Grizzly G1066Z 24" double drum sander

[Ron Humphrey]

I am seriously considering purchasing a Grizzly G1066Z and would appreciate hearing from anyone that has been using this machine for a while regarding it's performance and reliability.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/24-D...er-w-VS/G1066Z

This is a major purchase for me. The 1 year warantee has me a little worried. With the double drums and 5HP 220V this should be a significant time saver for me. I make boxes and other small items for sale and run through a lot of figured maple and walnut. Sanding currently takes too high a percentage of my time. The figured maple tears-out easily on the planer.

A larger machine is pretty much out of the question because of cost.

Thanks for any input.

[Jim Andrew]

I skipped the drum sanders and went with the small widebelt G9983. It is a wonderful sander, amazing how flat you can make a panel while you are sanding it down. Grizzly is a great company, hope they survive long into the future.

[ed vitanovec]

I do not own a Grizzly drum sander, I have their sliding table saw. I have been satisfied with the quality of my saw and I am sure this drum sander is nice, the customer service has been good to me too.
I have owned 2 drum sanders in the last 14 years and they are a time saver. Need to use them as a sander and take small passes plus dust collection is a must. Looking forward to your gloat.
Regards!
Ed

[Scott Brandstetter]

Wow Ron, major purchase for a major machine. I am jealous.....wish I could add that to my collection. Have to ask, what size boxes and items do you make that requires the 20 inches. I don't mean that disrespectfully, it's just that I always thought a machine like this was for those that did a lot of table tops.

So much to learn, I hope I'm around long enough to get it all.

[Ralph Butts]

Ron I have a 1066Z that I purchased about 3 years ago. I am the second owner. It am happy with it and it is a tremendous time saver. I happen to be located in fairly close distance to Grizzly so I have a fairly lengthy history with them. I have owned several Grizzly machines at one time or another and I will say that I have never had an issue that was not resolved to my satisfaction. I would make the purchase of the sander again. Remember light passes, it is not a planer and good dust collection CFM is an absolute must.

[Ron Humphrey]

Scott, I could get away with a smaller size for my boxes. Since the volume of my work is quite high, time saving is my primary driver for this purchase. Having the two drums with different grits and the ability to put multiple boards/pieces through simultaneously, I expect this will be a great time saver for me. I could not justify it for occasional hobby work. But since I am doing this for income and there is more labor than material cost in my boxes, reducing the time is important. The increased production I can accomplish in the same amount of time should pay for this in a year or so.

I have never had a machine that I wish has less capabilities.

[Ron Humphrey]

Thanks for the input Ralph. I'm on the Olympic Peninsula and expect to pick it up at Grizzly. I have a 5 hp 6" central dust collection system that should be adequate.

[Rick Alexander]

I've got the 1066 without the variable feed drive. I got mine off Craig's list about 4 years ago and it still had the original sandpaper on it so obviously the guy almost never used it. I use mine primarily to rough sand my RP doors and for sanding resaw materials. I'm sure there are better sanders out there but so far I couldn't be any happier - especially for the money. One note - just go ahead and figure on getting it set up for hook and loop paper right out of the box because loading the paper without it is a nightmare. I also had quite a bit of trouble with keeping my paper on the drum tight until I made the change. Now it takes like 10 minutes to change out a grit and with a whole lot less cross words during the process. I seem to have pretty good luck with 80 and 120 on my two drums but like was mentioned - very light passes or you'll start smelling those belts burning pretty quick. No more than about a 1/5 turn on the adjustment wheel at a time - not like a planer with a full turn being 1/16 is about the norm. I can proceed with 100 grit in my ROS to clean up the cross sanding lines on my doors and it's a pretty fast process from that point forward. If you want finished sanding you'll have to go with a higher grit but I've really never felt the need for that.

I've got a 3 HP Grizzly cyclone with 6 inch pipe to just above the machine where it splits into 2 4's and I have to say it doesn't really pick up all the dust off the boards - especially when you're doing doors. DC just seems to not be that great for the machine. I just keep my shop vac handy with a little brush especially when I'm doing doors. That dust coming off there will clog up your cyclone filters really fast too. I have had a little better luck with a third stage between the cyclone and the drum sander but even then it still gets to the filter pretty bad plus you lose a little suction when you add that. That thing makes a lot of very fine dust that brings out the efficiency weakness of the grizzly cyclone pretty bad. Maybe with your 5 HP you'll have better luck.

I'm really spoiled because I couldn't be without mine now. Like I said - just the cats meow for getting RP doors even and flat. By the way - I paid $600 for mine - dusty as heck but barely used. I think the guy didn't have the DC to handle it so he rarely used it. One of the better CL deals I ever got.

[Ron Humphrey]

Thanks Rick, I'm getting a little better feeling about the 1 year warrantee as I hear from Grizzly owners. The G1066Z comes with velcro and also a rubber feed belt.