Drum Sander

[Dan Drager]

I have decided to purchase a drum sander for my shop. I do a lot of natural edge slab tables and am beginning to feel like Popeye from all the ROS work. 95% of what I do will fit in a 25" sander. I have so far narrowed my search to 3 machines but would gladly hear about other that have worked well. The 3 I'm looking hard at, are the WoodMaster 2675, the Perfomax 22-44 pro and the Supermax Shop Pro 25.

I am leaning towards the Woodmaster as it is made in the USA, has a built-in reverse gear on the conveyor and a more logical dust collection method. But The Performax and Supermax come highly rated in all my internet research.

Any and all comments are welcome.

Thanks

[David Rose]

Dan, I would enjoy a drum sander... I think. But until then, a cabinet scraper does a pretty nice job. Just a thought. It will hog off several minutes of sanding in a few swipes. Then you can sand out the scraper marks. :rolleyes:

David


I have decided to purchase a drum sander for my shop. I do a lot of natural edge slab tables and am beginning to feel like Popeye from all the ROS work. 95% of what I do will fit in a 25" sander. I have so far narrowed my search to 3 machines but would gladly hear about other that have worked well. The 3 I'm looking hard at, are the WoodMaster 2675, the Perfomax 22-44 pro and the Supermax Shop Pro 25.

I am leaning towards the Woodmaster as it is made in the USA, has a built-in reverse gear on the conveyor and a more logical dust collection method. But The Performax and Supermax come highly rated in all my internet research.

Any and all comments are welcome.

Thanks

[Mitchell Andrus]

I have the Powermatic 25x2 drum sander. Big cabinet, 5hp, 120 on the first drum, 180 on the second. The paper isn't cheap 3"X14.5', but I can put an AMAZING amount of wood through it before needing to change sheets. I run a production shop - everything (but plywood) goes through it sooner or later. If I had to give up this and my 6"x89" edge sander, I'd quit or raise my rates. Good DC is a MUST.

I tried a cantilevered machine... too much chatter.

Mitch

[CPeter James]

Check out the machines from Powermatic and General. I looked at the Powermatic machine last weekend and it looks real good. I have the Performax 25x2 (from before Jet bought it and then sold back). It is American made, but the Powermatic looks much better made and is $1,000 cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Powermatic-1791290-DDS-Drum-Sander/dp/B00064NGTM/sr=1-1/qid=1163511849/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7112879-9524631?ie=UTF8&s=hi

CPeter

[Dennis Perry]

Dan, Here's a thought maybe the Woodmaster 725 w/drum sander and a spiral planner. The spiral planner may be the ticket for the highly figured natural edge lumber. I have a 50" great machine.

Dennis

[Ron Blaise]

I have decided to purchase a drum sander for my shop. I do a lot of natural edge slab tables and am beginning to feel like Popeye from all the ROS work. 95% of what I do will fit in a 25" sander. I have so far narrowed my search to 3 machines but would gladly hear about other that have worked well. The 3 I'm looking hard at, are the WoodMaster 2675, the Perfomax 22-44 pro and the Supermax Shop Pro 25.

I am leaning towards the Woodmaster as it is made in the USA, has a built-in reverse gear on the conveyor and a more logical dust collection method. But The Performax and Supermax come highly rated in all my internet research.

Any and all comments are welcome.

Thanks
Performax 22/44 and like it very much, however for what you are doing a double drum sander (big one) would be much better. I have seen people use the 22/44 on very large table slabs and it works, but it takes a while.
Mine is more than adequate for the size of glue-ups I make but in candor, I don't think it's designed for big slabs. Just my opinion.

[Travis Porter]

I have an older Performax 22-44 Pro with the wide leg set. Personally, I do not like the wide legs as they take up a lot of space. I believe the newer units are on a smaller footprint base which would be better.

Being a single side supported or open sided unit, you have to be careful to not bump the over arm as you will have a valley. My unit has just a plastic cover that fits over the drum for dust collection. It does pretty well in my opinion, but I think the newer units have a metal frame with a door assembly.

For sanding wide stuff, I cannot complain. It sure beats the ROS and belt sander that I used to do (I didn't learn how to use a handplane or scraper until recently).

Lets see. Sandpaper installation is pretty easy. The variable speed conveyor works well, tracking of the converyor belt is straightforward (I have only adjusted it once or twice in six years), and adjusting the drum to be parallel to the table is easy.

I did look at a Supermax when I bought the 22-44, and the only reason I didn't was being able to do more than 25 inches. The single arm can be a pain (I have a tendency to bump it and put valleys in a board), but it is nice to be able to do bigger stuff.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your decision.

[Paul Kinneberg]

I have the General 15-250 drum sander and am very happy with it. I really like the double drum so you can run two grits of paper on one pass.

[Jim Becker]

I have the Performax 22-44 Plus and it works fine for slab work, albeit it's not real quick!

[Dan Drager]

Thanks for all the great replys guys. Now I have a bigger list than when I started!

[lou sansone]

dan if you can swing it, consider a wide belt. I went through the drill on the drum sanders and concluded that they are really toys ( going to get flack for this, but they are ) compared to a real wide belt. You can find them used at a pretty reasonable price, and sometimes less than a dressed out new drum unit. I found a very nice timesavers 37" unit and love it.

lou

[Mitchell Andrus]

I agree about the wide belt, and my next shop will have the space req. for one. Till then, I drum on, and on, and on.

Mitch

[Travis Porter]

Lou, I can't give you any flak about the drum being toys. They are an "entry level" to me. Allow you to get a glued up panel fairly flat, but you still have to come back and sand/plane them. . I would love to have a wide belt, just do not have the space or $$ it would cost.

[rich wilkinson]

I have a 25-2 drum sander, I love it. I took a Peice of 3/4 m.d.f. and stuck full sheets of 120 gr. Sand paper to it w/3m spray adhesive, and I use it for a sled to make veneer. I bandsaw strips as thin as I dare, then I run them through the super max, you would be surprised how thin and how consistent they run. I use them for stack veneer laminations for my wood turning.

[Bruce Page]

Rich, welcome to SMC! Don't know if you noticed this is an old thread. BTW, I love my Woodmaster 2675!

[Bradley Gray]

I have an older supermax 25 x 2 and do a lot of live edge work - it works well. I had a performax 22/44 before the supermax but for big pieces it was very tedious. The supermax has more power and much higher feed rate. The 2 drums seem to leave less washboarding.