Supermax 25-50 review

[Susumu Mori]

Hi all,

I just completed the assembly of a new Supermax 25-50 and I want to share the experience.
This is my first drum sander. So, I can't really give you an expert review. Also, I have used it only for few days. A complete review needs at least 6 months of use, I guess, but because the information about Supermax 25-50 is so scarce, I hope this preview gives you some useful tips.

I bought it from ACME. I initially wanted 18-36 because of good reviews and much more available information, but somehow, 18-36 was sold out everywhere and Supermax sales person strongly recommended 25-50. I didn't want the sander too large and heavy, but 25-50 has the same footprint. So, I decided to go with 25-50, although it is rated 80 lb heavier. I could choose only a closed stand.

It came in three boxes by a truck carrier. The boxes were clean without any damages. The delivery guy said they can do much better job than big dogs and I believe it. He helped me to take the boxes to my walk-in basement (what a nice guy). I didn't realize how heavy one of the boxes was until he unloaded it from his dolly. So, you'd better be prepared. They are dolly-able but lifting would be difficult.

They were packaged very well, although I have minor dents in the base stand. This must be from the factory, because I didn't see any damage on the box. The assembly of the stand was quite easy. Then the problem was to lift the main unit on the stand. I believe the main unit is about 200 lb. I have two daughters but they would not be much help. So I decided to use a rope and pulleys. I know I'm crazy. I lifted it up little by little using stack of woods to a pair of chairs and then to the stand. After done all that, the only thing I can tell you is, get two guys (or strong gals). I would not recommend lifting it by yourself unless you have a chain or engine hoist.

All holes were aligned and assembly was very straightforward. The manual was so-so, but good enough to navigate you through the assembly. There is no problem with fit and finish. My understanding is that they came from Taiwan, but the quality was good. Definitely better than my recent experience with Laguna Driftmaster.

The installation of the table was also simple and eventless. The calibration of the drum height was needed; the motor side was narrower. The adjustment was very simple; just loosen four hex screws and turn a height adjustment screw. Time will tell whether it will hold the calibration but given the simplicity of the adjustment, it should be fine. I didn't have to adjust anything for the table. It trucks true, right out of the box.

The unit is super quiet. Actually the table makes more noise than the drum. The dust extraction is quite good. I don't notice any dust with my 2HP Oneida. I run my 1/8-inch veneers through the 80 grit paper. There was no problem. So far, I can only say good things about the unit...., ok, there were some minor negatives I want to mention;

1) there is a lever that raised the table of the motor side slightly (thus breaks the parallel), which is used to prevent a ridge when a panel wider than 25 inch is sanded. This lever was attached backward! It took me a while to understand what was happening. It was easy to fix, though. Also, this feature (the lever for the wide panels) is heavily advertised as "just flip a lever" in multiple videos but, in reality, we also have to loosen two hex bolts.
2) the close stand comes with wheels but it can go only straight. To make a turn, you have to lift one end of the 300+ lb machine. I have to think carefully about where to park this thing.
3) now, the big question is 25-50 or 18-36. On paper, 25-50 sounds better. It is $600 more expensive but you need to subtract the price of the wheel set (although the swivel wheels of 18-36 is better). Looking at them carefully, we can see both units share so many components; or it is more accurate to say, they are the same except for the drum unit. I believe the tables are identical too. To accommodate the extra length of the drum, 25-50 comes with an extension table. This table is a solid chunk of iron and impressively heavy, but it is obviously an afterthought. Its height can be adjusted but there is no mechanism to adjust the level (and mine is slanted). So, I don't have much faith on the edge of the 25-inch drum. Well, at least, the extension table is handy when I have to steer the wheel to make a curve. I can confidently grab it and lift the unit. It is so sturdy. I'm not sure the extra weight of the head unit is a good or bad thing. In a long run, it may give more stress to the head unit. For daily use, weight is often a good thing. Practically, the extra 7 inch is not a bit deal unless a panel hits the critical 18-25 inch of width. Another point is, we can run two 12-inch panel together, cutting the amount of sanding time by half. You know, one of the issues of drum sanding is, they are sloooow. Supermax recommend to skew the wood for better sanding. Extra 7 inch may give more room to skew wider panels. These are all hypothetical and I really have to use it much more to really appreciate the advantage of the extra 7 inch, if any.

In any case, I hope this mini-review was informative.

