Any small-shop pro who does a lot of cabinet work should take a hard look at the new SuperMax Combo Drum/Brush Sander. At $2,200 it represents a unique opportunity to have a serious drum sander that accepts a number of time-saving heads. It comes standard with the “Fladder” head, a type of fine flap sanders that handles both flat surfaces and tight profiles in a single pass. The secret is small 1/4-in.- and 1/8-in.-wide flaps and the machine’s AC power inverter that allows the user to slow down the RPMs to avoid rounding over crisp details while still smoothing every surface.

The other great feature is SuperMax’s own SandSmart controller, borrowed from its bigger sanders, which maintains the drum rpm you have chosen, and if it can’t, slows the conveyor belt to so it can maintain RPM.

I saw an ogee-profiled door that had been through the Fladder head, and it was super-smooth yet the corners were broken ever-so-slightly, friendly to the hand but still crisp. Pretty amazing that you can pre-sand a door for finishing in one pass. I did see some cross-grain scratches on the rails, but the tech expert at the booth said that using a finer grit would have taken care of those. Heck, if you need to, you could always make another pass with 220, which leaves cross-grain scratches that are not visible under a finish.

The aforementioned flat sanding drum, a nylon bristle head (for denibbing a finished surface), and a wire brush head (for a weathered look) are all available and change out quickly. The SuperMax 19-38 Combo Drum/Brush Sander is available at SuperMaxTools.com.

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