your build will go easier and finish sanding is a snap. I have sanded several panels over 30" wide. You have to open the outboard end a few thou to prevent a ridge from forming at the end of the paper, but that takes all of about 2 minutes to set. The sander has no problem sanding those wide panels, but you probably will. It is hard to feed a big wide, long panel into the machine and catch it coming out while keeping it perfectly flat on the table. Some type of auxiliary support is almost demanded, but not easy to set up. But with a 24 or 26" dual drum sander you don't even have a chance to sand those panels. And my 1100 CFM dust collector has no trouble keeping up with the Delta sander.

Really, you have decide what you need to do vs. what you'd like to be able to do and go from there.

John

[Mike Cutler]

John TenEyck

I used to have a Performax 16-32, and loved it. I thought that once I got the bigger sander I wouldn't need it any longer and sold it.
To this day it remains the only tool I regret ever selling. I ran some pretty big stuff through that little sander. Biggest was a 5/4x27"x10' Jatoba glueup.

[Allen Grenz]

Wow, Thanks for all the response guys!! I certainly don't make a living with my machines... Just a hobby or at best make a few bucks towards tools or projects for friends and family.. I fully realize that these tools are not planers or a replacement for finish sanding... I just want to save some time as well as get a better(flatter) surface... As was mentioned about renting time on a wide belt, the closest one is probably at least 60miles from me.. Same with a drum sander probably.. So I don't really have the option to try one out.. It sounds like the consensus of those that have or used the Jet open end sanders seem to be pleased with them... This morning I did try to contact a guy that has a Woodmaster 718, which appears to be a planer/molder/sander machine of some sorts... He does want a pretty penny for it though... I really would mainly use a sander for glue ups, stair tread and risers, maybe a door or two but it would probably be better to hand sand because of the cross grain.. I would probably run rails and stiles through before assembly like was mentioned above... So maybe I really don't need a huge machine... BTW, as to the dust collection... yeah that's another thing I need to upgrade... I run a HF unit with a homemade cyclone and its inadequate for what I already have...Thanks for the help keep it coming.. Allen

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm happy with my Jet 16/32. Is it a wide-belt? No. Would I love a dual drum sander or wide-belt? Sure. Would I have bought the 22/44 oscillating drum sander if it would fit in my shop? Yes.

But this is a hobby for me, and my workshop is very space challenged.

As to the dust collection, I can't imagine using the HF I used to own with my 16/32, much less a larger drum sander. You will need better dust collection. I still always wear a mask when using my drum sander. I can see the particle count go way up on my Dylos when I am sanding. And this is through an Oneida 5HP dust collector.