Laguna Tools Drum Sander

[Robin Cruz]

Has anyone heard any reports abou the Laguna drum sander?
http://www.lagunatools.com/platinumsander2.htm

[Adam Grills]

Just by going on the picture. Why on earth is Laguna putting their name on it??? Is Laguna doing what Delta has done and gone cheap?
Adam

[Peter Quinn]

Just by going on the picture. Why on earth is Laguna putting their name on it??? Is Laguna doing what Delta has done and gone cheap?
Adam

No Fear, Laguna still sells a $40K wide belt for those who need one. They are doing what General did with General International. Laguna offers the Platinum series as an entry level Chinese import for small shops and hobbyists on a budget. I just got the platinum slot mortiser and its well made. Its not the same as the $5000 Austrian model, but its not junk either.

I think Laguna is trying to reach a wider audience with out watering down the flagship brand name. They are after all largely resellers more than tool makers. With delta its a crap shoot...they don't tell you which tools are top quality and which ones are cheap imports, though you may be able to infer the quality from the price.

I have heard nothing about the drum sander in question.

[Robin Cruz]

Just by going on the picture. Why on earth is Laguna putting their name on it??? Is Laguna doing what Delta has done and gone cheap?
Adam
what looks cheap about it in comparison to the Jet 16/32 for example? it is $400 cheaper then Jet (Amazon) if you account for the table extensions and wheels (no tax or shipping on either).

[Dave Lehnert]

Remember when Ryobi had a drum sander? Wonder if it's a remake of that?

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ToolGuide/ToolGuideProduct.aspx?id=5967

[Joe Jensen]

No They are doing what General did with General International. Laguna offers the Platinum series as an entry level Chinese import for small shops and hobbyists on a budget.

I understand the strategy, but the branding seems a little strange. Why call your entry level stuff "Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium :eek:

[Robin Cruz]

You know it looks very very similar to the Ryobi. the Laguna also looks almost identical to the Steel City 16/32. there are some differences in the picture, maybe the dust port is now 4" vs 2.5, and table extensions and wheels added


Remember when Ryobi had a drum sander? Wonder if it's a remake of that?

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ToolGuide/ToolGuideProduct.aspx?id=5967

[Jason Stein]

I was interested in that sander a while back. I liked the bracket on the outside that eliminates deflection on stock less than 16" wide. But when I called them, they quoted the shipping charge at around $225, which brings the price right back up to where the other brands are. I walked away.

[Stan Urbas]

OK is this a dumb question, but about the outside bracket: does this mean that deflection is a problem without it? And why bother to have an open-ended sander if you're going to put that bracket on it? You now have a closed-ended sander with a deflection problem. Swell!

[Cary Swoveland]

The fact that the motor is only 1 hp is going to be a problem. I have Grizzly's 12" baby drum, which has a 1.5 hp motor. If I'm sanding an 8" wide board I have to be very careful with the reduction in thickness per cut and the feed speed. It's very easy to stall the motor and trip the breaker. Sanding a 16" wide board with a 1 hp motor will necessitate razor-thin cuts, fed at a snail's pace.

BTW, the baby drum meets my needs very well. It cost me $495, but I see the price is now $525.

Cary

[Robin Cruz]

The steel city version is 1.5 HP. Interesting the Laguna shows 1 hp. I can pick up so the shipping cost is not an adder.

[Ben Rafael]

I understand the strategy, but the branding seems a little strange. Why call your entry level stuff "Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium :eek:

Kryptonite

[Robin Cruz]

I understand the strategy, but the branding seems a little strange. Why call your entry level stuff "Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium :eek:

I understand the strategy. Its to make their lowest end product appear high end......taking advantage of brand reputation for their bandsaws........I think what your politely trying to say is that its a bit of an insult to those of reasonable intelligence especially for a product they didnt design or mfr. Its probably a result of dime a dozen MBAs taking over the company.........the dollar is king. MBAs are going to ruin the U.S.

My guess is the manufacture of the drum sander made a deal with Laguna after getting dropped by distributors. They gave Laguna a good deal and made some minor changes to the design per Lagunas direction (e.g. bigger dust port and table extensions).

