Thread: 635mm Twin Drum Sander experiences

I have a double drum 635 Leda and a single drum open ender. The later never gets used.
Keep in mind the "problems" experienced by many with drum sanders are often doubled in the twin drum version. It is important to tune them properly to avoid frustration. To prevent scorch marks keep sanding depth to a minimum, particularly with fine grit. Feeding at a slight diagonal also helps as a wider area of the drum is used. Final pass should be straight to erase possible scratch marks. Metho and an old rubber thong make a good cheap belt cleaner.

Invaluable bit of kit. As said above, time spent tuning the machine will pay dividends. Very light passes are the go. I had a 22/44 open ended machine for years. Sold it when I got my twin drum. There are minor differences between the brands but they are minor.

one thing is to run material through a couple or so times at the same setting. You will end up with a far mer consistent result.

Originally Posted by TerryOz

I’ve been thinking about a twin drum sander like the Carbatec 635mm and others.


I’d appreciate any “heads up” anyone who has experience with these has to offer.

Hi TerryOz . I saw your question down the other thread but hadn't had a chance to reply .

Yeah I have the 635 twin drum from Carbatec . I like it very much . But I don't use it as a way of processing everything that's heading for a polish job . Everything that's heading that way gets planed , cabinet scraped and a light sand either by hand , random orbital festo or air powered random orbital with water . The last is a grain raising super smoothing process . So I use bugger all sand paper . And its much faster and better . And suits my high end country look . This 635mm sander would be a big step backwards for me if I tried sanding surfaces to be polished .

My 635 mm Carbatec sander is fitted with 60 grit on both drums and I use it as a fast way of sizing things that need joining together . It does what my thicknesser cant do .
One of its last jobs was accurately sizing 5mm square rods to be glued 4 into 1, turned and re split to create nulling . A decorative type of applied quad bead .

I have processed solid crossbanding with it for applying to drawer fronts .

I thickness sand cranky grained stuff that a plane or thicknesser will stuff up.

And I dress perfectly flat surfaces with it that come from the thicknesser that will be laminated together to form larger pieces like built up table columns and table legs . Me discovering how much better this use is over the way I used to do it saves huge hours and has paid for the cost of the machine in a year after I found how good it did that .

I have given it a few goes of sanding drawer components but I dont like it . Planing is better once again . The 60 grit is a bit coarse so finer grades would be needed to be gone through. This sander doesn't work with finer grits for very long . I find going down through the grades of paper with random orbital too long and boring . A plane , a scraper then a run over with 320 grit or 380 or 400 is what I do . For polished surfaces and drawer components .

I would wouldn't buy a drum sander just for processing large amounts of typical furniture sized flat components that will be polished . It'll end up sitting in a corner not being used I think . After a lot of frustrating struggles .

It would Probably be fine or ideal with medium furniture size to smaller box type work .

Maybe I'm using it wrong (or the model is slightly different - looks the same but different brand) but I never put anything wider than 575mm in the one at work. The paper clamps on the end of the drum and I avoid putting timber on those two areas as that where it tears when it does.

Other than that, it's great for cleaning up minor height differences in glued panels or panels that won't fit through the thicknesser. A project done this year involved making 3mm veneers from re-sawn timber. The thicknesser tore a few practice pieces up but the drum sander enabled a consistent sanding. Also works well for things to be used for bent laminations.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and the options there might be, given I only want to buy this once. One of course is the Supermax single drum sanders. The big sell for them in a home workshop I guess is their ability to sand wider boards via their “open end” design. For a similar price ($3K) there is a Supermax 25/50, which obviously appeals.

$3000 is a lot of dosh for a machine that gets used rarely. I have an older Leda twin drum one and at $300 it can sit On the side all year and I don’t feel awkward about it. When I do use it, it does the same job as the $3000 machine (maybe better after some of the sander threads I’ve read), and then it can sit in the corner again and rest.

I also picked up my twin drum Leda for $300. As for open enders, I am not a fan. Most of my work is in Aus Cedar and the idea of reversing wide pieces through the sander shows up dramaticaly as light and dark on the polished piece. To overcome this, each wide board has to be run over with a hand sander to eliminate the effect of the change of sanding direction. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a machine when you have to make up the shortcomings by hand.

Originally Posted by rustynail

I also picked up my twin drum Leda for $300. As for open enders, I am not a fan. Most of my work is in Aus Cedar and the idea of reversing wide pieces through the sander shows up dramaticaly as light and dark on the polished piece. To overcome this, each wide board has to be run over with a hand sander to eliminate the effect of the change of sanding direction. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a machine when you have to make up the shortcomings by hand.

I think the last point you make about having to finish off with another sander is right on the money, but I see these Machines are all about being an “in between” thicknessing and final sanding proposition anyway. You certainly get longitudinal “lines” after running the job through it, relative to the grit mass. The last job I did using one was some thick Oregon shelves and after jointing 4 pieces together and thicknessing again (with a helical head), the finish and flatness was way better. The Drum Sander had 80 grit and perhaps a few passes with 120 grit might have made the final sanding job even easier. I also think that if I was thicknessing Spruce for a Guitar Top, or Mahogany for Back and sides, I’d only use the Drum Sander, as the Thicknesser would probably tear out too much material. I feel it’s a much “gentler” proposition.
wonder if you can post some pics of the $300 Leda machine you have? I’d be more than happy to have something like that if it worked well enough.