Twenty Questions.

It looks right at home, Karl. Kind of a red, white and blue theme going on. Now you're gonna have to repaint your walls

Ted Calver said:

It looks right at home, Karl. Kind of a red, white and blue theme going on. Now you're gonna have to repaint your walls

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The colors are almost identical to the old one. Taiwan must only have a few colors of paint available....


Also found the receipt the other day for the old sander when I was digging through a box of paperwork. I bought it in February of 2008, for $4500. So I paid $500 to use a sander for six and a half years. Not too shabby! I wonder how many hours were on that hombre, and how many square feet of lumber it had sanded in its tenure here. I bet the hours wouldn't be that shocking, but the footage would be. Basically everything passes through it six times, (three grits, each face).

Finally got power hooked up at the pole this morning. There's a light in the control box that shows whether two of the legs need to be flipped or not. The light was on, so I called the company to double check that yes, two of the legs needed to be flipped. So I swapped two legs, and nothing works. After about half an hour of screwing with it, I had the light again, but things worked. Called the company again, and apparently they've got a machine in the shop with the same issue, and its fine. GRRRR.

So I looked up the manual for the control panel and set up my pre-sets. If you hit "start" then "0" I've got it set to go to .800". Hit "1" and it goes to .780", etc... That's pretty slick, being able to just punch in a height and have the machine adjust itself is pretty awesome too.

The afternoon was spent sorting out the dust collection. I had to take apart a bunch of both systems on both sides of the shop, but about 5 today I got the last section of pipe cut and hung.

Temptation was too much. I had to send something through it. Holy cows is this a step up from the old Speedsander. Night and day difference. I'd say the jump in performance is about as great as when I went from a 37" Woodmaster drum sander to the Speedsander. Night and day. Even with a fresh cloth backed belt the scratching was so much finer than what it was using essentially the same belts in the old one.

All in all, $40k well spent. I'd recommend it.

A tech is coming from the factory Thursday morning to run through the setup, and teach me how to use it. I'm looking forward to dialing things in and getting it to work. A shop like mine with out a widebelt is kind of like having a handful of bullets, but no gun.

glad its up and running karl.. but the payback is yet to come

Wow. Just, wow.


I am impressed. It's capable of more than I thought. I originally thought I was going to be sanding with four different grits, and going to have to swap belts. The tech told me this morning that with this machine to not bother and run a 120g on the first pass, and a 180g on the second pass, whereas I was planning on doing a 80g & 120g on the first pass. Swapping belts and doing a 180g & 220g on the second pass. That means a door, drawer part, or a face frame will go through the machine only twice, and it does so at about 40% higher rate of feed. With the old sander, I sent everything through six times. The lower number of passes alone cuts the machine time by two thirds. Throw in the higher feed rate, and the less effort required to finish sand product, I think it was money extremely well spent. Although I still have some buyers remorse at dropping almost $40k on the beastie.

Apparently it's ability is due to two things. The speed at which the abrasive moves is huge. My old sander chugged along at about 1800 ft/min. The new one is 4000 ft/min on the first head, and 5000 ft/min on the second head. The second thing has to do with the size of the drum that the abrasive rides on. The larger drums, means it isn't working as hard.

Using the same brand of belt, and grit for a final pass, it leaves a much smoother finish and time spent with a palm sander will drop dramatically.


I am thoroughly amazed.

Man that thing is a beast! Glad its looking like it will work well for you, the time saved is impressive!

I wonder what the shop you bought it from upgraded to..

Now you're gonna have to upgrade the rest of your equipment to keep pace with the new sander.

Ryan Mooney said:

...I wonder what the shop you bought it from upgraded to..

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I'm pretty sure he bought this one new from the manufacturer.

Yep, 100% new machine. There just isn't much out there for used widebelts that fit what I was looking for. I do like buying used when it makes sense, but sometimes new is the way to go. I've got a ton of equipment that I purchased used, but widebelt sanders are pretty easily abused, and not knowing the history of a machine can be risky. I would've gone used had I known what it had been through, what kind of person used it, and how it was maintained. That's all pretty important information to have.