Thread: Drum sander

I've looked at these, and I tend to think that the alloy casting which the rise and fall is on, is crap.
It looks like if you put too much pressure on it, it will break.

This is the baby you want, pity its in the US.
http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPR...ARTNUM=959-802

Cheers, Allan

I was looking at one of these to do frames . The one problem with them is that you get cross grain scratching on the top and bottom peices . They work great on the side peices, it does not matter which grit you use and how fine a setting you have you cannot eliminate the scratching.
They work good if you want to clean up lenghts of timber them make your frames.

I got mine from Carbatec and it came with a stand. The stand was bench height and IMHO too tall to be of any use for passing long lenghts of timber through. I prefer a lower centre of gravity similar to a thicknesser height. I haven't used it an aweful lot but I am quite pleased with the result. Takes a bit of practice to match the feed rate for various types of timber though. Pine is a pain as it clogs the abrasive fairly quickly. You have to have it connected to a dust extractor or any timber will clog the abrasive.
As Jim says it does leave scratches but I did not have an expectation of it being a finish sander. I find a quick run over with the orbital is all that is required.
I was also concerned about the long section of unsupported alloy casting but it has proven an accurate machine. I haven't needed to sand on a double pass yet so I suppose that will be the unlimate test.
Great for curly or difficult grain timber or for thin strips and a quiet machine to operate.

try this for size.

http://www.gregmach.com/equipment_ca...ormax_1632.htm

This is the JET machine and I can't recommend it too strongly and at $1350, it's very well proced.

Yeah, what BigAl says.
I got the Carbatec one and it took me ages to get it set up properly. I saw the Jet one the week after I purchased this one and it had a bigger motor and stronger table. I really wish I had seen the Jet first.

Hmmmm the Jet does look interesting, wonder if anyone stocks them in Perth so I can compare.

One slight reservation it that the Jet machine only does up to 76mm thick were as the Carbatec will apparently do 125mm, that said I don’t sand too many railway sleepers

Cheers


Dave

I bought my Performax last week for $1250 which I figured was about as good as it gets!

Supplier was Touchwood at Maleny but it may cost a few dollars to get it to Perth!

I have been rescuing some heavily painted oregon and it has been brilliant. I've only hit six or seven hidden nails so far, so have pretty much paid for the cost of the thing in planer blades alone!

All the best with finding a dealer!

Cheers,

P

That poses the question .....

Is a drum sander a possible replacement of the thicknesser????

It is only a replacement for the thicknesser if you have a few days for thicknessing each piece of timber. I have done this myself when I didn't want to make too much noise and wake everybody up, but it does take heaps longer to do.

It is only a replacement for the thicknesser if you have a few days for thicknessing

True! Also doesn't have the same capacity to handle the depth of material as a thicknesser, but by golly it can get a pretty neat finish on difficult timber!

On the other hand, IF you only handled small dimensions AND could rip the stock to reasonably close tolerances, you could do without a jointer as well I reckon.

It's only new, but it could become one of my favourite gadgets!

Cheers,

P

Hi All

I have contemplated making my own drum sander. Time does not permit such developments just yet, though the brain has been contemplating the construction.

I have some 125mm (approx) pvc bore casing. This is quite thick 8-10mm(?). I could use this for the drum (instead of the aluminium "a la" the retail m/c's).

There have been some "good condition" treadmills disposed of at the local recycle plant. Some with variable speed electric motors and gearbox, to power the belt drive. In fact the whole base of the treadmill could provide a good construction start for such a sander.

Cheap too )

If I ultimately get to make my own, I think a dual drum sander would be best, using different grit sizes.

regards

Peter

Timbercon have the WDS400A for $799 in the latest mailing.
Has anyone else used or looked at this model as the price seems very good?
Thanks in anticipation

Tom,

I'll let you know on Sunday night as I am picking one up at the Bris. Show (Woo Woo). Cannot go past $799 including stand I recon.

btw I had wanted to get the Performax/Jet one but the price difference is just to great considering this is for hobby level.

Unfortunately since my original post I have had my funds withdrawn and am no longer able to buy a drum sander (this was cos I bought a lathe instead) it is still on my list though.

Anyway my research proved that the Carbatech and the Tibecon drum sanders are very similar if not identical. $799 seems a great price, when I was looking Carbatech (WA) had a second hand one for $699, I?d be paying the extra $100 and buying new for sure.

Interestingly the second hand one had had a replacement height adjustment casting (the big U shaped bit) according the sales guy this was due to it being hit by a heavy object by mistake. interesting though because if there is a weak point of the machine this would at first glance appear to be it. apparently the original owner bought a new machine instead of waiting for a new part.

I too looked at the Jet and it did appear to be marginally better quality, the extra approx $600 is imo pretty hard to justify in a hobby setting though.

Cheers Dave