Drum sanders: best unit for uniform material thickness?

[Daniel Hillmer]

I’ve been drooling over the Performax line of drum sanders for several years now and finally ready to buy, particularly the performax 16/32 – I was told by a woodblock printmaker it was excellent for fine surface finish and especially for uniform thickness of material.

However I just noticed Grizzly has an 18 inch drum sander. Does anyone have experience comparing the two? Is there a difference in the preciseness of the resulting thickness uniformity? Thickness uniformity is a big concern for me because one of the main functions is gluing up boards for relief woodblock printmaking, and my press will not print well, unless my wood blocks are of uniform thickness.

ALso, is there a sander comparable to the above two?

[Jeff Duncan]

I know there are some happy users here, but I did not have great results with the 16/32 and sold it as soon as I could afford a bigger drum sander. The problem is with the cantilever design, if you try to take a bit too much off you'll have flex. Also you have to spend a fair amount of time getting the head fine tuned to be able to sand uniformly, only to have to reset it upon changing grits.
If your primary concern is uniform thickness I'd be inclined to recommend a closed sander vs an open end. That's based on my experience with the machine, yours may certainly vary.
good luck,
JeffD

[Cary Falk]

You have several choices: JEt/Proformax, Grizzly, Steel City, Delta. I have the Grizzly and have no experience with any other. The complaint about th Grizzly and
Delta design is the bed is hard to make parallel to thedrum. I haven't found it difficult at all. IMHO, I think this design lends less deflection on the far end of the drum. I was at the woodworking show this weekend and watched a guy run a block of wood through the Jet and watched the drum vibrate something crazy. I also heard him tell somebody that if you have a small piece you run it near the motor for less deflection. A lot of people have the Jet and say it is rock solid.

[Daniel Hillmer]

Thanks guys.

I also have a 15 inch thickness planer from Grizzly. I am wondering if I would be better served to instead buy the H7655 15" Index Spiral Cutterhead (http://www.grizzlyindustrial.com/products/15-Index-Spiral-Cutterhead/H7655) and replace my planer knives, for a better finish, and then just touch up any marks on boards with fine grit paper on my Festool Rotex orbital sander. What do you think? The cutterhead is pricey though, at 475 about half the price of en entire drum sander.

Because the planer really does a wonderful job in thickness uniformity, it just leaves slight knives marks I often have to sand out. The only other drawback is that I only have 15 inches to work with and some prints I make I want to go up to 22 inches wide.

The only thing I am worried about there, is putting dips in the woodblock with my orbital, that might show up when I pull a print off the press.

Anyone have any experience using the grizzly with the knives, and then switching to the spiral cutter head? Does it leave planar marks? Better finish?

[Cary Falk]

I don't think a spiral cutter head will buy you anything. You still will have to do some sanding either way. I am curious about the lines from you planer. Are the lines along the length of the board due to nicks in the blade or are they perpendicular to the length from the serated feed rollers? If they are the latter then take off more wood at a time. An open end sander would be hard to get a uniform thickness in the center if the board is bigger than the drum. I can get 36" board close enough in my 18/36 Grizzly that I can smooth it out with an ROS. I don't know what your tolerances are to tell you if it would work for you. A drum sander excells at thin material that would break up in a planer or weird grain patterns. The spiral head would take care of the weird grain patterns but not thin material. I haven't heard you say either is your problem. It sounds like you need a 22/44 sander or a 24" closed end sander or 24" planer.

[Scott Hubl]

Hi Daniel,
I picked up a used Performax 16-32 Plus a few months ago.

LOVE IT!
Keep an eye out for a gently used one, I found mine on CL seller was asking $400.00 for it and I ended up getting it for $360.00
He used it for one set of kitchen doors he made for his home.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p59/AmericanAndProud/PerformaX%2016-32/16-32-Overall-Shot.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p59/AmericanAndProud/PerformaX%2016-32/P-X-16-32-Close-Up.jpg

An Extra added Bonus was the 1941 Unisaw he had buried in the corner of his shop that I bought for $200.00. :D

You'll be very happy with either a JET or Perfomax branded drum sander.
Good luck and enjoy it once you get one.