Still Id guess its a fine drum sander for the price (the Ryobi review was good) and will work well for the hobbiest like myself.

[Doug Shepard]

Remember when Ryobi had a drum sander? Wonder if it's a remake of that?

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ToolGuide/ToolGuideProduct.aspx?id=5967

The Ryobi (like the Delta) had a table that moved instead of the drum head. This looks more like the Performax.

[Robin Cruz]

The Ryobi (like the Delta) had a table that moved instead of the drum head. This looks more like the Performax. from the picture it appears the drum moves at least at the url provided. The entire design looks identical to Steel City and Laguna where the drum moves.

[David DeCristoforo]

"..."Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium..."

Platinum, gold, whatever they call it.... It looks like "leaverite" to me....

[Peter Quinn]

I understand the strategy, but the branding seems a little strange. Why call your entry level stuff "Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium :eek:

I'm with you there. Sends a confusing message. That whole 'Platinum' line is also quite diverse, from the $450 drum sander to the $28,000 horizontal power fed band mill. Lots of machines in their platinum stable that don't add up to a distinct product category under any name. Seems if its made in Asia its "Platinum" so as not to be confused with tools made in Europe? They have also launched the "Signature" series for those who found the regular Laguna line was not expensive enough. And they now sell festool!

Lets see, I'd like a guided circular saw, a $15K jointer, a $450 drum sander, a massive band mill, oh, and throw in a $23K shaper to go with my $450 router. Can a festool vac pull down the dust from a 9HP shaper with a 6" dust port?

I'm confused. But I am glad they decided to offer a slot mortiser in the under $1K range!

[Robin Cruz]

"..."Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium..."

Platinum, gold, whatever they call it.... It looks like "leaverite" to me....
what does leaverite mean?

[David DeCristoforo]

"...what does leaverite mean?"

Obviously you have never had any friends who are geologists! It would go something like this.....

"What's this stuff"
"That's Jasper..."
"Ok and what's this"
"That's Feldspar..."
Cool...and what's this?"
"That's Leaverite."
"What's "Leaverite"?. Never heard of it...."
Leave 'er right there.... it's a worthless rock"

[Robin Cruz]

"...what does leaverite mean?"

Obviously you have never had any friends who are geologists! It would go something like this.....

"What's this stuff"
"That's Jasper..."
"Ok and what's this"
"That's Feldspar..."
Cool...and what's this?"
"That's Leaverite."
"What's "Leaverite"?. Never heard of it...."
Leave 'er right there.... it's a worthless rock"
I see. So you saying the drum sander is not a good buy?

[Dewey Torres]

for comparison:

http://www.steelcitytoolworks.com/products_tools.cfm?section=2&category=10&tool=55210

Dewey

[David DeCristoforo]

"...So you saying the drum sander is not a good buy?"

Well I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think it's a very good piece of equipment. Maybe it's just that I'm spoiled because all of my equipment is "industrial grade" but I have never been happy with any of these "entry level" machines. In order to get the prices down, compromises have to be made and corners have to be cut. The resulting products are rarely satisfactory. Maybe you could say that they are "better than nothing" but even that can be a stretch.

[Mark Kosmowski]

If I had the cash to buy a drum sander (I don't, but one is on the list to get someday) I would be concerned that this design would eventually fail and start to bevel pieces over 16" wide that required a double pass.

Is this a real concern?

[Robin Cruz]

"...So you saying the drum sander is not a good buy?"

Well I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think it's a very good piece of equipment. Maybe it's just that I'm spoiled because all of my equipment is "industrial grade" but I have never been happy with any of these "entry level" machines. In order to get the prices down, compromises have to be made and corners have to be cut. The resulting products are rarely satisfactory. Maybe you could say that they are "better than nothing" but even that can be a stretch.
ok. its good to know your point of reference.

