How many Hobbyists have a Drum Sander?

[Jim Tobias]

Use my woodmaster for everything from sanding panels to tsanding highly figured woods to thickness (instead of planer). I also use it quite a bit getting uniformm thickness on strips for edge banding veneered pieces.
It would be difficult to live without.

Jim

[Charlie Jones]

I built my own. I use it for boards under 3 feet long as it doesn't have a power feed (yet). It works great for door panels.

[Anthony Whitesell]

If you don't support the outfeed side well enough they can. The outfeed tables/support just need to be level with the feed belt. Not lower or higher like one would adjust planer tables to reduce the snipe.

[glenn witgen]

I purchased a older 16/32. Sand great but I cannot get the belt to track. It always tracks to the right side(motor side). I can run it with the left side ajuster nut loose and it still tracks to the right. I replaced belt and also switch the belt 180 deg with no improvement. I like how the unit sands but am frustrated with the tracing.

[Stephen Edwards]

I don't have a problem with snipe on my Performax 16-32 and it doesn't have any infeed our outfeed tables. I'm just careful as I run boards through it. Primarily I use it for preparing boards that would otherwise have a lot of tearout if ran on a planer.

Last year I did my first laminations useing the DS, pieces like 11 by 17. I used the bandsaw to resaw a board smooth and flat on both sides. Then, laminated the thin boards to the core material, smoooth side to the core. Then, ran it through the DS until I had about 1/8 laminate. Works great.

[John Carlo]

Wood reviewed the choices this month. If you decide to buy, check it out. I have the Performax 22-44.The review tells the minimum thicknesses able to be sanded without a backer board. I use mine on every project. A few minutes with the ROS takes out the straight line scratches. Do check out the new Jet with oscillating action. Good luck.

[Steven Dupree]

Glenn,
I have the Performax 25x2, and I have the same tracking problem. I think I have the problem narrowed down to the drive shaft on the feed roller that fits into the motor. The shaft is bent. If you watch your motor while it's running, you will see it gently oscillating. Unfortunaltey, I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. I've thought about taking it to a machine shop to see if they have any ideas. Supermax/performax has the replacement roller, but it cost $444.
If you figure yours out, please post your fix.
As to the original question, I use it ALL THE TIME. Even with the tracking problem, I still use it, and when it tracks far enough over that it starts to rub the motor, I loosen everything up, slide it back over and start again. I love my drum sander.

[Jerry Todd]

I would not be without my 25 inch Woodmaster Drum Sander. It seems that it gets a workout from me and my woodworking friends. If you are glueing edgejoints to make larger panels the Woodmaster Drumsander provides a great finish.

[Rod Sheridan]

Workshop in the basement of a townhouse equalls no room for one.

My scraping plane and cabinet scraper take up less storage room.

Regards, Rod.

[Marty Paulus]

A friend and I are looking at completing the shop in my garage. We are discussing the need and funding for a method of sizing and smoothing resaw lumber. I am of the opinion that we need a DS. As was stated in here, it can be used for thickness and smoothing. My friend thinks a planer is a better choice. My logic is with the DS the sanding is very limited. With a planer you will have to sand. What is the way to go? Funding and space is not available for both.

[Tim Malyszko]

While I don't have one yet, I want a 22-44. Now that I've been getting into more inlay/segmented/veneer work, a drum sander would make it much easier. When working with solid wood exclusively, I can get by without one.

[Anthony Whitesell]

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the reason for my purchase of the DS was to finish rough stock too short for my planer. Once upon a time, I was to get 1 sq ft scrap pieces for $1 each. Mostly maples and oaks, but occassionally an exotic mahagony or zebrawood. The performax has some aggressive papers available down to 36g. But unfortunately you don't know how deep the sand marks will be so, only a few passes can be made at the courser grits before moving up. You can't get as close to the final thickness as quickly with a DS as you can with a planer. If I'm not getting tear-out when using the planer, I'll plane down to final thickness plus 0.050 or so, before heading to the DS. I leave extra thickness is I'm getting tear out, so the DS can sand it out for me.

I would opt for a good planer with a bunch of blades so you can keep then sharp and reduce your hand sanding.

[george wilson]

Do not rely on a drum sander to act efficiently for thicknessing wood. It won't. The better choice is a good thickness planer,and sand the wood afterwards.

[Chip Lindley]

Woodmaster is THE drum sander by which most others are still compared IMO! (And they are made in USA!) I have a pre-owned Grizzly 24", which is *ok* after some tweaking and rebuilding. It was the only decent drum sander available when I had the cash to buy one. DC is a MUST, and the Grizz suffers! Although it captures most airborne dust, a huge pile is dumped off the outfeed constantly. It has its cheap drawbacks. Worst of all is conveyor tracking. A JOKE! My rebuild with *real* take-up bearings fixed that! It is adequate until I can trade-UP to a Woodmaster 38" or shop-build my OWN!

I have scrounged up everything I need to build a BIG DS except the conveyor belting--a big ticket item! The only other expense to me will be machining the large *steel* drum of 6" i.d. pipe, on a 1.5" shaft. I scarfed up a *like-new* Baldor TEFC 10hp single-phase motor years ago for just this purpose, and have some heavy duty Square-D electricals. So......maybe one day......

[Chris Padilla]

Do not rely on a drum sander to act efficiently for thicknessing wood. It won't. The better choice is a good thickness planer,and sand the wood afterwards.

Fully agree. It is a sander...not a thicknesser. If you use it like a planer, you are sure to be disappointed. Besides, if used as a planer, the going is mind-numbingly slow for good results.