[Sam Blanchard]

Thanks for this review. I have been trying to decide between the 19-38 and the 25-50, so your review is most helpful.
Please do make sure and give us a follow-up when you have some more use on the unit.
(nice Moxon with the benchcrafted wheels, BTW ;))

[Michelle Rich]

I've had my new 19-38 for about a month now..zero complaints..very pleased..a a nice step up from my old performax. quality shows & does!

[Susumu Mori]

Hi Sam,

I have been into chair making in past few months and there was no single component the sander was useful for that. It was only recently a table top, 21 x 40 went through the sander and here is my experience.

For a table top, it is a godsent. I was really impressed. I used 80 grit for the bottom and 180 for the surface. Even with the 180, the scratch mark is quite prominent, which required a rondam orbit sander with 120-150 grit. I thought I would use it more often for smaller pieces such as rails, stiles, and legs, but the height adjustment requires a bit of work and rondam orbit sanding is needed later anyway. So, unless you have a lot of rails and stiles with the same thickness, it may not worth.

So, my impression is, it is a thicknessing tool, which excels for things regular planers can't handle; wide and/or thin materials. Once I start more projects with doors and drawers (again, for thicknessing purposes, sort of), I may find many more applications. We'll see.

As for 19 or 25-inch models, I was happy with the 25-inch model. One important question is the extension wings. Even though I tried my best, I got snipes on the board. The table is rather short and it was very difficult to hold the board horizontal. After the first panel, I immediately bought the extension wings but it made the required space considerably larger. So, the wings are usually detached. It takes less than 5 min to attach them with four bolts. It is yet to see if the level is maintained or I have to re-adjust the height each time.

So, so far I'm happy about the purchase, and it is indespensable for certain applications. The range of the applications have been somewhat limited but I hope it will find more later.

The amount of the dust is huge when you sand a panel but dust extraction is excellent and I have no complaint. It is silent. One mistake I made was that the sand paper was a bit loose and once there was a section where adjacent strip was overlapped, which immediately made a burn mark. Other than that, everything was flawless.

I'll follow up later as I use it more.

[glenn bradley]

I've had the 19-38 since September of 2013 and it has been well worth its weight. The footprint is sizable and so this is not for everyone's shop based on sheer size. I made mine fit by ditching some storage cabinets. The stand for the sander was horribly inefficient so I built one that is slightly smaller than the footprint of the machine itself.

313430 . 313431

I was concerned about the single 4" dust port but, as others have stated, the collection is excellent. Interesting about the table adjustment lever position. It should be on the outfeed side with the lever in the vertical position when not engaged. With the table well aligned I have found that I only needed to use this mechanism when the piece was wider than 18" or so and quite heavy. It would be nice to have that additional drum width for skewed feeding of stock that is being dimensioned.

For 'sanding only' (not dimensioning) I run with the grain. I use more grits than most folks according to what I read on the forum. The habit of only running 80 or 120 grit for everything may come from experience with machines that are reported to have difficult paper changes. The only thing that could make paper changing easier on the Supermax is if they put the spring loaded clip on the outside end of the drum instead of on the inside end. It can be a bit fussy for large hands or lighter paper (the paper doesn't want to stay straight and sneaks behind the spring clip). at any rate you can change paper in a few moments and I never hesitate to move to the next grit.

The table adjustment is super-easy and has stayed adjusted since day one. You can see that I have the infeed and outfeed tables and although these are not used like a lunchbox planer's tables to help with snipe, I have never had snipe problems. As with any machine that depends on a predictable feed path, you would have to support longer stock on roller stands or the leverage of the material's weight could certainly cause snipe.

I have also never had to readjust the feed belt since the initial setup. The feed belt may show signs of wear but, I would have to see a new one side-by-side in order to tell. It certainly has a grip like an alligator and I wish the kill switch cut power to the feed belt as well as the drum. I have never had an issue but, have read of some close calls and this is certainly on my mind while I am using the machine. The rather slow pace of the operation can tend to lull you into a state of nonobservance so, remain alert ;-)

[Bill McNiel]

313448313449
Congrats on the new "toy".

The extension wings are a must in my book.

I have been using the 25-50 for several months and remain very pleased with it. Paper changes are really easy (I start with the right hand clip as opposed to the instructions). To reduce "scratches" try running lighter passes and a slower feed. I know it seems agonizingly slow but remember you are usually performing two concurrent tasks (sanding and kinda planning). I have never had any snipe issues.