[mreza Salav]

I see both Laguna and SC have a supporting brace at the open end.
I have never owned any of these open-ended drum sanders, but my feeling is no matter what, there is a bit of deflection at one end. Think of it this way: if you leave even .001" to.002" play in the elevation mechanism to be able to move it up and down then the deflection you will see in the other end (16" away) will be about 0.016" to 0.032" (for a 22" drum it will be 0.022 to 0.044). In terms of thickness, I'd consider it significant deviation across the two sides of the board.

I hear that some of these machines (Performax?) are great ones. So I stand to be corrected for these calculations.

[Robin Cruz]

I see both Laguna and SC have a supporting brace at the open end.
I have never owned any of these open-ended drum sanders, but my feeling is no matter what, there is a bit of deflection at one end. Think of it this way: if you leave even .001" to.002" play in the elevation mechanism to be able to move it up and down then the deflection you will see in the other end (16" away) will be about 0.016" to 0.032" (for a 22" drum it will be 0.022 to 0.044). In terms of thickness, I'd consider it significant deviation across the two sides of the board.

I hear that some of these machines (Performax?) are great ones. So I stand to be corrected for these calculations.

Why would the deflection multiply at the end?. If its parallel, wouldnt it deflect the same at the open end. If its not parallel I see how it would multiply. What is the basis for determining the open end deflection?

[mreza Salav]

If you imagine a long stick inserted into a hole, taking the end of stick and moving it up and down, the amount it moves in this end is almost a factor L of the amount it moves up and down in the hole where L is the length of the stick. My guess is they have added that support brace as a cheap remedy for this problem.

[Robin Cruz]

If you imagine a long stick inserted into a hole, taking the end of stick and moving it up and down, the amount it moves in this end is almost a factor L of the amount it moves up and down in the hole where L is the length of the stick. My guess is they have added that support brace as a cheap remedy for this problem.

But its not a stick in a hole. Its cast metal drum/motor housing attached to a cast metal bracket that allows up and down adjustment with pinion type screw. The force does not occur at the open end, as your stick in hole example, but distributed along the horizontal. I was at Rockler today and pushed down on a Jet 16/24 drum housing and it felt unmovable. Granted I only exerted a few lbs while a board pushing up against the drum would be much more but the force would be distributed making tiny play in the mechanism more uniform across the board.

[sean marcin]

If I had the cash to buy a drum sander (I don't, but one is on the list to get someday) I would be concerned that this design would eventually fail and start to bevel pieces over 16" wide that required a double pass.

Is this a real concern?

No Mark its not. Its the same design as mine that you use.<<insert slapping gramlin here>>

[Thomas Wa]

Why call your entry level stuff "Platinum" what's the other, "silver" or "gold", or maybe uranium :eek:Unobtainium.....:D

[John Manchester]

I have read some of the negative comments about this sander ... but there are things about the design that I really like. I wish that it were built better.

[Wade Lippman]

I don't know anything about their sander, but am familiar with Laguna Platinum.

I have been waiting 7 months for a replacement belt for my drill press. No, not seven days, or even weeks; 7 months. They have to have it custom made, and are having problems with that.

Anyone from Laguna read these things? 7 months! Is your equipment disposable?

Oh, their platinum cyclones look to be identical to the JDS.

[Cary Falk]

I inquired about it around a year ago. A rep call me but said they didn't have any info to send me. About 4 months later I received 2 DVD's on their platium series tools and the sander was not on either of them. I happened to find a used Grizzly 18/36 on CL and am happy with it. I am surprised nobody has brought up Laguna's poor customer service directly. That and a tool with no history would make me gun shy.

[Scott Coffelt]

The fact that the motor is only 1 hp is going to be a problem. I have Grizzly's 12" baby drum, which has a 1.5 hp motor. If I'm sanding an 8" wide board I have to be very careful with the reduction in thickness per cut and the feed speed. It's very easy to stall the motor and trip the breaker. Sanding a 16" wide board with a 1 hp motor will necessitate razor-thin cuts, fed at a snail's pace.

BTW, the baby drum meets my needs very well. It cost me $495, but I see the price is now $525.

Cary

These sanders are not made to take big chunks of wood off in a single pass, they need light passes. When I try to take too much off it trips the trigger, when I take lighter passes I have no issues.