Grizzly Baby drum sander G0459

[Randy Cox]

Does anyone have one or used one? Am thinking of getting one and was just wondering if anyone had seen or used one what are your thoughts. Thanks.

Randy

[Frank Fusco]

Looks like a kissn' cousin to my G0505 planer. They must be from Oklahoma. Ennyhow, the planer is a workin' hoss. I have always been satisfied with Griz products. Usually the best value for the money on the market and usually compare favorably with competition models at 2-3X the money.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Does anyone have one or used one?

By definition that is not me.
Why a 12" sander? In a home shop 12" makes sense for a planer as you won't often need to plane anything larger than 12." In those projects where you might want a wider planer there are usually fine workarounds.

The larger width capacity becomes more important in a sander as you will be running finished glue ups etc., through it. I'd not get a small sander like that unless I was dead sure that I'd never need more. There are smallish open end sanders that by virtue of the open end offer you double the drum width as you ultimate capasity. P Just about everyone has a sander or teo in their product line so there are options. Sunhill, General, Wood Tek, Proformax, PM, Griz, Leneave Machinery, Jet you name it.

I am stagger blasted at the money being asked for those things. The wide belt units at least have some machined parts and effort into 'em to sort of justify the prices but The drum units are insanely expensive for what they are. This especially so when so many folks build perfectly good drum sanders right in their own shops.

[tod evans]

randy,
a sander needs to be accurate and have alot of power, somehow i just can`t see getting either for the money griz is asking? i`ve never run that machine so can offer no firsthand experience but i`ve owned drum sanders in the past and a true 5hp motor is really underpowered.
as cliff said, 12" is very narrow for a sander, so think long and hard before cutting a check........if you need to regularly sand small pieces slowly then maybe this unit is for you?......02 tod

[Shiraz Balolia]

randy,
a sander needs to be accurate and have alot of power, somehow i just can`t see getting either for the money griz is asking?

That is a pretty absurd comment when you have no firsthand experience with the machine!

Not everyone needs, wants or can afford big sanders. For those that do, there is a reason why we offer drum sanders upto 37" wide with 15HP.

[tod evans]

shiraz,
how could my comment be considered absurd regardless if i have run this piece of equipment? we both know that power and accuracy cost money.....at least i thought i did?
i didn`t suggest that randy look at your, or anybody elses, 37" sanders. what i typed i consider sound advice to anybody reading.
i`m sure the little sander in question fills a nitch but since randy didn`t specify what his intended use was i offered my perspective of small sanders in general. if randy had asked about the delta unit my advice would have been the same.
please feel free to correct me if you believe that this sander is powerfull and accurate, but to call my response based on my real world experience absurd is quite frankly pretentious.
.02 tod

[Shiraz Balolia]

shiraz,
how could my comment be considered absurd regardless if i have run this piece of equipment? we both know that power and accuracy cost money.....at least i thought i did?
i didn`t suggest that randy look at your, or anybody elses, 37" sanders. what i typed i consider sound advice to anybody reading.
i`m sure the little sander in question fills a nitch but since randy didn`t specify what his intended use was i offered my perspective of small sanders in general. if randy had asked abot the delta unit my advice would have been the same.
please feel free to correct me if you believe that this sander is powerfull and accurate, but to call my response based on my real world experience absurd is quite frankly pretentious.
.02 tod

Saying that you don't think a Grizzly 12" sander can be accurate for the money we are asking is considered "sound advice"? It is more like an insult. You may have real world experience, but you have not used this machine and should not denigrate it without firsthand facts.
It is a 12" sander. It doesn't need huge HP because the capacity is small. Its HP is sufficient for its size. Pretty self explanatory, really. As far as accuracy, it IS accurate. Several magazines have tested this machine and found it to be excellent for its size.

[Ben Roman]

I love Grizzly !!! I love the equipment , I love the customer service, and I love the fact that the Prez/ big cheese will take the time to respond to questions about his products ! Not to impune the tod master , i can kinda see his view on the comments about his products and or the suggestion that it is limited due to price and or HP. I would probably take that comment personally too.
I have the 24 grizzly drum sander and it is sometimes too big for my usage. I wish the smaller version was available when I bought this one, cause the big one takes up alot of space in my shop and does not get nearly enough use in my shop.

