Drum Sanders

[James Tibbetts]

I am looking into a drum sander purchase. I have had good luck with Grizzly products and their G0458Z looks pretty good. 18" open end, variable speed feed.
Belt sanders are not in the budget.
Any thoughts this model or others similar from different makers?
Pros and cons ?

Thanks,
Jim

[Larry Frank]

I am very happy with my Laguna Supermax.

[Doug Dawson]

I am very happy with my Laguna Supermax.

Same here, I have the closed-stand 25-50, and it's a great tool. Go with the closed stand if you have the choice, it's very solid. People have talked about having to reinforce the open-stand models. I thought about going open-stand and constructing storage underneath, and I'm glad I punted on that. Get the folding tables, it doesn't take up much space.

[James Tibbetts]

Thanks for the input all.
I think those bigger Lagunas are going to be out of budget range; about double the cost of the Griz. May well be worth it but not feasible right now.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the input all.
I think those bigger Lagunas are going to be out of budget range; about double the cost of the Griz. May well be worth it but not feasible right now.

This is one of those tools where one seems to need to get to a certain tier before the reviews become positive instead of scathing. It sometimes seems that the simpler the tool, the more critical it becomes that it do what it is supposed to. If a jointer cannot be brought into co-planer, it is a nightmare. If a drum sander fails to track correctly or requires an engineering degree and an extra elbow to change paper, same thing.

When I was shopping I wanted a drum sander that had these features, in order of priority:

• The feed belt had to track correctly and stay that way.
  
  • Tracking seemed to be the biggest complaint about every sander I researched.
  
  
• Easy sandpaper changes.
  
  • The long involved stories of people trying to change paper were enough to scare you off wanting a drum sander.
  
  
• Stable drum alignment.
  
  • Drum to table relationship must remain parallel.
  
  
• .Good dust collection.
  
  • When using a tool that does little other than create sawdust, collection is important.

I ended up with the Supermax 19-38 and it has been everything I wanted. I have never realigned the belt or drum in 5 years of use, paper changes are a breeze and I don't know how the dust collection is that good with only one 4" port.

There seems to have been a few stumbles with the Laguna acquisition. These seem to focus on the 16/32 though which was a new model for Supermax around that time. I state this just to clarify that it may have nothing to do with Laguna's presence. The Supermax was head and shoulders above anything in its price range. I did have a strange noise coming from the drive motor right off the bat. Supermax sent a replacement immediately and I swapped it out in just a few minutes.

Turns out it may have not been a bad noise, just one unfamiliar to me. The important thing is Supermax did what made me happy and did it without any reservations. Since this initial fix it has performed without a hitch. An Acme Tools sale and free shipping sweetened the deal.

[Brian W Evans]

+1 on the SuperMax 19-38.

The wide belts are always tempting, but I believe they have much higher power requirements and also require compressed air. The low prices on used ones might end up being very expensive if you don't have these two requirements met already.

[Nick Decker]

With both the Jet 1020 and the Supermax 1632, there was a bit of adjustment of tracking at first. Whether this was the new conveyor belt stretching or seating itself, or other parts settling into their rightful places I don't know. In both cases, the tracking has been perfect since the initial adjustments, no further tinkering necessary.

[James Tibbetts]

Much obliged for all the input !!
If I'm following this correctly Performax is now owned by Jet. Have the machine designs and construction remained independent or in some way combined, or gone completely to Jet creation?
The Supermax 19 will handle the vast majority of my work load in one pass which I see as a big plus. Price wise it is not all that much more that the Grizzly and no one has had a complaint about the Supermax.
Again, thanks to all the folks here for the information.

[andy bessette]

Skip the Grizzly. Look for a clean Supermax or Performax.

[Doug Dawson]

If I'm following this correctly Performax is now owned by Jet. Have the machine designs and construction remained independent or in some way combined, or gone completely to Jet creation?

The story goes that after Jet bought Performax, some of the key people at Performax split off and formed Supermax and continued development there, so no link now.

[James Tibbetts]

Hmmmm.. I just read reviews of the 458 on Amazon and they were not impressive. Some mentioned the same run out on the feed belt.
I won't go through the laundry list of complaints but one reviewer was told by Grizzly CS that the defects were addressed in the G0458Z model.
I still have my eyes peeled for one of the older G1066 24" sanders. They pop up for sale every so often.

[James Tibbetts]

Ted, as far as I can tell, the difference in the models is that the Z is the "new and improved" version.
Specs are the same except for the new model having a 4" dust port and it's shipping weight being 65 lbs lighter.

[Tom Dixon]

I have a Steel City 55220 26" Dual Drum sander that I bought before they went out of business a few years back. It works very well and I'm quite happy with it. It looks almost identical to the Delta 31-481 26-Inch Dual Drum Sander
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[James Tibbetts]

Looks like a beast Tom. The double drums are a nice plus.
I just have to get those lottery people with the program.

[Tom Dixon]

Looks like a beast Tom. The double drums are a nice plus.
I just have to get those lottery people with the program.

Yep it's a beast. Next best thing to a belt sander with the two drums, (80 and 120). The Amazon price is high. Tool Barn has it for $250 less so if you get bitten by the dual drum bug, shop around. There are other manufacturers like General, Baileigh and WoodTek with similar products but not as wide as 26" Usually 24" to 25"