Has anyone got a Performax 22-44 drum sander?

[Billy Bignutz]

I am tossing up between the twin drum hafco/Carbatec 24" sander or maybe the Performax 22-44. My reasoning to possibly go the Performax way is that as I don't plan to be doing a huge quantity of timber the Performax offers the advantage of being able to turn the job around for a 44" sand even though I am sure this has some issues.

I do both sawing and slabbing with my Lucas mill or Canadian rig so occasionally a big piece may come up wider than 24" and sanding is the only way for anything over 16" (thicknesser width).

I have read the forum comments previously re the Hafco/Carbatec twin drum sander but have found no comments on the 22-44 Performax.

FYI web site for the Performax is: http://gpwoodturning.yahoostore.com.au/cgi/index.cgi/shopfront/view_product_details?category_id=1107133412&product_id=1107398377

Any comments welcome.

thanks
Bill

[Cliff Rogers]

I had asked that question of another member via e-mail.

He has the twin drum unit & says that the main advantage is that you can use 2 different grits so you get a pretty well finished board out of it.

[m2c1Iw]

Hi Billy,
I have a 10-20 Performax and have found for extra width running a board through is OK. If I remember correctly there have been comments that the wider version works well to for wide stock. As for twin drum I will also be interested in hearing how they perform, do both drums run at the same height?

Mike

[woodcutta]

Bill
I have had the 22-44 Performax for about 3 years now ( From GPW)

The cost of the paper is fairly high. I have found a distributor in Newcastle that sells Klingspoor in 25 or 100 Meter rolls, but any drum sander is going to cost in paper.

I dont have any issues with sanding wider than 22" as long as the parallel is checked before sanding.

woodcutta

[Billy Bignutz]

Thanks for the quick response.

On the matter of the twin drum Mike raises a good point - can you run the second drum higher or lower than the first drum so that you can operate it as two single drum sanders so that you could say do multiple runs of just the finer paper on the second drum or v/v for coarse paper on the first drum. If you can do this how easy is it to adjust so that the second drum is dead even? Is it quicker to just change the paper perhaps?

Bill