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Drum Sander Recommendations


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Hey guys, Been looking around for machines lately, I'm set will all the other tools just need help with the Drum Sanders. I'm looking to spend around $900. heres what i was looking at.

http://grizzly.com/products/18-1-1-2-HP-Si...um-Sander/G0458

http://grizzly.com/products/16-Drum-Sander...Conveyor/G1079R

The first one i read some reviews on and some people said that they have had trouble getting the belts to line up. Some say the second one is better and less likely to jam.

What do you guys think?? is there any other ones around the same price range?

Thanks In advange guys

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Personally, I do not like the rubber conveyor belt on the grizzly sanders. The pressure from the rollers press the wood down too much on the corners, causing uneven corners. This was a serious pita to fix when I would be doing a bulk amount of fingerboards a day. I would recommend a jet / performax 16-32 sander over the Grizzly rubber conveyor drum sanders. The Grizzly sanders have a lot more power / speed, though!

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I have both the delta 18-36 and the Performax 16 -32 drums (one was a donation, LOL). They both work fine except for end snipe (worse on the Delta). Both of these are similar to the open ended Grizzly. The end snipe can be controlled by running a sacrificial piece right behind your piece. Or make your piece a bit longer. It really depends on what you are doing.

Differences aside I would love a closed machine with two rollers, A single pass two grits. However 16" is cutting it close. The rubber belt may be an issue but I have never tried one so I will take the comments here to heart and do some research as well.

I love drum sanders, they have made my life easy and my builds faster. The only downside is changing paper. The delta is a bear the Performax not as bad. They may have changed the Delta recently, I thought I saw a blurb somewhere.

My two cents

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Jet Performax 10 - 20

Great machine ... little too small. Have to plan ahead when doing bodies. Adjusting the table to be able to run one pass and turn the piece and run another was a time consuming effort and has to be checked when I change paper. Works great for small pieces. I would buy it again... but if I had the money I would buy the 16 -32

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Performax 16-32 here - love it. You have to check and tweek the level on the drum if you use it a lot, but it's easy to do.

I've personally found more uses for an open-ended sander, like planing the Les Paul neck angle into the body:

body19JPG.jpg

body18JPG.jpg

<highjack>

That is one serious piece of wood (looks expensive).... Nice nice nice!!!

</highjack>

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Hey erik, do you have any trouble with the dust collection shocking the living crap out of you?

(I do... I'm just using a shop vac though.)

[Edit: Ah, but now I see you have foil tape wrapped around the tubing and presumably grounded.]

Edited by Rick500
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I've personally found more uses for an open-ended sander, like planing the Les Paul neck angle into the body:

It's nice to see something different.. +1000

Does that come with a 4" dust port, my old 16 -32 Performax has only a 2 1/2" port which I hate as everything in my shop is 4" plus?

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I also looked at Steel City's version of the Jet/Performax 16-32 before I bought my Jet.

It's nearly identical except that it has a removable support for the open side. I didn't have a preference for one over the other; just got the Jet because it was on sale and also had a rebate at the time.

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I have the same one as in erik's pics, except it has a Jet sticker on it rather than a Performax sticker. It has a 4" port.

Maybe I can buy a new cover. Thanks for the info.

Looked at the Grizzly manual and can see it has a small dust port off to the side. The Delta and Performax both have ports directly above the drum. I don't get the need for the rollers on the top. If you are putting through 12' boards you need a bigger machine, LOL

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