Dear Abe,
Almost without question, I am sure I have the most experience with that machine than anyone else on here. The company I work for is in the top 5 dealers for General and General International worldwide. I have sold *many* of these machines and I know them very well.
The few small problems I have had with them are,
- A couple had a snipe problem that required a service call, and one that could not be fixed in the field that we replaced with a new machine and returned the defective one to General. - Table levelling problems. This seemed to stem more from shipping than anything else. Only the most mechanically uninclined users were unable to fix this themselves when the procedure was explained to them.
The biggest problem I have had with the machine is pilot error. It is not a planer and as such, like any drum sander, it can only remove so much material in each pass. One client that we delivered a machine to said it was a total POS and insisted that I go back and pick it up. When I sent the service person to visit, the client was trying to run the machine without dust collection. Duh, no wonder it didn't work. The machine has two 4" dust ports on it, dust evacuation is very important on a drum sander. Some people have tried to run a single 4" pipe to the machine and then split it into the two fours that the machine required. While this will work, barely, it is not how it is supposed to be run and your results will not be as good as they should be due to lack of CFM. You need to run a 6" to the machine and just before the hood, break it off into two 4" lines. From users who cannot get the machines to work for them, the major complaints is burning. Ninety nine percent of the time this is, again, due to pilot error trying to take off too much with too fine and grit. Mix that with not enough CFM at the machine and of course the results were not very good.
I sell these machines all the time and I like them. For a 3 hp dual drum 25" sander it is a very good value. There are no known issues with this machine that would make me suggest you not buy it. What I do strongly suggest though, is that you buy it from your local dealer. If and when you need support, your local dealer is the best person to provide this. If you do find a substantially lower price somewhere else, at lease give your local guy the opportunity to get as close to that price. A good dealer who stands behind the products they sell is worth much more than saving a few bucks by internet shopping.
If you have any specific questions about the machine, please ask.
Oh, and the machine is made by this company,
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this is the specific link to the sander,
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