What was I thinking buying this dual drum sander?

[Steve Mathews]

Apparently my brain was parked in neutral when I recently purchased a Powermatic DDS-225 Drum Sander. Not only is it big and heavy it will require a substantial modification of my dust collection setup and adding a 40 amp circuit. And I still haven't found a space in my shop to squeeze it in. I really should've given this more thought.

[glenn bradley]

Not to mention the premium you pay for mustard paint . . . sorry . . . that is not helping. The good news is that once I had a drum sander (Supermax) I couldn't think of doing without it. Once you are setup I think the buyers remorse will fade.

[Mark Bolton]

Apparently my brain was parked in neutral when I recently purchased a Powermatic DWS-225 Drum Sander. Not only is it big and heavy it will require a substantial modification of my dust collection setup and adding a 40 amp circuit. And I still haven't found a space in my shop to squeeze it in. I really should've given this more thought.

New? Or used? Im kinda with Steve if you didnt buy it used or at auction for super cheap. If the description I read is accurate and it only has a two speed conveyor thats a bummer.

[John TenEyck]

You were thinking how much of an improvement it would be over a single drum unit - and you were right. Once you get it set up with enough DC going to it I'll bet you'll like it just fine. FWIW, I can't remember the last time I adjusted the speed on my variable speed 2 drum unit. I leave it at 3/4 speed and it seems work very well.

John

[Mark Bolton]

FWIW, I can't remember the last time I adjusted the speed on my variable speed 2 drum unit. I leave it at 3/4 speed and it seems work very well. John

We have a cheap auction dual drum that still gets a lot intermittent use and the variable speed is critical. When it was all we had couldnt imagine being without it. The VS would be the only thing to save you on a lot of stuff, wide, hard, burns, then back to narrow small parts gang fed. But for sure its all what you get use to.

[todd werner]

I have the far less expensive powermax 2*25, and even though I only use it a few times a year, it's one of my favorite tools. Mine is on casters so I hung dust collection hose from a blast gate and used quick connects. I also use the same circuit as my jointer, although I installed the second outlet end disconnect box. It's one minute of work to roll it into place and set it up and it saves me a lot of time.

I think you're going to love having it once you get it up and running. Just don't forget to open the blast gate(s), and find a way to clean the drums periodically. I just use one of those rubber cleaning sticks, but someone here may know a better or safer method. I couldn't use the fingerprint sensor to unlock my phone for days after I had to replace the paper on the rolls the first time I did that.

Hope the purchase ultimately works out for you as nicely as mine did for me.

[Steve Mathews]

I installed 80 grit sandpaper on the front and 150 grit on the rear rollers yesterday. Todd's comment about roughing up the skin on your hand during installation is timely as I noticed the difference this morning. Someone mentioned in another thread that a combination of 120/180 grits might be better so I'll probably look into purchasing additional sandpaper. I also temporarily hooked up the sander to a 30 amp circuit to try it out and was surprised that it didn't make the noise expected. I'm wondering if a 40 amp circuit is really necessary. Fortunately I have heavy duty mobile base to help move the sander around the shop. I still haven't decided a good place for it but it seems that closer to the dust collector the better. By most accounts I should run an 8" duct to the two 4" outlets, which will limit the location even more. One thing that doesn't make sense is the 1200 CFM requirement for dust collection stated by the manufacturer. It's hard to believe that it's more than for my 20" planer or 12" jointer.

[Warren Lake]

have a single drum Natribom so a pro machine, never impressed with it, drum is one narrow point of contact. Other than thicknessing to a pretty consistent level which is why I bought it, it cant come close to what the stroke sander can do.

441008

[Bill Dufour]

If the feed motor is separate from the main one variable speed should easy to get. Install a 3 phase feed motor of the same rpm as original and use a vfd to run it at what ever rpm you want. Keep the vfd from 40-100 HZ and the motor should last a lifetime.
Bil lD

[todd werner]

Steve, why not 6"?
2 of the 4" ducts gives 8pi or about 25 sq inches. 1 6" duct, 3squared, 9pi and you're a little over 28 sq inches. No real loss if you have 6" already.

[glenn bradley]

dual drum that still gets a lot intermittent use and the variable speed is critical.
Ditto. I'm sure it depends on what you are using it for but, VS is critical to my use model.

[Steve Mathews]

Steve, why not 6"?
2 of the 4" ducts gives 8pi or about 25 sq inches. 1 6" duct, 3squared, 9pi and you're a little over 28 sq inches. No real loss if you have 6" already.

For most practical situations 6" is probably good enough. I came up with the 8" from a chart online that showed it was required for 1200 CFM.

[todd werner]

For most practical situations 6" is probably good enough. I came up with the 8" from a chart online that showed it was required for 1200 CFM.

I don't know how a chart could tell you that. Wouldn't you need to know the CFM curve for your particular dust collector, and then calculate the resistance of the ducting.

I do remember Bill Pentz had a chart with HP and duct sizes, but I used a spreadsheet (probably also from him) to try and make sure I was in the vicinity of the recommended airflow. It took into account the number of elbows, hose and duct diameter and run lengths, and I have no idea how accurate his underlying math was. Given he wants everyone to have massive cyclones, I was comfortable he wouldn't underestimate the resistance, and as long as I got close, I was happy. My drum sander is pretty old though and only has one 4" outlet, so I'm sure your machine will allow better dust collection by far. I do have mine located under an air cleaner to offset that lack of ducts.

