SuperMax 25-50

[Steven Henbest]

Ok, new guy here. I'm about to jump and buy an drum sander and i'm strongly considering the 25-50. My hesitation is there is very little info on this machine out there as far as reviews and owners talking about them. Do any of you out there have one of these? IS it work 2k? 19-38 has great reviews and $600 cheaper. I'm wanting to upgrade my planer and jointer to spiral so I don't have much enough money or space really for a large woodmaster. I am a hobbyist however I do build things for money... mainly to buy more tools lol. Any insight would be helpful. Thanks!

Steve

[Robb White]

If I was going to spend 2k I'd want dual drums. Paid $1200 for slightly used (hobbyist used it for 3 years) General International 15-250M.

http://www.amazon.com/General-Intern.../dp/B002KHNLV6

-Rob

[John C Bush]

I have SuperMax 25--Not sure what the 50 is unless the 25/50 has an open end. Mine is fixed on both ends and is limited to 25" widths. It is a very nice, solid machine.
Great for removing planer marks and final dimensioning. Has a 1.5hp motor so not a lot of power to really knock down the dimension so it can be a slow process if you want to do more than dimension stock. I have found that starting @ 80 grit then to 150, then final finish with a ROS is a bit faster. When finishing panels I will use 180 and run the panels thru a few times at the same height and get a really nice finished surface. Paper changes are simple and I use the big eraser a lot and reverse the paper to max paper mileage.
I added the SmartSand(?) controller that slows belt feed rate as the amp load increases if you get too greedy or in a hurry and try to reduce too much too soon. I wouldn't use the machine without it now. I use it for hobby projects and like having the machine.

[Steven Henbest]

25/50 means it's open end. I'll look into the General. Honestly haven't even looked at that one. I've been scouring CL for a couple months now. Couple grizzly have popped up nothing really good available used. I live in Missouri and search from Dallas to St.louis.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Never liked those open ended drums. Especially the Performax. Huge legs, cumbersome footprint. I would look at the General also.

[Scott Brihn]

I bought a 25-50 Supermax in 2013. It works as expected. The drum holds setting. Paper changes are uneventful. I "cut my own" using rolls from Industrial Abrasives. I bought the OEM DRO which works fine but sees limited use. It came with a closed stand on wheels. Although they increase the footprint, I recommend extension tables. Dust collection with my cyclone is terrific but i do clean the filter after most sanding sessions. The unit arrived in good shape from Acme Tools. I did need one helper to help me lift it onto the stand.

[William C Rogers]

I have had the SuperMax 19-38 for two years. The sander has maintained it's setting the entire time. I don't have any experience with the 25-50, but looks similar only bigger. For me I have only needed the 38" capability one time for a 24" cabinet door. It worked fine. Everything else for me has been 18" or less. The 19-38 has some nice design features not found on other open end sanders such as easy change of paper. I also appreciate the all metal cover when attaching the dust collector hose. I would also recommend the infeed and outfeed tables. A few things that could be better; I bought the same stand that appears with the 25-50 sander. The wheels do not swivel, they are straight line making the sander difficult to maneuver. Locking is done by screwing in the small star handles near the floor. To me not a good design. I ended up removing them and buying a mobile base. With the infeed and outfeed tables the storage is more difficult to access. I got the DRO free with mine, not sure if it is included with the 25-50. It is cumbersome to set it up so you go to a specific height as it does not retain memory, you need to set it each time. I measure the board and zero it there and know about how much to take off and use it to measure each pass. I wish it had a auto shut off with memory. They may have changed this. Many do not like open ended sanders, but at the end of the day my boards are within .002, so it works for me at a lot less dollars.

[Steven Henbest]

My fear with a normal fixed drum sander is width. If I had room I would go fixed for sure but I can't justify having a 38" machine in my shop. However I plan on tackling new cabinets in my wife's kitchen and a 24" wont cover the face frames. Its for those rare occasions that is why I thought I would go open end. I have no experience with open ended sanders so I can't say with certainty but I can't imagine .002 being noticeable. However on the other hand my fear with open end is they appear to be under-powered. William, do you ever feel yours is under-powered?

[Robb White]

Looks like Delta is making a clone of the General for about $100 cheaper... Not sure if your interested or not but thought I'd throw it out there. Also I didn't shop around for the cheapest price on this stuff so you may be able to find cheaper. Good luck with whatever you decide.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...7GAVXXZ691J7K6

-Rob

[Bill McNiel]

Steve,
I bought a two month old, rarely used, 25-50 a couple of months ago on CL for $1,400 with the extension tables and 7 packages of sandpaper. I had been looking for a 19-38 for two years, never saw a used one listed anywhere and was about to buy a new one from Acme (free shipping and no sales tax). It has a significantly bigger footprint than the 19-38 .

I did alot of research and believe the SuperMax is superior to its counterparts (Jet, Performax, Delta, etc.). I fully agree with everything Scott said in his review, especially regarding the in line wheels. I built my own VG Fir base (sourced from Lowes KD studs pallet) with four locking swivel wheels. Much better.

Paper change is easy, drive belt stays on track, dust colletion is excellent and cast iron head assembly is really solid. I believe the SuperMax is "built" by the guys who designed/created the Performax/Jet/whatever copy and left the company when they didn't like the direction quality was going, but am not positive about that scenario. I have run some really heavy, long (10' +), wide (over 30") slabs through it with quality performance and finish results. I would buy the 25-50 again without hesitation.

[William C Rogers]

My fear with a normal fixed drum sander is width. If I had room I would go fixed for sure but I can't justify having a 38" machine in my shop. However I plan on tackling new cabinets in my wife's kitchen and a 24" wont cover the face frames. Its for those rare occasions that is why I thought I would go open end. I have no experience with open ended sanders so I can't say with certainty but I can't imagine .002 being noticeable. However on the other hand my fear with open end is they appear to be under-powered. William, do you ever feel yours is under-powered?

No, it is not underpowered. You can " burn" before you ever get it to bog down. I wish it could be converted to 220v. When I built my cabinets, for the face frames I only used it on the stock. To get thickness and width. I taped a bunch together to get the 1 1/2" ( face frame width ). I then assembled the sanded stock and used my ROS for the final sanding. Not sure how you are planning to build yours. I think I tried running a assembled FF, but didn't like that. I diduse it for my assembled doors.
I take very light cuts when getting close to the final dimension for best results.