Why is it....

[Earl Reid]

Walt,
I have had my Perfomax 16/32 since they first came on the market. I spent alot of time setting up , and re set it about 3 yrs ago. I allowed for the sag in the drum. I use 100 grit paper. Usually I sand down about 1/16 to finish size. I have made several panels upto about 28-30" and have not had any problem.
I have just finised the second blanket chest in the past 3 months. I went out and measured the last lid. One end was .737 and .736 on left end ,.741 and .740 in the middle, .738 and .739 on the right end. I also always turn the panels each pass. and turn it down about 1/6 th turn every 2 passes. I use pencil lines as I run them thru. 90% 0f use is cherry. Also 90% of use is less than 10" wide and 30 " long . I wouldn't be without it
Good sanding
Earl

[Mark Kauder]

If you are interested in building your own drum sanders like klingspor is selling, there are a few places to get drums up to 30" wide.

http://www.stockroomsupply.com/VSander.asp

Mark

[Patrick Lee Hiatt]

I have had a delta 18/36 for a few years and it performed well.
I just got home yesterday with a new Woodmaster drum sander,
that I will be unpacking today. The delta had worked great it was just slow. The delta does leave noticeable sanding marks in hard maple even with the grain at 120 grit. If I could get hard maple to plane tear out free always through the planer I would not use the drum sander because it does take a while to sand out the sanding marks. I hope the woodmaster with the 6"drum
and velcro will leave less marks on Maple.

[Mike Evertsen]

I have the delta,,,I use as it was designed for sanding not planing or thicknessing or to flaten boards I don't remove alot of material at a time about a 1/4 turn per pass and clean the belt a few times on long runs,,
other than the bottom belt tracking off and having to be adjusted
it works well for me,,,

[Bob Daun]

I am one of the Shopsmith owners and I built a thickness sander for my shopsmith following the plans in Nick Engler's book called "Planing and Sanding". It has a 16" drum which is supported on both ends so that is the maximum capacity. The drum itself is made out of 6" schedule 80 (about 1/2" wall thickness) PVC pipe. It doesn't have automatic feed so I have to push the piece through and catch it on the other side. Of course you have to have a "pusher" to get it through under the drum. The feed is from the back side so I am feeding against the rotation of the drum. Mine is powered by my Shopsmith which is nice from the standpoint of built in variable speed control. The plans in the book do show the modifications for either a separate drive motor or the Shopsmith. The total parts cost was about $100. I use it primarily to flatten layers for my segmented bowls prior to gluing them together. I have it set up with 80 grit paper which is fine for my needs. It was kind of a fun project just to build the thing although I don't really use it that often.