I’ll soon be in the market for a thickness sander. Like maybe a Performax type. The thing that concerns me is I worry about the open side and any flexing that the arm may have. Should I be worried about that? Does anyone use one? What do you think about them?
Jim
Replies
JimE921, I have no experience with the open-end type Perfomax. From what I've read they seem to do well though they are a bit under powered. Owners of these machines will voice more positive feedback than negative.
I own the 25" dual drum 5 hp Performax. And yes, I do use it for thickness sanding wide panels. It comes in very handy considering that my planer is only a 12". I know these larger sanders are a bit pricier but if you can affort it or find a good deal on a nice used one you'll find little to complain about. Ken
A Shoppro is on my wishlist. Do you feel the dual drum is worth the added cost. Do you run different grits or the same grit with slightly progressive settings?John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
ELCOHOLIC, nice name. I didn't specifically want a dual drum. I got a sweet deal on a floor model at a Louisville, KY dealer. Normally I keep 100 grit on both drums. Ken
I coined the name to represent my other addiction - My '65 El Camino. Have you tried using two grits?John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
A '65 El Camino?! Wow! Wasn't that based on the Chevelle body or the Chevy II?
I have an aquaintance here in Lexington, KY who has a later model of the GMC version of the El Camino, only one I've ever seen. Its in great shape.
Sander... drums.... oh yeah drum sanders. No I don't run different grits. I use mine to "clean up" if there's any tear-out and to smooth glued up pieces. I never did buy into Performax's idea about going from one grit to a finer on the second drum. You normally have to send pieces through more than once to get the desired results. The surface left by the sander with 100 grit is quite clean and ready for hand sanding. I rarely use a belt sander anymore. Ken
I don't have a dual drum sander but have lusted after my friend's and also played with on several occasions. He is a master luthier ($10K+ guitars) and uses his sander with two grits to get final thickness on his guitar pieces - among other things. Uses calipers and just dials in the thickness he needs. 100 or 120 grit on the back end, 80 on front - it can take out a pretty big cut and leave a beautiful finish. Worth considering.
Wayne
The ShopPro 25 single drum I've used extensively with QSWO takes many light passes (advance handle1/6 turn per pass) which is why I the second finer grit idea didn't make sense to me, except on the last pass. But then again would 150 take out the scratches from the lead 100 grit drum? How much lower do you set the 2nd drum than the 1st? Based on my example how much deeper passes can you take with two drums?
El Camino's were basically chopped 2 door station wagons. 59 & 60's were full size cars and 64 and on were based on mid-size Chevelles and later models.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
My situation doesn't require me to get things done quickly. I'm just a hobbiest now, my professional woodworking days were in the '70s.
I never take a heavy cut or try to go fast, no need to. I have no idea what the exact setting differences are. There's just enough difference that both drums are having an effect. The 5 hp motor never offers to bog down. Also, the feed belt is variable speed and auto-adjusts to the load on the drums. So it always feeds as fast or as slow as I want depending on the width. But I do keep the speed lower on the final two - three passes.
The Performax is a bitch to set up, but holds the setting quite well once it is aligned. So after a half hour of cussing, the open end is not a problem, but an advantage.
The factory recommends setting the open end slightly higher when making two passes at the opposite sides of a wide "table top". I recommend leaving it that way all the time - for smaller boards, the first side is sanded on the open end, and the second closer to the support, so no adjustment is required between sides.
This is not a 5 HP commercial sander, but it has as much power as you can pull from a residential circuit. I use mine far more than I expected, and love it, but don't count on putting a big table top through in a single pass in 20 seconds.
If you get the 16-32 you need to make sure that the outboard end of the drum is slightly higher than the motor end, otherwise you'll create a "divot" in the material.
