Thread: Who uses a drum sander for boxes?

I use wide belt sander for boxes, very very useful, never used drum sander though.

Wait until you also get an oscillating horizontal belt sander too... then ALL of your Christmas' HAVE come at once!

As a box maker.... in-val-u-able.

If there were a flood, or bushfire, those would go on the escape trailer before the family photos....

Originally Posted by woodPixel

If there were a flood, or bushfire, those would go on the escape trailer before the family photos....

I'd say your pretty safe from Burley griffin giving anyone any grief in the Cap.

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Wait until you also get an oscillating horizontal belt sander too... then ALL of your Christmas' HAVE come at once!

As a box maker.... in-val-u-able.

If there were a flood, or bushfire, those would go on the escape trailer before the family photos....

I've only had my oscillating Jet 22/44 a few weeks but I'd have to agree with you already! - thought it was going to be a bit of a white elephant like Dads home made one it was replacing but I can't stop finding jobs for it now - just a pleasure to use with out the 'bogging' issues of the conventional versions

Hi all, just a quick question about aligning the drum sander to be perfectly parallel. Do you shim the table to the drum or shim the drum to the table or foes in depend on the drum sander?

Regards Peter

I have a Carbatec branded 400mm drum sander and on that model you shim the table to the drum. It's pretty easy to do.

Thanks for that Aldav, Are you happy with the carbatec unit?

Yes, more than happy with the performance, changing the paper can be a bit of a PITA though. I think the only real mistake you can make with any of these machines is to expect too much from them - they're not thicknessers, they're sanders.

On the small 10/20Jet I have, you adjust a couple of screws to make the drum parallel to the table. Real easy.

The second hand Carbatec generic I have is absolutely fantastic. With 80 grit SIA cloth-sandpaper from the sandpaperman it is fierce. I run 120 normally.

I shimmed mine from the side. Here are two pictures. Undo the two bolts and use shims made with coke cans. The aluminium is VERY precise at 0.1mm.

Cut open a few coke cans. Flatten them into sheets and cut them into strips with scissors for shims. Run through an old sheet of mdf or chipboard, covering it with a lot of pencil lines. Measure the two edges, shim it up with the difference, tighten the bolts and retest.

Getting it dead accurate using this process may be fiddly and needing to be done 3 times, but it's pretty easy really.

On mine it took 4 shims (I think) to get it ***PERFECT***. I use it now for all of my boxes. 10000% indispensable machine.

IMG_20180617_152925.jpg IMG_20180617_152939.jpg

Originally Posted by aldav

Yes, more than happy with the performance, changing the paper can be a bit of a PITA though. I think the only real mistake you can make with any of these machines is to expect too much from them - they're not thicknessers, they're sanders.

Some are both
Wide-belt sanders with super aggregate

Thanks for the feedback, I'm thinking of going down the carbatec path due to financial reasons.

Regards Peter

These do come up second hand reasonably often if you keep an eye on Ebay, Gumtree and the marketplace here. I bought mine off a member here.

Originally Posted by aldav

These do come up second hand reasonably often if you keep an eye on Ebay, Gumtree and the marketplace here. I bought mine off a member here.

Likewise - about 10 years ago!