Recommendation for Drum Sander

I started out with a Delta 18 x 36 single drum sander. It worked great for years. Then I had the opportunity to buy a Powermatic 37" dual drum sander. It had been damaged in shipping and needed to be rebuilt. I got it for less than the price of my delta and put a few hundred more into replacement parts + a little elbow grease. In the end it worked out. I can sand a 37" wide piece with only a .005" difference across the width.

As for dust collection... I started out with the grizzly 2 hp 1550cfm on the delta. It was fine for that machine. Recently I had to replace much of my shop and installed a new, multi machine, system. The 2hp wasn't enough to service the powermatic when hooked to the new system so I upgraded to a 5hp and made the 2 hp a dedicated collector for the sander. So, alone the 2 hp is great for the powermatic and delta sanders. However, I wouldn't suggest it for a multi machine system.

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by Laidback1

Any of the pros here use a drum sander for thickness sanding that you can recommend? Any thoughts appreciated!

Once you have used a wide belt sander you will never want to use a drum sander again. What would take me 30 minutes to do on my old 16-32 drum sander takes less than a minute on a wide belt sander. Some may say we are not in a race but I would rather be doing something else productive instead of standing at a stationary sander feeding the same piece of wood through it DOZENS of times...

Originally Posted by Tim McKnight

Once you have used a wide belt sander you will never want to use a drum sander again. What would take me 30 minutes to do on my old 16-32 drum sander takes less than a minute on a wide belt sander. Some may say we are not in a race but I would rather be doing something else productive instead of standing at a stationary sander feeding the same piece of wood through it DOZENS of times...

I agree, Tim. I wanted a wide belt sander but this one came along and was about 1/10th the price. The DDS 237 (machine I have) has a 10hp motor so, there's enough power to remove a lot of wood at once and the dual drums allow me the luxury of having two different grits sanding a piece in one pass. It works for now. The problem with many of the single drum models is that they are underpowered. so, you have to make many lighter passes to acheive your goal. Another problem I ran into was slight deflection on the open end. The powermatic is not open on the end so I'm limited to 37" wide pieces. but that's plenty of room for guitar making.

I my mind I would bet the best machine I could that fits within my budget and available floor space.

[Kent Chasson]

Originally Posted by Laidback1

On the dust collection: The system will have to be in the garage with the big equipment. In your experience, will a cyclonic system that is advertised to handle 750CFM suffice for running one machine at a time (this size tends to have 1 1/2HP motors) like a Drum Sander which specs say need 350CFM?
Brochures are brochures, experience is the true guide!

That should be fine. Drum sanders are one of the easier tools to collect dust from. And a cyclone is a great way to go. I would however recommend that you get more capacity for most other machines.

[runamuck]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Years ago, when wide-belt sanders were the only thing available, and started at $30k, most individual luthiers had little choice but to make their own - or hand plane. I did the hand planing for years, then made a sander.

Now, low-volume (i.e. hobby) self-feeding drum sanders can be had for under $500. By the time one puts time, energy and money into making one, buying one - one that will likely be more accurate, self feeding and easier to use - make more sense.

I have a Delta that is adequate and came at the right price and they threw in the dust collector. It is way, way better than the home-made one I had, which was typical of most of the home-made ones.

Good thinking.

[Brad Goodman]

I started out with the Performax 16-32. Then I got the 22-44.
They were pretty accurate,but slow.They work fine if you are just starting out.

Finally I got the Grizzly 18" wide belt . I got a great deal on it from Craigs list.
The difference is like night and day!

[Burton LeGeyt]

I have a performax 10-32 and it is perfect for me at my output (4-6 per year)and shop size. I have used all other sorts at different jobs, the Delta 18, the performax 16, even up to a 36" wide SCMI wide belt. In the end I haven't been able to get the accuracy I want for purflings and things on any machine except the small 10-32 and for that alone I wouldn't ever get rid of it. I agree it is slow for heavy thicknessing but switching out the paper for a more aggresive grit size is fast and easy. If I was making more guitars I might want one set up permanently for more aggressive removal but honestly there are usually better ways to remove wood, especially resinous hardwoods.

