Woodmaster sander owners

[Dan Chouinard]

I am trying to decide if making room for the 38" single drum sander is the best purchase option for my one man cabinet shop. Of course the ability to sand face frames is very appealing. But the ability to put two different grits on the drum at the same time may really justify the floor space sacrifice. Is this feature as slick as it sounds or are there any drawbacks I should know about?
Thanks

[Jim Tobias]

I have 2 different grits on mine nearly all of the time. The only exception is if I am sanding something very wide.

Jim

[David Kumm]

I think two drum is the way to go long term. Most belt problems occur in the finer grits and I like having the first drum do most of the work and the second only responsible for cleaning up the first. On the supermax the table is basically the same so the space issue is less important. Dave

[Ryan Hellmer]

I've only used a single grit on mine at any time (I use both my WM 718 and 3875 for sanding). I agree that asking too much of your sand paper will end poorly. I generally use about a 180 grit paper, sometimes 220 and plan on hitting things lightly with the RO sander afterwards anyways (you always have to clean up the cross grain scratches). Face frames and raised panel doors generally don't need much removal anyways, just cleaning up the glue and leveling a little bit, I can't see that you'd have any issues with that.

One other tip, I've used tape to hold the paper on, and it always starts slapping. I've started using zip ties. One long one works on the little drum of the 718, but you can daisy chain a couple together for the bigger drum on the 38"er. It's worked really well for me so far.

Ryan

[Dan T Jones]

Can I ask a question?? Ryan I have a 718. I don't use drum sanding enough to justify a dedicated machine. What are your thoughts about the practicality of the 718 as a drum sander. BTW I usually don't use the 718 for planing unless I have a large board. I usually use a Dewalt 735.

[Greg Portland]

One other tip, I've used tape to hold the paper on, and it always starts slapping. I've started using zip ties. One long one works on the little drum of the 718, but you can daisy chain a couple together for the bigger drum on the 38"er. It's worked really well for me so far.

Dumb question: are you putting the tape on in the right direction? It shouldn't peel off if the tail end is away from the rotation direction.

[Greg Portland]

Can I ask a question?? Ryan I have a 718. I don't use drum sanding enough to justify a dedicated machine. What are your thoughts about the practicality of the 718 as a drum sander. BTW I usually don't use the 718 for planing unless I have a large board. I usually use a Dewalt 735.

I have a 718 and it works pretty well as a drum sander. The drum is smaller in diameter than the dedicated WM drum sanders so you'll have to use a slower feed rate to keep the drum temps down. As a planer it's a huge improvement over a lunchbox style machine. Having the reversing switch for sanding is mandatory IMO (taking too big of a bite will melt the velcro & then you have a big mess).

If you don't use the 718 as a planer what do you use it for?

[Dan T Jones]

Greg,
I did a house full of molding which included allot of planing, using the ripping blades and of course molding. Since then I use it for planing long heavy boards that would tax or overcome the 735.