Replies

1. 
   RickL | Feb 01, 2007 04:09pm | #1

   When I worked for a dealer as a tech we sold a few of them. I'm not impressed with drum sanders at all. My background is machine intesive with moulders, double end tenoners, widebelts and my all time favoroite sander recommendation for the small shop is a stroke sander. You can go right to staining with a stroke sander. You need to random orbit or handsand after a drum sander. Stroke sanders are the best kept forgotten secret of woodworking. Drum sanders are low on my list of recommended machines. For general purpose sanding of panels, doors, etc the stroke sander has it all over the drum sander. Even in the factories where we had a Timesaver we had 3 stroke sanders. We could do things you couldn't do on the widebelt such as radius sanding and wider tops. As I said they went right into finishing. I would say it's pretty much like the Woodmaster.

1. 
   jeff100 | Feb 01, 2007 08:20pm | #2

   I tried to google stroke sanders and came up empty. Can you provide a link or company name so we can get a look at these stroke sanders? Thanks.JeffEdited 2/1/2007 12:21 pm by jeff100

   Edited 2/1/2007 12:21 pm by jeff100

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   RickL | Feb 01, 2007 09:29pm | #3

   Grizzly, Minimax, http://www.exfactory.com   http://www.pro.woodworker.com  Pistorius and more

   All these and more sell stroke sanders. They were kind of big before the drum sanders came out and have been overlooked in my opinion. I go back to the old factories and the 70's. I know of casting and custom metal fab shops with stroke sanders and even widebelt sanders. Used stroke sanders are pretty cheap if you know where to look. I put a Mattison stroke sander in a metal shop. Paid $700 without batting an eye as I know every piece on the machine. There were a few lookers but they didn't know if it was complete. It was in a pile of stuff. One of the top marquetry guys lives nearby and he has a stroke sander. He just did his 5th piano for Steinway.

   http://www.grizzly.com/products/g5394