Drum sander advice

SuperMax 25x2 Double Drum Sander – Single Phase


SuperMax 19-38 Combo Brush/Drum Sander


I’m stuck on these two drum sanders because I wanted a easy way to clean up air dried lumber before it is milled. The combo sander seems like the easy button for that, especially with the nylon brush option. But on the other hand, a dual drum single phase option would save more time sanding.

Which brings me to a question. How do you clean dirt out of the grain in your wood, wether it’s air dried or reclaimed? Use a belt sander, wire brush or something else?

Sanding will level the board but leave dirt in the grain.
At the lumber yard I get a lot of my wood from have an industrial wood brush machine and they have both nylon and wire brushes.
Nylon will clean the dirt while leaving the grain of the wood.
Wire brush is used on softwoods to enhance the grain to make it look weathered.
I have used the machine numerous times and here is what I can tell you about the process.
It is an extremely dirty process even with good dust collection.
Replacement brushes are expensive but they seem to last.

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Originally Posted by George Makra

Sanding will level the board but leave dirt in the grain.
At the lumber yard I get a lot of my wood from have an industrial wood brush machine and they have both nylon and wire brushes.
Nylon will clean the dirt while leaving the grain of the wood.
Wire brush is used on softwoods to enhance the grain to make it look weathered.
I have used the machine numerous times and here is what I can tell you about the process.
It is an extremely dirty process even with good dust collection.
Replacement brushes are expensive but they seem to last.

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So you’re saying it’s best to use the nylon brush outside if I get one.

Yeah an other option is to look up burnishing machine on Amazon and get your self one with a nylon brush for about 250.
Its a whole lot cheaper and about 2/3 as fast.

Why are you cleaning lumber before milling it? I'm assuming by milling you mean jointing and planing.

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Originally Posted by George Makra

Yeah an other option is to look up burnishing machine on Amazon and get your self one with a nylon brush for about 250.
Its a whole lot cheaper and about 2/3 as fast.

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Hmm, definitely is cheaper. I think that’s the better option.

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Originally Posted by johnny means

Why are you cleaning lumber before milling it? I'm assuming by milling you mean jointing and planing.

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Exactly. I dry my stock inside, but I do get some stock from friends who don’t do that and it ends up pretty dirty. I don’t want that in my planer blades.

Found a used Supermax 19-38 combo for 1900 with the nylon head.

Anyone have experience with these?

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Originally Posted by Doug Dawson

That's more than what you would pay for a closed stand Supermax 25-50 new (right now with the sale.) Nylon head, what is that?

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It has heads you can change out. Drum sander, nylon, wire brush. The nylon head can be used to clean up the wood.

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Originally Posted by Kenneth Batten

Which brings me to a question. How do you clean dirt out of the grain in your wood, wether it’s air dried or reclaimed? Use a belt sander, wire brush or something else?

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Find a better supplier? Or blast the living bejesus out of it with a Festool Rotex RO150 outside, if you can't.

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Originally Posted by Doug Dawson

Find a better supplier? Or blast the living bejesus out of it with a Festool Rotex RO150 outside, if you can't.

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If it wasn’t free wood, I’d complain. Lol

I own a domino, but that’s about as far as my festool collection goes.

Use a pressure washer on it. Then use the pressure washer for lots of other things. Then mill as usual.

If that lumber is so dirty that you need a machine to brush it off, I can’t imagine having that kind of dirt and contaminants getting blown around inside of 1000+ dollar machine.

Dan

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Originally Posted by Dan Hahr

Use a pressure washer on it. Then use the pressure washer for lots of other things. Then mill as usual.

If that lumber is so dirty that you need a machine to brush it off, I can’t imagine having that kind of dirt and contaminants getting blown around inside of 1000+ dollar machine.

Dan

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I agree with that, plus I already have the pressure washer.