Drum sander in unheated building?

[Zachary Hoyt]

I have read threads here on Sawmill Creek for years, when I was searching for opinions on secondhand machinery I was thinking of buying, and I've been grateful for all the help these forums have provided me. I should have joined a long time ago, but I am glad to be here now and hope to be able to be of some help at some point.

I build stringed instruments part-time and am thinking about buying a Supermax 19-38 drum sander. I think that a drum sander of that size will be a big help to me with preparing wood for fretboard blanks, guitar and fiddle bodies, overlays and binding strips, and with flattening glued-up rings to make banjo rims. I have a heated workshop about 16x24' where I do most of my work, and the planers, jointer, tablesaw and radial arm saw are in an unheated but enclosed building since there is not room for them in the heated shop. I am wondering if anyone has used a drum sander in an unheated building and if the temperature fluctuations are a problem. I don't run the planers below 20 degrees since they don't seem to like it, but I can plan my work so as not to need to and the saws and jointer don't seem to care how cold it gets. I could plan my work with the drum sander for relatively warmer days, or if it needs a more controlled environment I can put it in the heated shop, it'll just be a bit crowded. I will be very grateful for any advice about this. Thank you very much.
Zach

[Carlos Alvarez]

Well, my shop is unheated, but I live in AZ. I have on occasion worked in 45 degree weather out there. Drum sander didn't say much, and only shivered slightly.

[Art Mann]

Yes, I have used a Jet 16/32 drum sander in an unheated and uncooled building many, many times. No, I have never noticed any adverse effects. Where I live, the temperature inside the shop seldom drops below 35 degrees or so. If it is that cold, I don't work out there.

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thank you both very much. The temperature here goes below zero every winter, occasionally as low as 30 below, but typical winter temperatures are in the teens and 20s, and I can plan my drum sanding for warm days when it goes above freezing if I find the sander seems to like that better.
Zach

[Nick Decker]

The only thing I've noticed is the spliced joint on the conveyor belt. Mine (Jet 10-20) is starting to come apart on one edge. I used it a couple times this winter when the shop temps were in the 30s, and noticed it after that. Now, that conveyor belt is almost two years old and has some miles on it, so it might just be normal wear and tear, but I didn't notice it until after using it in the cold. It hasn't completely failed yet, so I continue to use it, with a backup ready.

[Mike Cutler]

Zach

I have an unheated shop, and my drum sander is in one of the garage bays, not in the shop. It's too big to fit in the shop. It is a 27" dual drum sander. Prior to that I had a Perfomax 16-32.
I have used my machines below freezing, 32 degF. many times, not zero though. The only machine I have that "objects", is my dust collector. The bearings sing a little bit when it gets below about 15 degrees.
I would worry about the conveyor belt on mine, just because of it's construction. It's a rubber coated fiber.

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thank you both for the warning about the conveyor belt in the cold. I'll see what I can do to get it in the heated shop when it comes, and have the other building as a fallback plan. I've read about the size, but sometimes when I see a machine in person I understand better how it may fit.
Zach

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thank you all for your help. I got the drum sander yesterday and am very pleased with it. I'll make room to keep it in the heated shop, I'm just figuring out how to reconfigure things so right now it's in the middle of the floor. It works even better than I had been led to expect from what I had read online about it, and I am really glad I finally bought one.
Zach

[Carlos Alvarez]

LOVE LOVE LOVE mine. It takes a learning curve, even though it seems so simple. Speeds, adjustment between passes, humidity, etc etc etc. Practice a lot. You really need GREAT dust collection! It's super critical for the sander. The largest shop vac available can barely do a good job on mine, the big DC really helps. Also get a sander cleaner, like the one from Harbor Freight that has a handle. I wouldn't want to clean that with the standard ones with no handle.

OH! And static prevention is important. Note that the height of the tables is right at the height of an important, sensitive body part, and the process creates a lot of static. You don't want to know how I learned this. I ran a plain copper wire from the lid latch through the collection hose to the metal part of my tubing.

[Nick Decker]

Odd, but I've never had any static discharge from mine. Must be living right.

But yeah, good dust collection is a must. I don't think any shop vac would do the job, wrong version of air movement. My little 1 hp DC does fine with mine, but my sander is just the Jet 10-20.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I've got an older 1 HP Reliant dust collector in the shop, it just has one hose and I hook it to whichever tool needs it. It is quite adequate for what I've done so far with 80 grit paper but I suppose if I was doing abrasive planing with 36 grit it might not be able to keep up. I was mostly sanding fretboard blanks and peghead overlays, which are quite small, and rings of glued up blocks to be made into banjo rims, and it did those jobs really well. I had to tweak the adjustment a bit to raise the outer end, but now it's within .005 all around the wood, with a digital caliper. It's way better that running fretboard blanks through the little DW733 planer and flattening rings of blocks on the 4x36 belt sander. More precision, less work, no damage, what could be nicer?
Zach

[Carlos Alvarez]

Odd, but I've never had any static discharge from mine. Must be living right.

But yeah, good dust collection is a must. I don't think any shop vac would do the job, wrong version of air movement. My little 1 hp DC does fine with mine, but my sander is just the Jet 10-20.

Humidity. We run very dry all the time, static really builds up. Also you may be using wire spiral hose. For a while I was using a shop vac and plastic-only hose. That combo is a real static-maker.

[Bill Sutherland]

I have my 19-38 in my garage shop and I have nine mounted on top of a cabinet. I am really space limited so I mounted mine on top of 3/4 plywood sheet with a handle on the rear corner of the plywood opposite the motor side. If I need to run long boards I just rotate the board/machine somewhat like a lazy susan. It has really worked slick even though the space is really tight with a belt sander to one side and a Kapex to the other side.