My 2 cents

Ben

[tod evans]

shiraz,
let`s get one thing straight- i did not bad mouth your little sander!

i`ll stick with my opinion, that being " a 110 volt 12" sander is to small for most shops. and a sander priced less than a name brand 5hp motor, regardless of manufacturer, cannot take the workload most serious hobbiests will put on it. further, i stand by my belief that power and accuracy do no come cheaply. as i stated to randy," if you need to sand small pieces slowly this may be the unit for you"
please do not try to lable my posts as "denigrative" when in fact they are my opinion given freely containing advice that "i"consider sound!

.02 tod

[Ben Roman]

Tod is on fire !!

[Julio Navarro]

I did not read any denigration into tods responce, in fact, I may just consider this small sander based on his advice cos I fit into that "small piece" niche. I dont need a powerfull sander.

Tods advice sounded sound to me.

[John M. Cioffi]

Shiraz,
Could you tell me what magazines had the write-up? I'd like to read them, as I'm thinking of purchasing one in the future.
Thanks,
John

[Brian Hale]

Randy,

I also have no first hand experience with that sander but I've put a lot of wood through my Performax 10-20 Plus and can tell you that sanding a 10" wide board on this 1hp machine is, as Tod eluded to, slow. Very slow. If i go a bit too fast it kicks out the breaker on the sanding motor and i need to let it cool down a bit before restarting it.

Also keep in mind that you'll most likely still need to do a final sanding after the drum sander is finished as they tend to leave sanding tracks that run the length of the board, even at 150 grit. Any finer grit and the process is painfully slow. As an example, a 6" wide board 8" long is about 2 minutes per pass @ 150 grit.

Still, I use my Performax on most every board the comes out of my planer. It removes planer marks in just 2 or 3 passes.

My main concern with the Griz unit is the use of hook-and-loop abrasive. I'd be concerned about the edges of the boards getting rolled over a bit which would be pain if you plan on edge gluing after running then through the sander, which is something i do quite often. The H&L is also more expensive and not as easy to find. (Of course Griz should stock it for you)

I'd also wonder if the 2 1/2" dust port is large enough to suck up all the dust, something that's Very important with a drum sander. Perhaps a 4" or 6" can be adapted to it.

If you plan on edge gluing boards first and then running them through the sander to level out the seams you may not like what happens as the glue line can clog the abrasive and cause burnt streaks on the panel.

If i was in the market for a drum sander I'd pass on the 12" model and look for something larger and more powerful without the H&L abrasive. I hate waiting .......

Brian

[Shiraz Balolia]

Shiraz,
Could you tell me what magazines had the write-up? I'd like to read them, as I'm thinking of purchasing one in the future.
Thanks,
John

Popular Woodworking and the latest issue of American Woodworking (Sept. 2006).

With drum sanders you have an option to go without hook and loop, and while that gives you a more accurate dimensional finish, it is a pain as far as burning, slippage and changing the paper. We used to sell some of our larger drum sanders that way, but had way too many people ask (complain) about wanting hook and loop, so that's what we now put on now, at a higher cost. I would estimate that 10 to 1 our customers want the hook and loop over the plain drum.

Size is relative to need and circumstance. That is why you have jointers from 4" all the way up to 20" readily available on the market (yes, I know we are talking about drum sanders). Will a 6" jointer do what you are able to do with a 16" jointer? No, but if most of the boards someone is working on are smaller and a 6" is all that person needs, can afford and has space for, then that is what he buys. Same analogy can be applied to planers (lunchbox type all the way up to 24" and beyond), bandsaws, sanders etc......just about any machine. Logic would indicate that a person would not expect the 12" machine to do what a 24" or 37" machine with bigger HP can do. For some, life is void without large machines, but the majority of the people on the market don't need large machines, nor do they have space or, sometimes, the budget for.

[Kyle Kraft]

I got an idea...a feller could buy the griz baby sander and then pimp it out with a 5hp motor, billet aluminum centerless ground drum, a glass scale digital readout (with absolute and incremental resolution), stepless DC servo feed belt control (3hp of course) and a Rockford Fosgate sound system 1.5kW.