I'm not trying to knock the big wide belts, I do understand the difference but there is a point where it makes sense to go full production and a point where it isn't really necessary and as others have said, the smaller sanders (that no longer need to be homeade) work well.

[dberkowitz]

I share a Powermatic DDS225, which is the 25" version of the machine previously mentioned. It's a solid machine, and its hooked up to a 2hp traditional dust collector. My recommendation is that you use as much dust collection as possible. 2hp isn't enough for this machine and its only 10' away. We use two hoses to the machine, and its just not enough gas, particularly when thicknessing resinous woods. I tend to run back and sides through the machine at an angle so I'm sanding across the grain, and come back again at the opposing angle until I'm very close and do clean up passes with the grain. I take VERY light passes with 80 grit sandpaper, and have the rear drum out of the way. More aggressive sandpaper isn't going to help you much as the resin content, the drum size and the resultant heat are going to be more of a determinant of the resin gumming on the sandpaper than the paper grade.

[charles Tauber]

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[dberkowitz]

Charlie, I don't care what Powermatic gives as its minimum. The collector is 1200 CFM, bag type, and having used it for some ten years, it doesn't have enough ***. Period. It's a straight shot of 4" to the machine and it doesn't pull enough. We recently had the best machine tech in the DC area work on the machine and he told my colleague that he was using insufficient dust collection.

[Kent Chasson]

The bag may be most of the problem. They clog almost immediately and cfm drops quickly. A cylcone is a tremendous improvement, especially for sanding dust.

I'm not familiar with that sander but both sanders I've owned needed minimal collection. I used a shop-vac with my first Ryobi 16".

Originally Posted by dberkowitz

Charlie, I don't care what Powermatic gives as its minimum. The collector is 1200 CFM, bag type, and having used it for some ten years, it doesn't have enough ***. Period. It's a straight shot of 4" to the machine and it doesn't pull enough. We recently had the best machine tech in the DC area work on the machine and he told my colleague that he was using insufficient dust collection.

The other trick with the machines that David and I use (probably others too) is to get the particles airborne. I blow air from my shop vac into the machine while sanding. This helps a lot.

[murrmac123]

I am just a tad confused here.

Can we just ascertain that everybody is on the same page, and that "dust " collection is a totally different entity from "chip " collection ?

Cyclone systems have no relevance whatsoever in fine dust collection.

They are great for trapping larger particles and preventing clogging, but as far as trapping fine sanding dust is concerned, they are irrelevant.

Chip collection, and dust collection, are two totally different entities, and require two totally different extractors.

[Kent Chasson]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

I am just a tad confused here.

Can we just ascertain that everybody is on the same page, and that "dust " collection is a totally different entity from "chip " collection ?

Cyclone systems have no relevance whatsoever in fine dust collection.

They are great for trapping larger particles and preventing clogging, but as far as trapping fine sanding dust is concerned, they are irrelevant.

Chip collection, and dust collection, are two totally different entities, and require two totally different extractors.

Nope. A good cyclone (mine is a Clearvue) collects at least 95% of the finest particles. Clearvue states it as 99% and I wouldn't be surprised. It takes my filter more than a year to get caked enough that dust falls out when you tap it.

[Tim McKnight]

I agree with Kent on two counts:
1) I too thought that David's filter bag is the culprit. If you can disconnect the bag (temporarily) and duct the exhaust out doors, you should see a huge improvement in the amount of air (CFMs) that the machine can move. A bag filter is very inefficient and can stifle the performance of an otherwise decent vacuum unit in a hurry.

2) I too have a ClearVue unit. Mine separates both large chips as well as micro fine dust into the filter collection box leaving the large pleated hepa type filter to do its job by returning clean air back into the room.

Kent, just an FYI that they have newer filter media that is actually synthetic instead of the older paper media. The paper media plugs much sooner with resinous dust which is almost impossible to clean and degrades the performance of the vac unit. The synthetic media can be washed out with a garden hose and returned to as new condition annually... At which point it will suck the wings off of a fly at 50 yards