Steel City Drum Sander Gloat.

[Mike Cutler]

After much deliberation I finally pulled the trigger on a new drum sander.
I settled the Steel City 26" Drum Sander. The General was a very close 2nd.

Initial impressions are that this thing is a tank. It's heavy folks, I ended up buying a chainfall and hooked it to a beam in the garage to get it out of the truck and onto the mobile base. There is just nothing to grab ahold of on the exterior of the machine.

I ran a test piece of wood through it to see how parallel the drums were. They were dead on. Nice, no adjusting right out of the box.

Dust collection is going to be an issue. My Jet DC 1100 can't keep up with the sander via the 2, 4" DC ports on the machine. I was taking lite passes additionally.

It takes about 5 minutes to have the machine up and running once you get it out of the crate, and that is one heavy duty crate. It comes prewired for 220, and all there is to install is the table crank and the ON/OFF switch.

One slight comment on the user manual. They show a little cartoon of two people lifting the machine off of the pallet. At 500lbs,and nothing to grab ahold of this isn't going to happen. The manual should have included a drawing of where it was safe to rig and lift the machine. I ended up making a basket sling and attached it to the chainfall. Steel City really should include rigging points on the machine.

I like it, and hope to be using it a lot in the near future.

Here is the pic to show it's real, and satisfy the Pic Police.

[Kyle Kraft]

Mike,

Nice gloat!!

[Nancy Laird]

Dust collection is going to be an issue. My Jet DC 1100 can't keep up with the sander via the 2, 4" DC ports on the machine. I was taking lite passes additionally.

Mike, Congratulations on the new dual-drum. You're really gonna love it.

But...you'd better start saving your pennies for a 3hp 1200-minimum usable CFM DC unit. We have a 1-1/2hp 800cfm unit hooked up, and it won't keep up with our 25" WoodTek! We're looking to upgrade soon!

Nancy

[Don Bullock]

Wow Mike, nice gloat. Congratulations.

[Steve Kohn]

I am thinking also of the same machine. What led to the decision of the Steel City over others?

Also, what mobile base is that on and how hard is it to move around?

[Yuchol Kim]

Same price as General, 2 more inches in width, more height...

[Dave MacArthur]

wow what a beast! Nice!

[Mike Cutler]

I am thinking also of the same machine. What led to the decision of the Steel City over others?

Also, what mobile base is that on and how hard is it to move around?

Steve.
The extra width, and height tilted the deal, and the 5yr warranty. I also was able to pick it up that day.
The General is a very, very nice machine. I honestly don't believe that a person would go wrong with either machine. Both appear to be very well made
The base is, oddly enough, a General base. It's rated for 500lbs, just barely over the weight of the sander. It moves easily on the base, even on the rough concrete floor of my garage. I might try to find a base that has all 4 casters that swivel though. It does require some jockeying to get into position.

Right now I'm looking for abrasive rolls for it. The replacements from Steel City are somewhat $$$. The paper width is 5 1/8"

[sascha gast]

I got the General a month or so ago and love it, but I hear ya on the dust collection. I just received my 3hp Oneida super dust gorilla and just put it outside a shed I built. still not up and running, I need to get the PVC and lay it out.
that should do the trick, my Jet didn't cut it for the amount of dust created.

you will love that sander, I can't wait to just sand and not have any dust around.

but one word of advice, the cyclone is HUGE, but it sucks the dust out like mad, as long as you have space for it.
in a week or 2 I should be all done, the shed took me a while to build.