Delta is not the Delta of old. From the rumblings, there is not much post-sales support and their quality has gone down from the delta tools we all used to know.Originally Posted by Jim Riseborough
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Delta is not the Delta of old. From the rumblings, there is not much post-sales support and their quality has gone down from the delta tools we all used to know.
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The only way I'd buy a double roll sander is if the back roller can easily be lifted out of position. Very seldom, especially on a wide panel. will the roughing roller make the panel dead flat in one pass. It might take 4-5 passes to get it flat. If you have the finer second roller left in position, you are just wasting that abrasive. I'm no fan of a small drum sander for running lots of stock. The abrasive gets back to the wood so quickly it really eats up the sandpaper. A narrow small wide belt is far superior. Shocked to see Delta selling that kind of equipment. I thought they were heading to bench top only. Must have swung a deal with another Chinese factory.
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I have to agree with this. If you're contemplating $5K for a dual drum sander, why not spend that or a little more on a wide belt. So much better for most jobs.
[OP]
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It is not easily adjusted out of the way. I guess I never intended this to be a material remover, more for when I glue up panels, etc. Also for end grain glue ups like cutting boards, etc. I would hope Im good enough to be one pass and done.
I have one I can get for around $2200.
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Dual drum sanders work fine if you understand that they are not abrasive planers. 0.005" is a big bite with this type of machine. I use 80 grit on both drums 95% of the time. That distributes the work to both drums so you don't have to raise up the rear drum. That grit works well for removing planer marks and tear out as well as leveling glued up panels without burning, and abrasive life is good. The finish off mine with 80 grit is very good and it's easy to go up to a finish ready surface using my ROS.
John
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If you can get a 24" wide panel within .010" in the glue up you are way better than me. And I've been doing it for 48 years.
[OP]
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I have been doing all my glue ups with the JessEm dowel jig. It gets them really close, I have yet to measure the offset. I would say that usually its within 1/64" (0.015ish?)
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You seam to be getting in the Woodmaster territory price wise. I have a 25" Woodmaster with the reversing switch. At first I didn't think it was useful but now I use it all the time. Just run the wood through the sander and once it's cleared the sanding drum reverse direction and make a second pass without having to walk to the rear of the sander. I would like a wide belt sander but the options are limited unless you have 3 phase power.
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Richard, 0.010" offset is huge. No offense, but you should try a different way of gluing up panels. I just did a 42 x 95" table top with 4 wide boards. I glued up 2 at a time then the two halves together, using biscuits for alignment. I could barely catch a fingernail on the seams. With no wide belt sander available, the top had to be flat straight from glue up, and it is.
John
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John, I was making a point. I have no idea what kind of an offset I have, but I'm pretty certain that Delta drum sander won't make a 24" wide glued up panel flat in one pass. That said, I've been woodworking for 48 years, 24 professionally. I'm very comfortable with my techniques. Thanks for the suggestion though.
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What biscuit joiner do you have, that is so precise? Lost in wonderment... :^) I use cauls.
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Avoid Supermax at all costs. Great machine, if it works. Their customer service is worse than the the Taliban. If you got a broken machine/part, you're pretty much on your own. I had one that was defective out of the box and they wouldn't even return calls.
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I no longer buy Delta because when I needed parts for my Delta tools, Delta no longer stocked them.
I have a Supermax and wonder how I got along without it.
Member
Hi Jim,
I considered that machine as well. Read a few reviews that is was not heavy duty enough with 3hp being a bit timid for dual drums.
I bought the 5hp Supermax 25x2. I use same grits on both drums. The back drum can be lifted up if necessary for lighter grits, but I prefer having both the same. Very easy paper changes with the end spring clips.
5hp is really nice and glad I got the extra muscle. A machine like this has a big footprint, but like the open stand for being able to maneuver around it when rotating workpieces.
Last edited by Robert London; 01-18-2021 at 9:22 PM.
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I considered selling my Woodtek 25" dual-drum sander after I got a Hammer A3-41 jointer/planer machine with a spiral cutter head. It leaves a nice smooth surface so I can go directly to the random orbit sander.
The reason I got the sander is because my previous jointer/planer machine had a straight knife cutter head, and no matter how hard I tried to get the blades in line, I still got the tell-tale washboard lines, and needed the sander to get a reasonably smooth surface. But now it would be difficult to let it go since I have been making tons of cutting boards and can quickly get to a smoother surface for sanding.
One word of caution: don't run pine or other soft wood through a drum sander. The drum speed and soft wood full of pitch will gum up the sandpaper real quick.
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