Wood Master or Super Max Drum Sander
Is anyone currently using the Wood Master or The Super Max 37″ dual drum sander? I have in the past used the Performax 16-32 with poor success. My shop is not large enough to justify a wide belt sander and I do not know enough about a stroke sander to ask an intelligent question. I am currently building mostly cabinets, but would like to add furniture. All things being equal, I would not use ply wood in buildiing furniture, if I could equip myself in a way that would permit efficient handling of edge glued panels. I would like a sander to level dimensional panels and face frames, perform finish sanding, including doors and milled ply. Sorry, I know the milled ply sounds odd. After milling dados and rabbits into my cabinet parts, I am unwilling to run them through the Perfromax for fear of damaging the joints or sanding through the veneer.
From what I can learn, the only criticisms lodged against Wood Master are the felt backing on their sandpaper does not permit as true a dimension as the metal to metal combination of the Super Max. Secondly, it has been observed that the sand paper can loosen on the Wood Master. Is this the nature of these drum sanders? The paper would certainly loosen on my Performax, regardless of the precautions which I took.
What I believe that I have learned from the internet and conversations with the manufacturer is that the Super Max may do a better job of leveling joints and panels but will be unable to perform finish sanding. For that, I will need to use a ROS or purchase a brush sander. Purchasing both a drum sander and a brush sander seems like over kill and is expensive. Would the Wood Master permit to perform both leveling and a finish sanding?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Replies
Few, if any, drum or belt sander will give you a "finished" product. There are high-end sanders that will oscillate in a modified random orbit but they are fairly extensive. With then units you reference,you will still have to hand or ROS sand to remove the striations caused from the fixed orientation of the belts/drums. I have not used a stroke sander but it is my understanding that they require less hand finishing.
If you have the room, a stroke sander is the way to go. I've used all kinds of sanders over 30 years in the business. Very proficient with all kinds of stroke sanders. The current shop has a Woodmaster and after using widebelts and stroke sanders it's the worst sander I have used. The hook and loop is the worst way to adhere paper as far as I'm concerned.
With drum sanders you still need to random orbit sand. With a stroke sander or widebelt and platen you can go right to finishing. SS's typically use smaller motors. Wideblelts need at least 9 hp for a 24" machine. Drum sanders need 5 hp for 24".
Stroke sanders can do a great job on veneers as well.
A brush sander will not prep the wood for finishing. I've used these as well. It will not remove drum marks from a drum sander. You will still need to random orbit sand. Brush sanders are typically for sanding nibs between finish coats or certain other special applications. The stiffer ones will remove the softwood between the grain for an antique weathered finish.
My last job required my calling on many small and large cabinet companies in my area. With hardly any exception they all used wide belt sanders for finishing panel doors etc. All finish sanding was done by hand in high end cabinet shops and low end shops just finished with orbital sanders. The high end manufactures said that using orbital sanders always left small swirls so they were not used. Only one shop had a drum sander but they finished with orbital and then hand finished with several grits of paper. Even small one or two men shops had a wide belt sander. I have a 16/32 Performax and I use it extensively for finish sanding and then finish up with hand sanding, no orbitals on exposed surfaces. I use very light passes and pass the wood through a couple of times, I only use 150 grit,.
Edited 12/5/2006 3:38 pm ET by mrbird90
Stroke sanders are still around but not so much as in the days before drum sanders. If you look back in the old FWW they were mentioned a lot more. The drum sander has kind of eclipsed the stroke sander and unfairly so. The more knowlegable folks still can appreciate the benefits of a stroke sander. Stroke sanders are even found in metal shops. I know of a foundry that uses one to sand their bronze plaques. I also put on in a custom metal shop. It was perfect for getting that hand finish look they didn't think a machine could duplicate and it was perfect for the brushed stainless treatment which is impossible by hand or widebelt. Widebelts are also used in the metal working industry.
SS's are very affordable and don't use big expensive motors. Belts are a lot cheaper and can easily be changed in seconds. Minimax and many others still offer stroke sanders but unfortunately the stroke sanders remain one of the best kept secrets in woodworking along with the slot mortiser.
Edited 12/6/2006 8:57 am ET by RickL
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