[Daniel Hillmer]

I don't think a spiral cutter head will buy you anything. You still will have to do some sanding either way. I am curious about the lines from you planer. Are the lines along the length of the board due to nicks in the blade or are they perpendicular to the length from the serated feed rollers? If they are the latter then take off more wood at a time. An open end sander would be hard to get a uniform thickness in the center if the board is bigger than the drum. I can get 36" board close enough in my 18/36 Grizzly that I can smooth it out with an ROS. I don't know what your tolerances are to tell you if it would work for you. A drum sander excells at thin material that would break up in a planer or weird grain patterns. The spiral head would take care of the weird grain patterns but not thin material. I haven't heard you say either is your problem. It sounds like you need a 22/44 sander or a 24" closed end sander or 24" planer.

It's perpendicular to the length - definitely from the feed rollers. Thanks for that advice, I will try planing more off next time.

Tolerances, I would like to keep them .010 or .005" max thickness variation if possible. Maybe I'm asking for too much there though with my budget...

I won't be doing any thin material though, minimum thickness would prob. be about 3/4".

On the board width, I'm wondering if I can just plane down two 11 inch wide panels in the planer or sander and get them the same thickness, then glue them up - if my gluing capabilities are good enough to make them perfectly flat to each other – when they go through the press the whole glued up board needs to be as flat and uniform as can be….

[Cary Falk]

On the board width, I'm wondering if I can just plane down two 11 inch wide panels in the planer or sander and get them the same thickness, then glue them up - if my gluing capabilities are good enough to make them perfectly flat to each other – when they go through the press the whole glued up board needs to be as flat and uniform as can be….

This is probably the best bet. When you set knives on the planer you can set to +/-.001. I think that would be pretty hard with sandpaper. If you don't get the sandpaper tight you might have valleys. I would try the 2 pieces through the planer you mention above. It won't cost you except for the board. If it works then save yourself $1000.

[Chris Padilla]

I picked up a used Delta 18-36" drum sander on CL for $500 (came with a buncha sandpaper and mobility cart). I've yet to really use it but will very soon.

My plan for the drum sander was to use it for veneers. Slice some 3/32" or so veneers off a chunk of wood, and sand down to 1/16" or so.

In just playing with the Delta, I noticed that the wide "belt" that conveys the material into the sander tends to walk itself off of its rollers. I've read online that some folks have had major issues with this despite trying in vain to adjust the rollers.

I had my heart set on a Performax 22-44 but the Delta came up first and so I decided to go for it. We'll see how things go when I'm into it in a few weeks.

[Rob Cunningham]

I've had a 26" Woodmaster drum sander for about 5 years and am very happy with it's performance. Woodmaster suggests bringing the sanding drum down and lightly skimming the feed belt. I did this and get no more than .005" variation across a 24" width. (I'm a Tool & Die maker and have that disease where I have to measure everything precisely :eek:). The Woodmaster is a very well built machine, but it is a bit pricey.
I've never used any of the other sanders so I don't have an opinion on them.

[Daniel Hillmer]

I've had a 26" Woodmaster drum sander for about 5 years and am very happy with it's performance. Woodmaster suggests bringing the sanding drum down and lightly skimming the feed belt. I did this and get no more than .005" variation across a 24" width. (I'm a Tool & Die maker and have that disease where I have to measure everything precisely :eek:). The Woodmaster is a very well built machine, but it is a bit pricey.
I've never used any of the other sanders so I don't have an opinion on them.

So would you consider Woodmaster drum sanders to be the Cadillac of all drum sanders - the standard by which all others are measured?

[Rob Cunningham]

Since I don't have experience with the others, I can't say. I looked around when I was getting ready to buy and the Woodmaster seemed to be the most robust and well built (plus it's made in the USA). The dust collection is also very good. I've run hundreds of raised panel doors and other glue ups through it and never had a problem.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I hear lots of complaints from open ended drum sander owners. Apparently no one makes one that doesn't deflect. Which if one thinks about it makes perfect sense.

[Peter Quinn]

When properly set up, my performax 22-44 pro is within a few thousands, say .002-.005" across its length. If you try to hog off material like it was a planer it will deflect, but this isn't typical under normal operation. With any drum sander you should be taking somewhere around .010"-.015" off per pass, many users try to take more and wind up disappointed.

Jet has just announced a drum sander with oscillation like a wide belt, which to the best of my knowledge would be the only drum sander for the small shop with this capability. Don't know if this will become standard on Performax sanders, and I have heard nothing about the performance of this new Jet sander or its price. Certainly should improve surface quality, as all non oscillating drum sanders leave tiny striated lines parallel with the grain that may or may not be a problem for your use, but certainly are not finish ready surfaces.