[Mark Bolton]

I installed 80 grit sandpaper on the front and 150 grit on the rear rollers yesterday. Todd's comment about roughing up the skin on your hand during installation is timely as I noticed the difference this morning. Someone mentioned in another thread that a combination of 120/180 grits might be better so I'll probably look into purchasing additional sandpaper. I also temporarily hooked up the sander to a 30 amp circuit to try it out and was surprised that it didn't make the noise expected. I'm wondering if a 40 amp circuit is really necessary. Fortunately I have heavy duty mobile base to help move the sander around the shop. I still haven't decided a good place for it but it seems that closer to the dust collector the better. By most accounts I should run an 8" duct to the two 4" outlets, which will limit the location even more. One thing that doesn't make sense is the 1200 CFM requirement for dust collection stated by the manufacturer. It's hard to believe that it's more than for my 20" planer or 12" jointer.

I would honestly never run 180 on a drum. Its just too fine in my opinion and you'll likely go through paper like charmin. 120 max on your second drum would be all I'd ever bother with. Regardless of grit your still going to have to sand out the scratch anyway and jumping to 180 on the second drum isnt going to save you anything as long as you have good RO after the fact. But lets not go down that $(@t hole again.

[Randy Heinemann]

I would test it with the circuits and dust collection already available. You may find that your current setup, with respect to dust collection will work just fine.

As for space . . . if it has casters, then just move it to out of the way spots when not in use. It will likely not be used everyday anyway. Just move it to an open spot when needed. If some of your other tools don't have casters, then maybe casters on those would help you clear space when needed. Almost all of my larger tools have casters or are movable so, when I need to use one of them I can move it in place and move some of the others enough out of the way to clear the needed space. If I bought a sander, that's how I'd use it.

[Frank Pratt]

I need an education. I don't have a drum sander, but many who do, use them mainly as a thicknesser to flatten wide glue ups. This takes several passes because it will only take a light cut on each pass. It seems like a dual drum sander would be wasted on this type of operation, no?

[Mark Bolton]

I need an education. I don't have a drum sander, but many who do, use them mainly as a thicknesser to flatten wide glue ups. This takes several passes because it will only take a light cut on each pass. It seems like a dual drum sander would be wasted on this type of operation, no?

Your not going to hog off a bunch without stepping down to coarse paper and then at that point the power of the sander (usually 5HP max) is going to kill how heavy a pass you can take. I would not in any way consider any drum sander anything like a thicknesser. They are barely capable of doing a little flattening (.0125" per pass max) and just cleaning up milling marks from a planer or jointer. They will do very little flattening due to pretty low feed roll pressure but even that is minimal and limited to the conveyor size.

Super light final calibrating and removal of milling marks is about all you can expect.

[Steve Mathews]

Your not going to hog off a bunch without stepping down to coarse paper and then at that point the power of the sander (usually 5HP max) is going to kill how heavy a pass you can take. I would not in any way consider any drum sander anything like a thicknesser. They are barely capable of doing a little flattening (.0125" per pass max) and just cleaning up milling marks from a planer or jointer. They will do very little flattening due to pretty low feed roll pressure but even that is minimal and limited to the conveyor size.

Super light final calibrating and removal of milling marks is about all you can expect.


What Mark attests to became quickly apparent after making just a few test passes with my Powermatic DDS-225. I can't see using it to hog off much material even with 80 grit on the front roller.

[todd werner]

Agreed. I sometimes use it to clean up a board after using the planer to get to thickness, but more for knocking a vcarve inlay flush or any time I can save time sanding later by starting with a decent surface.
Sanding is the most tedious part of woodworking to me, so I'd probably get rid of my jointer or band saw, before I'd give up the drum sander.

[Mark Bolton]

What Mark attests to became quickly apparent after making just a few test passes with my Powermatic DDS-225. I can't see using it to hog off much material even with 80 grit on the front roller.

Something to remember is that 80 grit is not really "coarse" for a drum sander. 80/120 would be a standard when we run the drum sander but it wouldnt be ridiculous depending on the species and what your doing to go even coarser than that. 80/100, 60/100, would be reasonable options for more aggressive material removal or some heavier flattening with light passes and lower feed speeds. This sander tends to see a lot of hard maple so the 120 gets close to a reasonably removable scratch with RO but its still a bear. But when you jump to 150 the passes have to be so light and the paper just doesnt last to make it worth it. Finding the sweet spot where you dont load up the paper and kill a spot creating a nasty burn or ridge but still being able to run parts at a decent feed speed is the trick.

The more DC you can have the better especially if your sanding a any amount of taller parts that arent wide. When your conveyor gets far away from the drums your pickup will fall off.

[Jeff Duncan]

Those are great machines!! I had one I bought new maybe 15 years or so ago and it was worth every penny. If you outgrow it the next step up is a widebelt. At the time it was one of the best drum sanders I could find. Most of the competition was inferior to far inferior, so worth a little extra $. I haven't kept up with whats available since I sold mine when I went to a widebelt about 11 years ago. But will tell you this, if its the same quality as mine was, you have a good machine and should get a LOT of use out of it. As for variable speed, I never needed it then and don't need it now. Far more important to know how to use the machine correctly and not overdo it. Had to explain this to the guy who bought mine several times, as he just kept burning up belts trying to remove too much in a pass!!!

good luck,
JeffD