New Craftsman Drum Sander

[Jerry Heiser]

Hi everyone,

I'm seriously contemplating (again) on either buying or making a drum sander. I've done research on all the popular brands and have received several plans and input on making one. I even have a brand new Performax aluminum cylinder, pillow blocks and new Delta 2hp motor, all purchased on eBay. Recently I read (I think on the Woodworkers eZine magazine) that Craftsman has a new dum sander with built in dust collection. Now, I'm real skeptical about the newer Craftsman power tools, especially with all of the bad threads they get on all of the different forums, but... I would like to be open minded and believe that maybe this sander is worth a look at. Anybody have any experience with it or heard anything. I went to the Craftsman web page and it is on sale for $699. Any other input on drum sanders in general would be welcome. I have an old treadmill that I'm dieing to incorporate into a variable speed power feed for a homemade drum sander. Any ideas or experiences?? Thanks all.

Jerry

[Jim Becker]

"Built in dust collection" scares me, given the amount of fines that drum sanders produce in a very short period of time. Even the biggest, baddest DC system can be challenged by some of these machines. Neither the Performax or Delta sanders can be run without dust collection and both need more than the minimum, too...

[Steve Stube]

It will be interesting to see who is producing this sander for Sears. I checked the site and find this message when I checked on availability.

"We are sorry, but the following product is temporarily unavailable."

It would be worth checking it out up close and personally if it ever goes to store stock - I think I read somewhere that it is only being offered on-line. Looks like that isn't the case at least temporarily.

Sears sold a drum sander attachment for radial arm saws in the 70's. I ordered one (at the time it was $179.00) but it came missing parts so I sent it back and didn't reorder. It was a Performax IIRC. Sears has had some good ww tools in the past (pre mid 80's IMO) and they may do so again - we can hope.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Jerry,

For my $$ I would spend about $100 more and go with the Performax 16-32. I think it is still selling around $800 or $1100 for the 22-44 if you build the cabinet like Jim Becker did. He has a great thread about this. I definetly would not buy it site unseen. If you can compare it to the Delta or Jet in person I may feel better about saving a little money if it appears to be made by one or the other.

If I had the drum you have I would think about making one of the drum sanders like a jointer. They sell a kit for this. It sounds like you have most of the stuff you would need to make it. This type of sander is hand fed but I don't see why you could not use a feeder.

Just my thoughts.

[Charles McKinley]

The new Tool Crib catalog (Amazon.com) has the Performax 16-32 Plus on sale for $759.99 no stand, with another $25 off. Stand is $57 or make your own.

[Jerry Bittner]

Palmgren is the manufacture Palmgren.com

[Steve Stube]

Certainly looks like a match. Thanks for the info.

[Bob Weil]

My 2 cents worth on the sander from Palmgren (81318), Craftman (Sears item #00921568000) or Grizzly (G0458) I have one and it is a great drum sander. Paper change is easy and the controls are easy and well designed. The internal fan to remove sawdust to the bag works great, as long as you have a dust collector attached were it is supposed to be. Really, to tell the truth I did not have the guts to run it on the bag only. The biggest reason I bought this unit over smaller sanders is it is rigid as heck and the internals are built like a tank. What it doesn't have is wheels which I did add. If it is moved a lot extra support on the legs is required. I purchased this for my kitchen and reviewed some of the other tools I purchased and included pictures of the flooring and cabinets I made. This was my first woodworking project, it took me 3 months to figure out what I needed tool wise and to learn how to use what I bought. My website for the kitchen is:
http://webpages.charter.net/bobweil/...l%20single.mht
Bob

[Corey Hallagan]

Palmgren makes several tools for Sears including a pretty decent little benchtop jointer and the 15 inch Variable speed lathe.

Corey

[scott spencer]

Hi Jerry - I've had good results with two of the newer Craftsman tools (22124 TS and 22400 BS), but both were fairly well proven and heavily discounted before I jumped. Most of their newer big machinery has proven fairly competitive and the sander might be great, but $700 is alot of money for an unproven tool that makes you uncomfortable.

The brand name reputation of one tool, isn't necessarily an accurate indicator of the quality of another....that's especially true in this day and age. Unless the Craftsman sander has some inherent design or price advatages, or some other incentive, I'd hesitate to take the added risk when there are other proven choices near the same price point. I'd let others do the field testing, or come up with other good alternative research info on an identical machine before buying one.

[mike hart]

i know what you mean. i near broke my back getting it off the truck. but once it was running , oh man what a machine. i can,t belive the dust it kicks up. you must hook it up to a solid dust collector. :

[rusty borders]

i know what you mean. i near broke my back getting it off the truck. but once it was running , oh man what a machine. i can,t belive the dust it kicks up. you must hook it up to a solid dust collector. :

I am looking at a Palmgren at this time. They have them in Chicago for $550.00 How has yours held up, Would you buy it again.

[keith micinski]

unfortunately if your talking about the one on craigslist that is a scam.

[matt tennessen]

unfortunately if your talking about the one on craigslist that is a scam.

It's not really a scam, they just post way too much in nearby areas and with slight variations so as not to get flagged. Those guys are liquidators and they aren't really all that knowledgable about the stuff they acquire.

[rusty borders]

I don't understand why it's a scam. Are you saying it's not a Palmgren but something else. I would personaly pick it up therfore. I will also plug it in before I get too far away.