I went to Smyrna, TN today and saw the demonstration of the "Sand Flee" drum sander. It's basically a steel top with an 18" velcro-coated roller that serves as a drum sander. The drive unit, hold-down rollers, and conveyor belt are missing, and you simply pass the material over the drum by hand.

For a small unit, it's not cheaply made -- Baldor motor (1/3 hp) and good, heavy steel.

In the demo, he sanded some scroll saw work down to paper-like thickness (using a padded hold-down block). As impressive as that was, it's not something I'd be doing. I'd mostly be interested in this thing if it were a substitute for a drum sander in the Performax 16-32/Delta 18 category.

I searched the archives and saw a couple of comments on it.

Has anyone used this machine? And if so, how does it do on more furniture/cabinet-oriented work? Does anyone know if this would truly be viable in a non-production home shop instead of a larger drum sander in the aforementioned class? (I know it's not going to compare to a dual-drum General Int'l or to a big Woodmaster, etc., and certainly not to a wide belt.)

Thanks!
Jeff Smith
Athens, AL