Is there a wide belt sander out there, geared for the small shop?

[David Klear]

Dee Dee
The Grizzly, Powermatic are just copies of one that Sunhill has been selling for over 15 years. Yorkcraft (Wilke) in PA sells a similiar one. I've have a lot of time on and older SUnhill and its an excellent machine. If its set up right you can sand 30 in playwood with little if any noticeable difference in the middle. Any of the good sanding belt suppliers will supply belts for about 25.00 a peice. They last a lot longer than the drum types. i would call Sunhill or Wilke and talk to them they are nice people. Some of the machines can be had with platens on them. Some like them some don't. FOr my money they are a better deal than the drums. unfortunatley I bought the delta drum for home till I can save the money for the 15/30.

My 02

[Chris Giles]

SCMI makes a wide belt that's called UNO (or UNI) that is made for the small production shop market. I don't know if they still make it, but used ones are very popular in this region and can be had with a bit of scrounging. I looked at one a month ago and was very impressed. 37" wide with a single platen head, it was surprisingly compact and was about $8000 refurbished. I believe it was 15hp, so was too big for my rotary converter. For me it would require a larger RC and more powerful dust collection. If I were in the market, this is what I would look for.

[tod evans]

chris, is this the unit you speak of? tod

MVC-188S.JPG

[lou sansone]

looks like a nice compact machine
lou

[Mike Hollingsworth]

DeeDee

I have the open ended Powermatic after having three Performax Units.
It is a joy. It does not flex.
I wish the thickness setting wheel was higher. It is bad on my back. Even better, if it were motorized.
My machine looks identical to the North State. These are the only units that claim to be 16". Sandpaper is easy to get. $5 a pop.

Mike

[Mike Hollingsworth]

There's a shop fox 15" open ended on eBay.
at $2800 a pretty good buy.

Mike

[Steven Wilson]

Yes there is a widebelt sander for smaller shops. Check out http://www.speedsander.com/ which is a 37" widebelt by Timesaver. IIRC it comes with a 10hp 3 phase or 7.5 hp single phase.

[Chris Giles]

Tod, I think that is the modern version of the UNO. The Uno is dark green two-tone paint and actually says "UNO" where yours says Sandya. It looks like the same machine- a real beauty. I'm green with envy!

[Tom Jones III]

There might be a different way to tackle this problem ... can't you work on the planer so that it can accomplish the same task? I've only done a little bit down to 1/8" in my planer, but with sharp knives and careful setting of the knives I've had good luck with my little planer. I would imagine that a spiral cutter head would help if you are doing tough grain.

[Dee Dee Martin]

Steven, at a price of over $7G, I'm not so sure I'd call that a sander for the "small shop".

Tom, that's a good point. I've tried this, and it does work. My Dewalt does go down to 1/8". Here's the problem.

I resaw, about 4/64ths over my final 1/8".
I then run it thru my planer, and take off one or two 64ths from one side.
Now my board is getting pretty thin.
When I start cleaning up the other side, if I take off a 64th per pass, too often I'll get major chip-out at the end. So, I have to barly skim the surface, in 3 or 4 passes. Very time consuming.

With a widebelt, I'd probably be done in 2 passes total, with zero chipout.

There's lots of drum sanders out there, for about a grand, or less, and I was just hoping there was such an animal in the widebelt camp.

My local milling shop charges $1.50 per min. to use theres.

[tod evans]

dee dee, 1.50 min = no cash outlay, no up-keep, mo mess....only you can decide if you sell enough to justify the money to own a widebelt....02 tod

[Mike Elo]

http://moritzdesigns.com/sander/sander.html

[Tom Sontag]

Well Dee Dee, if you are happy with every aspect of the drum sander except speed, why not buy another one or two? Less money than a big wide belt and except for the footprint issue, it should work. It's not too hard to feed two at once.

Re Mike's build-your-own: Anyone ever hand feed a wide belt or drum sander? How would that work pushing on a 1/16" veneer piece??

[J.R. Rutter]

I've seen at least one used 10HP 1PH Timesavers for sale over the years, but they are rare. You might try to get in touch with some used equipment dealers. They are the guys who are tapped into who is upgrading and getting rid of equipment. Try looking at the Woodquip site, and search by state. Some dealers list here and you can figure out who they are by requesting info on several machines. Don't remeber if you mentioned - do you have 3 Ph, or a converter? Those old SCMI/Sandya UNOs do have a good reputation.

[Doug Jones from Oregon]

Dee Dee...I have that sander and I'm quite happy with it. I purchase my belts from Klingspor for what I feel are very reasonable prices or if in a pinch, the local tool supply store carries them.

I frequently load the entire width of the table with frame molding and sand away....all day long sometimes. Just need to be carefull and remember it is a sander, not a planer and not try to go to deep. I have few occassions to need a wider sanding area but have found the open end option to work well and have been happy with the eveness of the flipping process.

I have owned both the Grizzly 24" drum sanders and a Performax and found neither of them to be a quick or consistant as the shop fox/grizzley 15/30, nor as nice to deal with when it came to changing grits. Just open a door, flip a switch and swap belts. No wrapping, no silly clamps to fuss with.

Also, good dust collection is a must as is a constant air supply.

Doug