Tool Review: 16-32 Drum Sander by SuperMax
Drum sander is a smooth operator
When I need to sand and level veneered plywood, cabinet doors, highly figured wood, or thin panels, a drum sander is my tool of choice. The new 16-32 Drum Sander from SuperMax excelled at all these tasks. In my tests, the finished stock only varied in thickness by 0.010 in., certainly good enough for my purposes, and both faces were parallel.
The drum head is cantilevered out above the work and accepts specially shaped sandpaper wound onto it. The conveyor belt, a roll of 100-grit sandpaper that reduces slippage, feeds the stock from below. One of the best features of this sander is that the head and conveyor work in conjunction, meaning the tool monitors the load the drum puts on the motor. SuperMax calls this Intellisand. If you set the sander to take too deep a pass and bog down the motor, the feed rate automatically slows. When I tested this, the sander’s feed rate slowed to a crawl to handle the extra load. The sandpaper didn’t slip or burn, and though a few times the drum left a slight snipe in the stock, I was able to remove the defect with a couple of normal passes.
Dust collection was solid. If you’re using a vacuum, like I did, a 12-oz. plastic coffee can is just the right size to use as an adapter between the dust port and vacuum hose.
I did find some discrepancy between the digital readout and the stock that was sanded, but I fixed the problem by recalibrating the readout using stock of known thickness. Also, changing the sandpaper took a couple of attempts before I got the hang of it. Last, the sander really would benefit from infeed and outfeed tables to reduce snipe. Short add-on tables are available from the manufacturer ($120). I also highly recommend casters for the included stand, $90 from SuperMax, as the sander and stand together weigh around 150 lb.
—Charles Bickford is a woodworker and former senior editor for Fine Homebuilding.
From Fine Woodworking #274
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Comments
Overall it's a good tool with many flaws. The stand is just junk, the extension tables are a bit flimsy and the attachment and adjustment system is seriously wonky. The tension on the rollers is finicky and so is the belt tracking. It could really use a fence along the right side. It's easy to position a piece slightly to the right and then catch the belt motor. This will stop your piece and cause the drum to dig out a divot. Things can go bad really quick.
This tool works great if everything goes well, but there's a definite learning curve and you had better be on top of it if you are near finished dimensions.
This review left me with the following question - How can the faces of a sanded piece of stock “be parallel” if the thickness varies 0.010” ? I assumed that the thickness variance stated is from side to side after being sanded, although this is notclarified. What was the width of the stock? A 0.010” thickness variation on a 3 inch wide piece of stock would equate to 0.050” on a piece of 15 inch wide stock, which may not be acceptable. Posting results of a machine’s performance without explaing how it was measured is worthless.
I have been researching drum sanders in the 16-22 inch size range for some time, and when I discovered that Supermax is partnerd with, or a subsidiary of Laguna, it immediately was out of consideration. I have purchased one Laguna brand tool, and will not make the same mistake twice......
I would be interested to hear what drum sanders the two commenters would recommend and why.
I could not get rid of mine fast enough. I was used to using a TimeSaver, so I am jaded. I ended up purchasing a 30" (who knows what the brand might be) for $500 from Craigs list. I use it maybe 4 times a year. Save your money and use the #4 and #5 hand planes using a winding stick.
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