Drum Sander Advice

[Zachary Hoyt]

I like my 19-38 but have not used it for things over 18" or so wide, as I'm mostly building instruments not furniture or cabinets and they are not all that big.

[Keegan Shields]

I bought a used 25-50 a few years ago and love it. SuperMax has great customer service based at their HQ (MN I think). Overall great machine. You think your workpiece has a flat surface coming off the planer until you run it through a DS.

[Jim Becker]

Hey thanks for all the info everyone. I think I'm leaning towards the Supermax 19-38. Probably a lightly used one, but if that doesn't work out then I'll hope for a good black friday deal. The size is great and I can't seem to find anyone that doesn't like their 19-38. I'd prefer the 25-50, but we'll see what happens.

That's what I have, Josh, bought "lightly used" a few years ago from an estate sale. It's a reasonable size in that most of the time, there is enough width to do the things I do with it. I did pick up the optional DRO for it because while I primarily work in metric, being able to switch the scale is useful and the native, "static" scale can only be one or the other without making something. The DRO is also handy for getting close to a specific thickness without guessing. I bought it online via Amazon, but it shipped from Acme Tool. (This was a few years ago)

[John TenEyck]

Does the Supermax have the ability to reverse direction of the conveyor belt? It's a nice option on the Woodmaster. I would think 5hp is not a lot of power for two drums. I've never used anything but 120 grit on my Woodmaster. I've never needed anything courser so two drums wouldn't help me.

Actually, it would. Two drums with the same grit sands faster than 1 drum, especially if you have a 5 hp motor on it.

Power is always good, but the 3hp motor on my dual drum 24" sander is more than enough. Even the most powerful of this type of machine is still a sander, not a planer. Removal is measured in 0.000's or 0.00's, not 0.0's.

John

[Zachary Hoyt]

I just use the ruler on mine to get to the general area where I need to be. To start a job I slide the wood under with the motor off and spin the drum by hand till it touches the wood, and I check the thickness with a caliper between passes. I can leave the head in the same place and run the wood through three times and it will make the board a little thinner each time, so I have to measure actual results for some things I'm doing.

[ray grundhoefer]

I have a 3875 woodmaster sander that I picked up at an auction. It works great.