Supermax 16-32 Sander Review

[Lisa Starr]

Well I pulled the trigger and ordered the Supermax 16-32 sander during a sale in March. At the time, I was notified that they were out of stock @ WoodWerks. I was given the choice of paying additional shipping charges to receive one from the manufacturer, or waiting for more to arrive at their warehouse. I chose to wait and was given an expected arrival at the warehouse of May 1st-4th. I received notice on April 26th that my sander was on its way to me! Yep, it shipped early. :)

The sander arrived on my commercial dock April 30th in superb condition. I transported to my home yesterday and assembled the stand and installed the sander. The instructions were clear and concise. The fit and finishes are all excellent.

After digesting the alignment instructions this morning, it took about 10 minutes to adjust the platen/conveyor to parallel with the drum. Installing the paper was a cinch and the automatic tensioner works great. I sanded a known flat piece that was 1" x 14" - 18" and after 6 passes, at 3 height adjustments, the stock is flat within .001". I'm happy.

Time will tell, but it appears that this is a very well built piece of equipment and should provide fuss-free sanding for many, many years.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks for the review - glad to know it's working well for you. I have the 25/50 and have been satisfied with that one.

Mike

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Happy for you! Jealous! Thanks for the review!

[tom lucas]

I own it too. Nice sander as long as you don't try to take too big a bite. Watch out when doing really small pieces. Even more important to take small bites. I was not as lucky with the assembly though. Holes did not line up with the stand. A complete PITA. I had to drill them out. I also had a faulting wide board adjust lever. But mfr. was quick to send a replacement. For what it costs, you'd think that part would be better than cheap soft metal. Folding extensions are nice though.

[Don Jarvie]

I picked up the 19/38 recently and it was pretty good right out of the box. I need to spend a little time makes by sure it’s set up but worked fine for the few things I sanded.

[Ken Krawford]

When adjusting the drum to make it parallel to the conveyor, did you also have to adjust the tension rollers? Id so, how difficult was that?

[Zachary Hoyt]

I bought a 19-38 in March and just got it set up on a plywood cabinet on casters a couple of days ago, so now I can store boxes of short lumber underneath. I was too cheap to buy the factory accessories, and anyway they wouldn't have suited my needs quite as well. The sander has saved me a lot of work already, and I am sure that I will never want to be without one again.
Zach

[Lisa Starr]

The conveyor and tension rollers were spot on, so no need to adjust. I did play with the conveyor alignment, because I could, and it was very easy to get running true again. There are 2 adjusting nuts with captured wrenches, one on either side of the conveyor assembly to do this.

[David M Peters]

I picked up the same sander during the same sale, I'm glad to have it. As this was my first drum sander I really didn’t know what to look for when doing the initial calibrations. I leveled the bed with the drum but everything else seemed OK; well not really. Here are other things I’ve had to tune up.

Belt tension was good but not tracking; it arrived not tracking well at all and was totally wedged to one side. So now one side of my belt is prematurely beat up from rubbing against the white plastic guide. So for new owners, be sure that the belt is centered, you should be able to see equal amounts of the rollers off to each side of the belt.


The outfeed roller wasn’t even touching the work which lead to “sander snipe”. See the section in the manual for how to lower the roller bars.


While you’re assembling the stand, make a storage platform for it. Mine is just a piece of 1/2″ plywood. Due to how the legs are all angled to the inside you have to put the platform into place before you attach the rails; do all this with the legs upside-down to make it less awkward (but only less so!).


Figure out a dust hose support; not only will you get better airflow by avoiding a sharp elbow it’s also much easier to work inside the drum with the hose off.

[Mike Henderson]

When adjusting the drum to make it parallel to the conveyor, did you also have to adjust the tension rollers? Id so, how difficult was that?

On my 25/50, you actually adjust the base (the conveyor belt device) and not the drum, itself. So no problem with the tension rollers. At least, that's what I remember when I did the setup.

Mike

[Robert Hayward]

I bought my 16-32 on sale a few months ago. The machine came with the box untouched, no damage and the stand was not in the box. Took a few phone calls to get that ironed out. The seller blamed the manufacturer and the manufacturer said the seller removed the stand. They did ship a new stand finally.

The machine itself was excellent out of the box. I had to adjust the drum parallel to the table but nothing else. I have been using the sander for about five months now and still have not had to adjust the belt tracking. Just home hobby usage level, but quite a bit the last couple months.

Sure is nice to take a board to within a 1/16th or so on the planer then finish it off to final thickness with the Supermax using 180 grit.

[Lisa Starr]

Well-I really used my new sander for the first time today. I'm very, very happy. I had 5 craftsman style transoms I had recently glued up that I needed to surface to final thickness prior to glazing the glass. They were all 13-3/4" wide and varied in length from 29" to 73". All started out at approx. .780" thick and taken to .750" using a pass taking .010" from each face and then one taking .005" from each face. It was spectacular! I made a point of running each one thru with the same edge to the open side of the sander just to see see how parallel the drum/conveyor are. Upon completion, each piece measures within .001" end to end and side to side. Additionally, they measure within .001" of each other. A+++ for SuperMax.

PS My cheap HF 1 HP dust collector did the job with this sander, though I question whether it is capable when taking heavier passes. I'm going to upgrade very soon.

[Frederick Skelly]

Excellent news! Thanks for the follow-up!
Fred

[Don Jarvie]

In the limited time I’ve used mine light passes worked best. The heavier the pass the more it bogged down and left a slight divot.

We all need to realize this isn’t a planer and light passes work best.

[Patrick Irish]

I splurged and got the 19/38. First non used expensive tool I bought. You MUST use dust collection as it keeps the paper cool. Don’t be rapid fire and keep feeding and feeding. The wood or paper get warm and make marks. Also, learn how to put the paper on tight and leave about a 1/16-1/8 gap on the closed end on the last coil if that makes sense. The paper gets warm and will expand and can over lap which causes major gouging and will ruin paper. I lost a roll of 80 grit learning that.

Also, buy your paper in bulk and cut to length. Much cheaper. About $5-$7 per section than $11 from rockler. Several sites sell the paper in bulk.

[Larry Frank]

I absolutely love mine....well built machine.