SAND-FLEE® Portable Drum Sander

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Hi, I start thinking about drum sander and came to this - SAND-FLEE® Portable Drum Sander. Is anybody has an experience to work with this machine?

[Art Mann]

You may want to consider building your own. This company sells kits.

http://www.stockroomsupply.com/V_Drum_Sander.php

[Dave Lehnert]

Hi, I start thinking about drum sander and came to this - SAND-FLEE® Portable Drum Sander. Is anybody has an experience to work with this machine?

Here is another video for you to look at.

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_A..._Sand_Flee.htm

[Dewey Torres]

Whether you buy or build one of these, you may find that you came out cheaper for a reason. It depends on what you want this machine to accomplish but it will not sand thin strips, or sand veneers down to 1/32" like a conveyor style drum sander will. Again, buy or make the machine that you know will suite ALL of your needs. If I were a betting man, (going with this) you will soon see the limitations of the sand flee type of sander and wish you had a real conveyor fed drum sander.
Dewey

[Eddie Darby]

If you want to sand thin strips with these type of units, then you need to use two-way carpet tape and a backer-board.

Thickness sanding is also possible with two way tape, a backer-board, and a set of rails on the sander top surface that are the thickness you want for the backer-board to finish up riding on when you have the right thickness.

If you are going to make a unit, and you expect to be doing a lot of sanding, then I would suggest that you go with the the 4" drum instead of the 2" drum.

[Jason Beam]

I have no direct experience with it ... but ... i had a friend who ordered one about two years ago. His credit cart was charged and 4 months went by and no word. He'd called and emailed several times and kept being told that "it's on it's way right now..." or "it's getting shipped next week.." or "you should see it in a few days..."

After 3 months of this, he started to mention that his credit card company may have to get involved and he didn't want to have to do that. The promises stopped, oddly enough. They didn't respond to emails anymore and he said the phone conversations went downhill (i'm not sure of these details).

Ultimately, a year after placing his order, he got his money back, but had to file a fraud claim with his credit card company to get it. This does not bode well for the SandFlee reputation in my area as my friend is a member of the local club and speaks to LOTS of potential customers.


Personally ... it seems like a very specialized device that won't be nearly as usefull to my kind of woodworking. i have heard that scrollers tend to like 'em for sanding their fretwork because apparently it's gentle on their delicate features.

I wouldn't bother with it myself, because it's not that useful to me.

[Lawrence Smith]

I ordered the eighteen inch kit from Stockroom Supply about a month ago. I received it a week later. It went together easily and works fine. It does everything they said it would. I'm happy.

my$.02

[Randal Stevenson]

I ordered the eighteen inch kit from Stockroom Supply about a month ago. I received it a week later. It went together easily and works fine. It does everything they said it would. I'm happy.

my$.02

The plans aren't on the DVD (stupid in my opinion), and since their site uses Shockwave flash, I can't obtain them from it (not available for my 64 bit OS).
Supposably they are dropping them in the mail to me (it is nice when you have a question to NOT have to watch a whole DVD).
Still, I think there may be some problems with their cutlist (at least for my sander size (30")).

Lawrence, was your drum above the table (trial fitting) before adding the hinge and "adjustment screws"?

[Stan Urbas]

I picked one up a couple of years ago at a local woodworking show. So did another woodworker I know. Both of us have been very pleased with the results. I use mine mostly for smaller pieces of wood, spot sanding, not production. I keep three different grips on the drum so I can run the piece of wood through all three without setup. This is mainly when I find I need a piece or two that I had forgotten - or get ruined - earlier. The machine has never given me an grief - very easy to use.

My friend uses it for thin scroll saw cuttings - something I don't do, so I can't attest to it. But he is likewise happy with his investment.

[Robin Cruz]

I looked at it but it incredibly expensive. You can get a new Laguna 16/32 drum sander for $100 less then the 18" Sand Flee.

As far as building goes, IMO, unless your in it for the journey, its not worth it. Your still spending $225 for the cost on material, and if you consider the value of your time, say as for me minimum wage, I could buy a small condo no doubt or at least that gas guzling Chevy Tahoe Ive always wanted. And iin the end its probably going to have inferior performance and no warranty......unless you pay yourself again.
.

[Jeff Mohr]

I picked one up a couple of years ago at a local woodworking show. So did another woodworker I know. Both of us have been very pleased with the results. I use mine mostly for smaller pieces of wood, spot sanding, not production. I keep three different grips on the drum so I can run the piece of wood through all three without setup. This is mainly when I find I need a piece or two that I had forgotten - or get ruined - earlier. The machine has never given me an grief - very easy to use.

My friend uses it for thin scroll saw cuttings - something I don't do, so I can't attest to it. But he is likewise happy with his investment.

I, too, have access to one my father-in-law purchased at a woodworking show. I've been using it and like the above comment, am very pleased with it. I mostly use it for jewelery box and scroll saw work and it is great for that stuff.

[Stan Urbas]

Not to argue the point, but the sand flea is not like the laguna, performax, or most other drum sanders. It's not so much a matter of price as it is what your needs are. I have a lot of need for sanding a few small pieces on a non-scheduled basis. Because the drum is under your work and there is no overhead part, you never do any setup for thickness. If you're like me and have a lot of narrow pieces, keeping three different grits on the drum means for 98% of the time I never have any setup. I put a very high premium on being able to walk over and use a tool with little or no setup.

I could not swap out my big drum sander for the sand flea. On the other hand, I couldn't use a portable belt sander, either. It just does a certain type of work very well. So on the whole, it's one of my most used pieces of machinery in my shop. Plus, it's not nearly as dangerous to use as a table saw, band saw, or even an edge sander. My wife is very comfortable using it for her small sanding requirements, and that means I don't get involved in her work nearly as much.