Drum Sander

Other then the price, nope.:D The guy down the road( coustum cabinet s) perferd the performex(sp?) over the delta. Plus Deltas service has gone down hill.
 
I had one of the early ones. Out of the box it needed a little adjustment but after that it worked just fine. You cannot push them too hard or you'll blow the paper. Mine gave a little snipe on longer boards but there are ways around that. Overall, it was a good machine.
 
I know that for a full time production shop, the wide belt sanders are better, but they do cost serious money.

Alex bought one a while ago, he really likes it, I think his is the Jet/Performax one.

Travis, I've seen that homemade one before, that would be something I could sink my teeth into :D

maybe after the Dungeon reno, but finding a spot for it, well that could be more of a problem than building it:huh:
 
I know that for a full time production shop, the wide belt sanders are better, but they do cost serious money.

Alex bought one a while ago, he really likes it, I think his is the Jet/Performax one.

Travis, I've seen that homemade one before, that would be something I could sink my teeth into :D

maybe after the Dungeon reno, but finding a spot for it, well that could be more of a problem than building it:huh:

I thought about several other designs lately. One idea I had is to use my bench planer to drive a sled that pushes the board through a belt sander. The sled would be needed to push the board the last few inches from the last feed roll past the rotating drum.

Along those same lines I thought, now why use a drum at all? What about an aluminum plate mounted to a DA sander or electric randum orbit sander that sands the board at the same time its being planed? Some simple clips would allow sheets of sandpaper to be replaced quickly and easily. A plate about 3 sheets wide would give you a 33 inch sander...not bad?

Along those same lines why use a round drum when a square drum would work too? If the speed was fast enough on the square head, and the feed rate was slow, you would not get scolloping. This would allow the middle of the square drum to attach the sandpaper. That might be easier to do then attaching paper that has continuous contact. I'm still not certain this is the way to go, but I thing abstract sometimes. A blessing and a curse!!

Just some ideas I am conjuring up.
 
I've seen that homemade one before, that would be something I could sink my teeth into :D

maybe after the Dungeon reno, but finding a spot for it, well that could be more of a problem than building it:huh:

I wonder how much room one of those lathe-mounted thickness sanders would take up (when "broken down")? 'Course, if you need to sand long boards.... :doh:
 
Ya I have the Performax 16/32 and like it. The set up was a bit of a pain but otherwise a fine purchase. I don't know about other brands but I can recommend the Performax. I would buy it again.
 
I have a home made drum sander and let me tell you, it works very well. The steel drum I'm sure really helps.

Having said that, I can't wait till I can afford either a Performax 16/32 or maybe the Grizzly 18" or maybe the 24" General double drum sanders. Power feed is important in safety. I've had a few pieces fly out at me and it wasn't very fun seeing some expensive guitar wood bust into a couple hundred pieces against the wall (slipped off my large push board). So if you're considering making one, make sure you have a power feed or at least a sandpaper roll feeder.

The only thing bad I've heard about the open ended drum sanders is that the can go out of alignment from the feed bed (droops at the open end) and can sand a small ridge in your work that is sticking out the side. But if you get it set up accurately they can really work well and can give you more capacity versus the closed end sanders.

Now I know of a few guys who have the Delta and they seem to really like it. Like all drum sanders, light passes is the key. Once it's set up properly you should be making sawdust in no time.
 
Alex
I picked up a Jet 22-44 yesterday slightly used this guy also had a 16-32 to pick from. I picked the 22-44 because it had less plastic on it, and a nice cast alum.
over head arm. I got a good deal on it, and couldn't pass it up. I heard to many bad
stories about Delta that I didn't want to take any chances.
 
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