Replies

1. 
   riverr1 | Sep 09, 2002 07:21pm | #1

   I have a 37" dual drum performax in my shop. It's not mine, but I'm storing it for use. I'm not impressed with it as a sander. Works great as a finish planer. I'm looking into a stroke sander for finer sanding. I just recently found out about them. I felt awkard because of that, but I've since read that Norm has just heard about them also. I feel much better now! ;^)

   Don

2. 
   AlanTurner | Sep 09, 2002 09:35pm | #2

   I have a 36" wrap drum sander.  Were I buying now, I would look at the WoodTek 25" at about $1100 or so.  This seems like a great buy.  It is a dual; mine a single, which I paid 3K for in '87.

1. 
   riverr1 | Sep 09, 2002 09:53pm | #3

   S4S,

   I looked the woodtek up, interesting machine for the price. Have you ever used or seen one use? Since it's a dual drum, how well does it take 2 different grits at the same time? Some machines are really bad at that.

   Don

1. 
   AlanTurner | Sep 10, 2002 01:18am | #5

   I have 2 WoodTek machines with which I am well satisfied.  One is the 6 x 89 edge sander, and the other is the 20" planer (not the heavy one).  I bought the sander first, thinking that an import would be OK for a sander.  It is quite accurate, beefy, etc.  Really liked it, and based upon that bought the 20" planer.   Have used the planer one year now, to its full capacity, and like it as well.  No experience with the WT dual drum.   I ended up talking to Mr. Wirth, owner of Woodworkers Supply, and he explained that all of the WT machines are made in Tiwan (sp.) and not China, and that QC is quite good.  They are skilled workers, he says.  Nice guy; quite approachable.  What I was talking to him about was a possible accessory for the sander to do a large diameter inside radias(sp).  They may do it.

   When I bought my dual drum, it was from Kuster Woodworks, out of NJ.  I went to the factory to look at it, and they also sold dual drum sanders.  They recommended the dual drum, but I was tapped.  They recommended 80 on #1 drum, 120 on #2; then progerssively lighter paired grits to 220.  On mine, when I get down to 220, I still have  a lot of work to do with the ROS, as the scratch marks have a bit of depth.  My current preference is hand planing out of theplaner, no sanding on flat surfaces, and I am working to develop this technique.  One reason I went to the factory was that I knew that I would have to disassemble it to get it into the basement, so wanted to make a deal with one of their assemblers (cash, do you think?) to deliver and reassemble on site.  Accuracy was a big concern.  No problem.  Then, 9 years later I moved, and did the disassembly/reassembly myself, this time also with no problem.  They are really pretty simple machines.  Heavy, though.  Mine has a 5hp single phase.  Kuster is out of business now.

   One of the issues for any drum sander is that there is not much grit there (or on any drum), so you blow through a bit of paper.  Not cheap, and not that fast to change.  Mine is a 6" drum, I think, and takes over 17' of 4" belt, wrapped on the diagonal.  In sappy wood, such as gummy, curly cherry, it was a disaster.  Trashed the paper quickly, and couldn't be cleaned with a suade shoe sole, or whatever those belt cleaners are.

   Before the planer, I used to kick up a lot of dust at the beginning of a piece by taking all of my stock to dead flat, identical thicknesses, which made joinery much easier,  and now I find that my planer does this with much less dust, much faster, and more repeatably (word?).

   All of this depends on your use, of course.  Were expense no object, and space as well, I would go with the wide belt sander.  WT has a 13", reasonably priced, and about this machine I also know nothing.

3. 
   Julmer | Sep 10, 2002 12:02am | #4

   I've owned a Performax 16" drum sander for about 1-1/2 years. Bought it used, in good condition. I use it for just what you want - "presanding" of panels and boards.  I love the ability to flatten glued-up panels and frames and to thicknes lots of pcs of lumber to the same dimension (while doing most of my presanding work at the same time).  I still need to use hand or random orbit sanding to take out sanding marks left with 220 grit paper on the drum. It's not real fast so I hope your not planning lots of production work. Paper changes take only a minute or two. Drum setup is critical if you plan to sand pcs. wider than the drum (the delta 18"  can sand pcs. up to 36").