The straight line wheels are next to worthless IMHO. The photos show the wood base with lockdown casters that I built for the machine. It works really well and took almost 45 minutes to construct.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

So, it's been about 8 months since you've own the 25-50, can you give us an update on your thoughts of this machine? I'm in the market for a drum sander and the 25-50 is at the top of my list and I'd love to hear more about how you feel now that you've used it for awhile. What pros and cons do you have with it? Thanks

[richard poitras]

So, it's been about 8 months since you've own the 25-50, can you give us an update on your thoughts of this machine? I'm in the market for a drum sander and the 25-50 is at the top of my list and I'd love to hear more about how you feel now that you've used it for awhile. What pros and cons do you have with it? Thanks

Hoang, have you looked at the Woodmaster brand? I have a 38'' and it is a great sander.

Richard

[Bill Sutherland]

I've got the 19/38 and love it. I got it this spring and also got it from ACME (EXCELLENT service and information). I have used it on a number of little around the shop projects and it is well worth the expense for me.

[Susumu Mori]

Hi Hoang,

First comment I want to make about the drum sander is, I'm using it less frequently than I initially thought. When I bought it, I thought I would use it for many applications. However, even with my finest paper (#180), the linear scratch pattern of the sander puts me back to #120-150 RO sanding. So, many cases, I would just go straight to RO.

Maybe it is obvious for many, but I found the dram sander is basically a thickness-dimensioning tool. My planer with a helical head leaves very smooth surface. So, most of the parts go straight to RO. The dram sander comes handy for those can't go through the planer like wider than 12 inches or too thin for a planner.

For wide boards, it is absolutely godsend. It is truly, "wow". I haven't done anything wider than 25 inch, but I did wider than 19 inch. So, for this application I'm 100% satisfied.
It also shines for narrow strips or thin panel. After narrow ripping by a bandsaw, thin panels, or veneers, I don't know what else can do it like a dram sander. For this application, though, I think 19-inch width would be more than enough.

I'm currently working on a project with many drawers. I wonder if anybody tried a dram sander to flatten dovetails or fine-adjust the size of the drawer (both height and width).

It runs very smooth and quiet. Paper change is easy. The table belt runs true. The thickness (parallelism) stays put. Dust collection is good.

The wheels are not great. It wants to move only straight. I now put it on one of those mobility base with two rotating wheels but it is still very heavy and unwieldy. You need a really good one if you really want a good mobility.

[richard poitras]

I just got an e-mail from Rockler It states they have the Supermax 19-38 Drum Sander on sale for $1,399.00 each with digital readout, 8 abrasive wraps in a range of grits, plus an abrasive cleaning stick. Not sure if thats a good price but I thougt I would pass it along.

[Bill McNiel]

Susumu- the maximum thickness the SuperMax can handle is a little over 4" so "flattening dovetails" and fine adjustment of drawer widths is not in the picture. I do use mine for fine tuning the height of drawers 4" and under and it performs very well.

I do use mine for final thicknessing of shop cut veneers and milled material.

[Bruce Bradford]

Thanks for posting the pics of the cabinet you built. How did the unit mount to the table?
Bruce

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for posting the pics of the cabinet you built. How did the unit mount to the table?
Bruce

Since you mention "mounting to the table" I am thinking you are talking to me. If not, I'll just blather on anyway ;-) The upper and lower parts of the cabinet are torsion boxes. I designed it this way for a couple of reasons;
1. I wanted to take good advantage of the footprint and two rows of narrow drawers were "too narrow" for my purposes. A torsion assembly is self-supporting over wider spans.
2. The upper "box" has rabbeted front and rear panel that are milled to go in like a inset-box-lid (think of a fitted sort of cork). This allows me to bolt the unit from below just as on the steel stand. I use large fender washers to spread the load of the bolt tension. I then screw in the "cork" front and rear panels for increased rigidity.

You can see the access openings for the bolts and the holes that allow access for a socket in the pic below.

333080

This shot from the rear shows the screw in "cork" in place; same treatment in the front.

333081

[Andy Fahl]

Thanks for this thread. I'm looking at the 25-50 and being able to hear about your experiences is helpful

[Rick Fisher]

That looks like a really stout machine. Nice choice..