Drum versus Wide Belt Sanders
I have been reading postings about sanders and feel compelled to ask again about these machines. I recently sold at a huge loss my pathetic Performax 16/32 sander which was so slow and weak that it could not possibly sand out figured maple without burning it. Now I travel to town with boards or panels to a cabinet shop that has a powerful 36 inch wide belt sander. I don’t mind doing that for the occasional wide panel (costing only $10 in shop time plus my travel time). However, I really need a way to effectively sand figured wood beyond my planer which wants to chip out. This sander has to make a uniform flat board with no snipe.
I am interested in the Grizzly G1066 or G1067 dual drum sanders. However, the shop with the wide belt says that I won’t be happy with anything less than a wide belt. I don’t mind doing the random orbit sanding from 100 grit. But, I do want some speed that the Performax could not do. Ideas?
Replies
Elegant,
If you want perfectly uniform thickness on your panels then I don't know of any machine aside from the wide belt that will give it to you. If you can forgive a little variation, and are willing to practice to get it right, a stroke sander will set you up beautifully for about 1/10 the cost of a wide belt.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
The shop is right. You have to spend some money on a wide belt. Those open end ones are useful because you can sand stuff that is wider than the belt width if pushed.Does the volume of work you intend to do merit an outlay of I guess a minimum of $3000 (for a baby) plus air power and dust extraction? Then there are the belts which are costly and tempramental.Wide belt sanders are for factories/mass production set ups.
Drum sanders always leave score marks....Stroke sanders are as good as you can drive them especially if they have a platten with controlled settings.
I've been dealing with sanders for over 25 years in commercial shops and I agree with Ring on the stroke sander as a viable option over a drum sander. It requires less power than a drum or widebelt and will give more results for your money.
Next time you go to the shop with the widebelt ask them if they have a platen. This is what seperate the real wide belts from the drum sanders. The smaller widebelts don't have the platen and there is a significant difference in the finish quality. Drum sanders and non-platen wide belts leave a sort of rippled finish similare to the knife marks of a planer. On a non platen sander the drum marks must be sanded out. With a platen one can go right to finishinf off the sander. The same is with a stroke sander. You can go right to the finishing from the sander.
FWW obviously has no one with enough experience to do a proper article on the pros and cons of all these sanders.I could see it being a three part article easily. It would be useful to small shop to revist the stroke sander that they never truly covered even in the old days before drum sanders. A long neglected topic.
Edited 3/15/2007 10:39 am ET by RickL
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