I need to replace my current sander and are looking at these two offerings by Steel City. The DD sander looks like many others on the market while the wide-belt unit appears to be in a class of it's own at it's price point. Has anyone had any experience with either unit. Or a general comment on wide belt vs drum sanders. Thanks, JG
IMHO, drum sanders designed for the home market are purely toys when compared to a commercial unit.
Have never considered a home drum sander when for less than $30, you can get a lot of tops sanded.($26/15 min, then $1/min)
The guy I use has a 48" wide, 75HP machine, just to give you an idea.
Lew
Based on specs you're right.
However, I use my Performax 22/44 on early every project. I normally keep it loaded with 120 grit, but have gone down to 36 for thicknessing figured woods.
I'll normally use the 22/44 and 120 for the last planer pass (2 passes on the sander), followed by a Veritas #4 1/2 for furniture or a 120 &
150 grit ROS for trim. For figured woods and veneer, I'll go 36-50-60-80-120-150 on the 22/44, followed by a scraping plane.I am truly blown away with the use the thing gets.
I'll agree, I have the 22/44 also and use up to 180 on it. I am going straight from the planer to the 180 on hard maple on a couple of higher end jewelry boxes that I am building. I have 448 1/2" wide dado's that need to have a perfect fit. I cut the slide pieces to fit those dado's on the TS to ,"close" and use the drum sander to perfect the fit.
I like my Woodmaster 3875. Picked it up from a cabinet shop that went under, very very inexpensive. It is a 37" drum sander that works nothing short of fantastic, easy sandpaper change and easy to use controls.
I actually haven't used the larger open sided units like this but have used the Performax\Delta style. I think they are OK for material up to the belt width but trying to feed wider material is sketchy. I suppose these larger units suggest the same method of having the outside (free) side of the unit slightly higher (a few thousandths) so when you send a wider part back through for a second pass you don't get a cut line but rather leave a very small ridge. I was just never happy with the concept. I could get it to work OK but I always knew I was introducing some inaccuracy into my work.Everything I do is to try and get flat square cuts so everything squares up nicely during assembly. I just didn't like to have every piece of material slightly out of square. I sand everything before I start my final milling and if the sander is slightly high on the outside I am sanding out of square.
At the AWFS show this year I looked at every mid-sized double drun sander on the floor. I came away with the best impression fo the Shop Fox 24 or 26" (can't recall exact size). It seemed like the best value at 5hp and easy access and good attachment for the sand paper and priced around $2k. I don't know how much these open side Steel City units are but if about the same, I would surely go with a double drum.
BW
lookie:
Wow, super deal. Supermax is a great company. I thoink the original guy sold the technology and then bought back the name or something like that. Wish I had the bucks right now, that isn't too far away. I'll have to think about it real hard.
have a good day, woodstuff
oops! I was wrong (first time ever!)
The ad is still there for the Supermax. I would grab it today if it were closer to Texas...
have a good day, woodstuff
Yeah, I had to change the url to end in html before it would open. I suppose some browsers are smart enough to do that on their own.
You had to do that post didn't you. After waking up a few nights in a row dreaming about that Supermax for such a great price... I bought it!
I'll pick it up this weekend.
BW
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