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Old 09-27-2017, 08:05 AM
Burton LeGeyt Burton LeGeyt is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 274
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As Tim said, there is no comparison between a widebelt sander and a drum sander. I bought a Grizzly open end widebelt sander for our school shop and it is great. Not without some quirks but they are manageable. With a 60 grit belt you can remove some serious stock fairly fast. Then one pass with a 220 belt and it comes out smooth. Its ideal.

At my home shop I can't justify something like that and don't have (or want to deal with) the infrastructure to support it (it "wants" a 50 amp circuit! and dedicated air). I run a performax 10-20 which is great for delicate purfling thicknessing and things like that but completely inadequate for any sort of production work.

Nigel's approach makes a lot of sense too. Tool upkeep and maintenance is something many people don't discuss but is an important part of running a shop and can eat up whole days at the worst times.
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Burton
Boston, MA
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