Drum Sander upgrade

[Jim Barstow]

I have a Supermax 19-38 drum sander and am considering an upgrade. I wasn’t sure how much I’d use it but it’s become a key part of my workflow. A project now starts with wood that is perfectly dimensioned with no mill marks and no snipe. My shop is pretty full and I have no space for a wide-belt sander plus I really don’t want to add in the additional infrastructure (i.e., compressor) that a wide belt needs. Are there any drum sanders out there that are a step up in quality and power? The open-ended design has always concerned me and I spent a bunch of time making sure the surfaces were parallel; I’d rather go with a closed design that is more stable. General seems to be out of business. Grizzly now has a South Bend drum sander but it has zero reviews. Anything else that would be considered better than the Supermax?

[Warren Lake]

No secret I think drum sanders stink for sanding and are for dimensioning lumber. If you are sanding your wood when you begin a project then you will be dulling your tooling all the way through when you do further machining to it.

[Jonathan Jung]

I researched this extensively and settled on the Supermax 37 x 2. From everything I read, the only upgrade above your machine is a closed end model, without going to a widebelt. My 37x2 dimensions really well, within .01" across the 37" width. The setup is key, like any machine. It has the 3hp motor which is strong enough to remove heavy amounts on full width panels. The key is to get the grit right. Too fine a grit and it will have problems more easily. I use 80g for dimensioning.

[Cary Falk]

I have the SuperMax 25/50 and think that SuperMax is probably the best in it's class of sanders. That being said it sounds like your planer need to be fixed of it's snipe. I don't have any snipe on mine. I consider a drum sander to have mill marks in the fact that it still needs a ROS before finishing.

[Alex Zeller]

Do you need the open end of what you have now? If not then I would look into something like a Woodmaster. I have an older 26" wide one with the reverse switch. You can feed the board in and once you hear the sanding stop you can reverse the direction and get a second pass without walking around the sander. My plan was to get something like the Supermax 19-38 but I couldn't act quick enough when one came up used and I just never got around to buying one new. The Woodmaster style of sander is much more substantial than the open end sanders but take up about the same amount of floor space. I would try to figure out how wide you need and then figuring out what will work for you.

[John TenEyck]

My advise is to get a dual drum as wide as you need with a 5 hp motor. Mine is 24" wide and covers 95% of my needs. Dual drum is just a lot more efficient than a single drum, provided you have enough HP to drive them both. I keep 80 or 100 grit on both drums. I'm not suggesting you use it as a planer, but it takes significant power to take off even 0.005" on something 24" wide with 2 drums.

For Warren's benefit, I also run almost every piece of stock through my drum sander before machining the parts I need. I've never noticed any shortening of tool life whether power or hand tool. If there is it's not enough to be of concern.

I agree with Cary who said a drum sander leaves mill marks and you still need to use a ROS and/or hand sanding. What a drum sander does do exceptionally well is sand surfaces dead flat and eliminate tearout, snipe, etc. from a planer. It is a wonderful machine for dimensioning shop sawn veneer.

John

[Warren Lake]

Not my benefit its to your benefit. If you are industry its important not to be going backwards. Grit gets embedded in the wood from the sanding process, even more so from a drum sander that has a high contact pressure. I learned that at least 40 years ago.

If you don't believe me find a sandpaper supplier who knows they are doing, not a salesman in a nice shirt like the last 3M guy that replaced the one before who knew what he was talking about.

Its fact.

[John TenEyck]

I've been using a drum sander to prep wood for 15 years. I haven't seen my chisels or hand planes get dull any faster than before. That's fact enough for me.

John

[Mike Wilkins]

I went from a Performax 16-32 to the Woodmaster 25" dual drum sander. I keep 100 grit on the first drum and 120 on the 2nd. Lately I have been using it for leveling cutting board glue-ups, as my Hammer J/P leaves a finish ready for 150 grit on the random orbit. For surfacing rougher lumber I would go 80 and 100.
Make sure your dust collector is up to the task, as these machines can generate some dust.

[Jim Barstow]

Couple of replies

Has supermax declined since bought by Laguna?

After expanding my skills into machining, my standards for accuracy have gotten a lot tighter and when I dimension wood I like to get it to within a couple thousandth’s. This is hard to do on a planer (at least mine) where you can’t take 0.005 in a pass. The snipe is not really visible but I can feel it and measure it. Since the end of the board is where a lot of joints are cut, I want to eliminate all of it. I used to mill boards long then just cut it off. Don’t need to do that anymore.

Seems like I use my drum sander differently in that I use 150 grit almost exclusively. I’m not trying to remove ”large” amounts of wood, just a couple hundredths at the most. I’ve learned that I’ve got to make lots of light passes but I end up with material that is perfect and only requires a little work with a ROS or hand sanding.

As to leaving grit, you have to integrate both the possibility of something happening and the magnitude of the effect. It may be an established fact that sanding leaves grit but what is the magnitude of the problem? It would have to be a substantial amount to cause enough dulling to be a problem. I suspect that if you examined sanded wood under a microscope you’d see residual sandpaper grit but not enough to really effect anything. I’ve not seen the problem and the benefit of perfectly dimensioned lumber far outweighs the potential downside.

[Warren Lake]

Amazing how many guys here are smarter than trained european cabinetmakers and the sandpaper companies that make the paper you use.

You want to see what you are doing in fast forward because you are convinced it does nothing then run some barn board, its exactly the same thing embedded grit. The barn board will take about 20 minutes to trash your knives.

Go ask a sandpaper supplier and learn what you dont know and refuse to accept.

[Rick Potter]

I have had a 37" Woodmaster for over 15 years. It replaced a Delta open end, which was much lighter duty. No complaints. I also process pieces before assembly now, and have no complaints about the machine.

The only thing I would change is that I wish I had gotten the 25" model, as I found I don't need the width.

It has been trouble free for me, if you can use a closed end type.

[Richard Coers]

No secret I think drum sanders stink for sanding and are for dimensioning lumber. If you are sanding your wood when you begin a project then you will be dulling your tooling all the way through when you do further machining to it.

You must use some really cheap sandpaper. When I ran a custom woodworking business, every board went from the thickness planer to the stroke sander. I didn't see any grit, nor did I get excessive wear on any other tooling. I had a part time business for 15 years before going full time and adding the stroke sander. So plenty of experience with tooling wear before using the stroke sander.

[Mel Fulks]

Any machining should be done before any sanding. Many times I’ve had to run beads, ogees,etc. on sanded wood brought to me by the
village radio toting ,comic book reading ,care-free know-nothing. Pick up an un- sanded block of clean wood. Sand one side. Run a sharp
knife over the unsanded side several times. Knife will still be sharp. Then do test on sanded side. You will teach yourself.

[Warren Lake]

good grief

one more that doesnt he doesnt know. If you did that in the shop the old guy ran you would get your ass kicked.

I used many different papers starting with Hermes then to 3M. Others as well.

Id be impressed if you actually listened and called up a belt supplier and got an experienced guy, he would confirm what I said. Instead its easier "I see nothing"