But the real problem with this machine is that it's grossly underpowered. If you're sanding material that's 16 inches wide, you will need to go very slowly and take very light cuts. It's absolutely not true that household machines cannot be powered more heavily. I got rid of my 16-32 because it was underpowered and got a 5HP Woodmaster which works like a dream. It should, because it's much more expensive.
That said, the Performax is a wonderful machine for things that are only done occasionally or for narrower stock. One thing it does really well is to sand down veneer stock ... if you get some fancy banding that is too thick you can run it through the sander on a sled and "plane" it down to the thickness you need. Really, really nice to be able to do that sort of thing.
John
Jim, I have the Delta 18/36 open-end drum sander. Power is definitely a problem, I have to take very light passes, especially at the finer grits. (I use mostly QSWO which is pretty hard, it goes a little faster with softer woods.) The other problem with it is the feed belt tracking - I absolutely cannot get it to track properly, it always drifts off to the open end. The support bolts are cut over halfway through from the edge of the belt rubbing on them!
If you have the time, it does do a very nice job. Really flattens wide panels well. I go to 120 and sometimes 220 with it, then go back to 180 on a ROS to clean up the long straight-line scratches left by the drum sander. By planing before joining-up, I can reduce the time I have to spend on the drum sander, so it all works out for me. But that feed belt tracking problem really is annoying.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." A. Einstein
http://www.albionworks.net
Are you aware that Performax sells a solution to your tracking problem? It's a pair of guides that mounts on the outfeed end of the table. A simple solution that solves the problem for me, anyway. Also, you can adjust the tracking by resetting the tension on the drive roller.
Uh, Jim... I have the Delta, not the Performax... doubtful if Performax sells a fix for the Delta unit! And of course I have adjusted the tension on both ends more times than I want to think about, and have talked to Delta tech support, etc."Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." A. Einstein
http://www.albionworks.net
Thanks for the info. I was wondering about the Delta. I'm not a production shop. Just make things to sell because I like making them so time is not really a factor. A thickness sander has got to be easier and faster than doing it with a random orbit sander. Thanks again.
Jim
I chose the Performax over the Delta for two reasons...
Performax is the long time player in that space
Performax table is fixed and the drum is raised and lowered, while Delta the drum is fixed and the table moves, making infeed/outfeed hard to adjust
The drum sanders will leave some lengthwise sanding scratches, so you will still need the ROS for the final sanding. I bought the Performax because I was having trouble making perfectly flat tabletops, etc. The drum sander solved the problem, even with light final sanding with the ROS. ________________________Charlie Plesums Austin, Texashttp://www.plesums.com/wood
There has been a lot of messages on this subject and I'd like to thank everyone but I don't know how. I'm new to this message board. One thing that I did notice was that the Performax and the Delta were the only two drum sanders mentioned. Is there a reason.
Jim
Two answers -
When you post a response, everyone can see all the answers, but you can address the response to a specific person by clicking on the "To" box - one of the options is ALL. I believe the asterisk by the names are those who have already participated in the series of messages, and the others are those logged on or recently active.
To my knowledge there are only two brands of drum sanders in the "home" class - those designed to run on a household circuit - Performax and Delta. There are numerous larger sanders that require more money, space, and electricity, and other sanders that don't control thickness, down to a sheet of sandpaper and a block of wood. ________________________Charlie Plesums Austin, Texashttp://www.plesums.com/wood
Thanks a lot
Jim
Jim, the drum sander will definitely save time over the ROS and give a flatter panel. That is exactly what I bought mine for. Most of the time I'm flattening fairly short pieces, about 2 feet long, so infeed/outfeed isn't a big deal for me. If you do longer pieces, though, the problem Charlie points out can be annoying.
Wasn't there a FWW tool review article on these a year or two ago?"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." A. Einstein
http://www.albionworks.net
New to the forum; I just bought a Woodmaster "big 50". Not here yet, does anyone have any experience with it? jack
New to the forum; I just bought a Woodmaster "big 50". Not here yet, does anyone have any experience with it? jack
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