Need suggestions for a drum sander

[Cary Falk]

I had the Grizzly 18/36 and it is just ok. There are a lot of little annoyances. I now have a SuperMax 25/50 and love it. That being said, a couple thousand feet is a lot. As other people have mentioned, a drum sander is not a finish sander. I have not had much luck with anything finer than 120 grit. I haven't tried painting over it but you can see the lines so I would think it might show up under paint. I guess it would depend on you planer also. I used to have a lunchbox that left a glass smooth finish that I wouldn't hesitate to send right to paint. My spiral head 15" leaves marks that are visible but not noticeable to the touch. I would guess they would telegraph through the finish. It would take me less time to hit it with a ROS then send through a drum sander. The drum sander would be less physical work. There is always buying a new toy aspect also.

[Sam Puhalovich]

Jet 22/44 Oscillating Drum Sander.
As thoughtfully mentioned above from experienced user ... no one solution fits all. Considering how you'll use the machine after the trim 'run' is a major factor. I rely on my sander to be a flattener-thicknesser, and have had excellent results from the Oscillating 22/44. Weather it's wide panels or some narrow stock. As mentioned above ... one of your helpers can run 4 or 5 pieces at-a-time thru it. The pieces will be the same thickness ... depending on how well you set-up the drum-to-conveyor parallelism. Using the oscillating mode will leave almost a ROS equivalent finish. I've used up-to 180 grit for sanding drawer fronts.
I had a 18" Woodmaster that I mainly used for a sander. The only way I could get something even in thickness was to run-it down-the-middle. The middle of the table flexed about .012 ... anything run at the sides ended-up tapered.

[Jeff Straper]

I love drum sanders and I've used quite a lot of them. Nowadays there are great options at any price range so every craftsman should aim to own one in my opinion! Anyway, picking the perfect one for you depends on 3 major things - budget, size and capabilities - although the best overall bang for your buck options are in my opinion the SuperMax 19-38 and the Jet JWDS-1836. Both excellent in terms of price/quality so be sure to give them a look. Give this a look if you want an analysis of the most widely used drum sanders coupled with a very useful comparison. Be sure to give us an update when you've made up your mind!

[Robert Engel]

From what I know Woodmaster is probably the best drum sander out there.

I have the Grizzly 16" dual drum. Not real happy with it just not a well made machine. Power is fine, DC is not. Paper staying tight a big problem for me. They make a conversion kit to hook and loop which helps.

My suggestion is an open side sander like the Performax future ability to sand wider panels is a plus. The come up used once in a while.

Another thought is skip the drum sander and spend the money on a helical head upgrade for your planer.

[Charles Webber]

Sorry to jump on this thread, but it seemed like the best place to put my question. I am in the market for a drum sander. I sand a lot of 6' 1x8 white pine boards. No knots. I had read some where that the drum sanders don't work with a soft wood like pine as it gums up the sand paper. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, it would defeat the purpose of me buying one and don't want to find out too late!
I am struggling between the Jet 10-20 and the Supermax. Would this be a coin flip between the two?
Thank you for your input.

[Ted Reischl]

Of course you can only take off .005 -.010 with 180 or 220 grit paper! Try slowing the feedrate instead of running at wide open. Or, for a few good yucks, put a 220 belt in the old belt sander and see if YOU can hog off more than .010.

Sheesh.

[Ted Reischl]

Sorry to jump on this thread, but it seemed like the best place to put my question. I am in the market for a drum sander. I sand a lot of 6' 1x8 white pine boards. No knots. I had read some where that the drum sanders don't work with a soft wood like pine as it gums up the sand paper. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, it would defeat the purpose of me buying one and don't want to find out too late!
I am struggling between the Jet 10-20 and the Supermax. Would this be a coin flip between the two?
Thank you for your input.

If you put SYP in it, you will definitely gum up the paper, FAST. The finer the grit, the faster it will gum.

I have not had any problems with other pines. I work a lot with big box construction lumber and the drum sander is my go to tool after resawing. Sold the planer about 5 years ago, got tired of the pricey blades, chipping whenever it hit a knot, etc.

Get used to the idea that if you have to remove a lot of material it is wise to use a coarser grit and then change to your finish grit. I have not found it necessary to go through all the grits. If I have to hog, I use 36 grit and then I will go right to 180 or 220.

[larry senen]

I've been toying with the idea of setting up a power feed to push some stock under a 6" ros that's either spring loaded or gravity alone .for face frame and other stock. I can envision several ros in a machine with a feed belt. Just have to curl the edges of the discs.

[Dan Hahr]

Well, back in January I decided to skip the sander purchase and run all the molding using my planers and ROSs. I prepped 600 feet of 7" tall base boards this way sanding with 100-150 grit paper. It went fine but took a couple days.

As as I neared my closing date, I realized that I could not afford to spend precious time on a ROS. I decided to bite the bullet and order a Supermax 1938 drum sander. I then realized that every online dealer in the US was out of stock and Supermax had them back ordered till the end of may. On a whim, I called the closest Woodcraft in Birmingham and found one. It cost me an extra hundred for freight but I had it three days later.

I am am very satisfied with it although I still have not gotten it tweaked perfectly. I ran all the door and window casing, headers, cased opening jambs, etc plus several cabinet door panels through it. I am still using the first roll of 220 I started with (although it is about time to change it.). Everything comes out smooth enough that a quick pass with 220 in a ROS and I'm ready to paint. 150 left lines that I could see easily.

Ok typing on my phone is a pain. Back on the pc...

Dan

[Dan Hahr]

As far as speed or ability to process a large amount of wood.... it is plenty fast. Not FAST by normal planer speed standards, but a lot faster than sanding with an ROS. For example, I cut all the door molding for the whole house and had it stacked up around the garage walls. I had 26 doors and 5 cased openings to trim out. I had them all sanded on one face in maybe two hours max including stacking and sorting. I ran most of it at about 70 percent feed rate. The finish was practically perfect except a few boards where my 11 and 12 year old helpers bumped the boards as they caught them on the out feed side.

At the same time, I had a stack of center panels for my cabinet doors ready to sand. I took them down just far enough to eliminate the planer ridges and leave a uniform sheen. I couldn't find more than 2 or 3 thousandths difference side to side in thickness in any of the panels.

It does not sand multiple boards well at one time, but boards as wide as 15 inches have come out smooth and flat. I didn't think I could justify the expense, but when I resawed several wide curly maple boards and got smooth flat panels with no tear out, I realized that it will pay for itself soon enough.

I do have two planers, a 15" and 13" Dewalt. They do produce glass smooth panels with brand new blades, but that level of finish only lasts for a few boards. The ridges from the nicked knives need to be removed before finishing and even fresh sandpaper in a ROS takes a while.

For what it's worth, I sanded boards 8' long without the accessory tables. I did have my helpers support the boards as they reached the ends. My only real complaint is that the bed of the sander is sheet steel and it does deflect slightly if pushed on. You can run a board through it multiple times at the same setting and each pass removes more material. It appears that the wood forces the drum up or bed down as it squeezes through. However, boards come out flat and smooth, so maybe I'm just imagining things.

I only have two regrets: one, I wish I bought it before I hand sanded 600' of tall base. Two, a very slightly used one appeared on craigslist a week after I bought mine for half the price.

Dan

[larry senen]

Really don't need a 19 38 how's the jet 10 20 ? Probably just use 220 paper.