Thread: Drum Sanders: Sherwood 20" vs Laguna Supermax 19"

I’ve just bought a Sherwood 20” Drum Sander, and after using it to sand a couple of small occasional tables (35cm x 45cm) that I’d made, and a small coffee table (55cm x 45cm), and dressing half a dozen pieces of pine (10cm x 3cm x 120cm), the coupling that joins the motor to the Drum started to disintegrate. Yes I contacted Timbecon and they sent a new coupling, but this $2,000 machine is just over 2wks old? And the coupling has failed already! Like I said they sent a new Coupling but I had to fit it, which meant I had to go out and buy a ‘Puller’ to get the coupling off the Drum and Motor, and spend an hour fitting the new one and then adjusting the whole machine again. The other thing is that no amount of ‘adjustment’ will stop the feed belt from running off to the Motor end of the machine, I have literally spent hours adjusting and readjusting it and it will not ‘centralise’! I don’t know about the LAGUNA but the Sherwood while it is solid, has some issues. The adjustment screws for the table height are useless and I had to replace the crappy grub screws with High Tensile Hex head bolts. The catch for the abrasive paper on the motor side is really hard to get to grab and hold the paper tight, especially finer grade paper, I had to put super glue on the 320 grit paper I put on so that it would be ‘stiff’ enough to get it to go through the retaining clip, very annoying. I don’t think I would buy the Sherwood if I had it to do over, pretty disappointed that a machine that is just over 2wks old and done very little work failed!



702CD7F8-2441-4259-B2FB-C178BA4D7AE8.jpg

G'day, I have a 16" Sherwoow drum sander I got about 16 months ago and I it's really good once you work out how to set the machine up. Bad luck with the coupling, I haven't had that issue. In the beginning I did have trouble with the inside belt tension clip. Until I worked it out I couldn't get belts to stay on for long. The inside tension clip has like two stages, the first stage is the tension and the second stage opens up clamping jaws low down in the clip. These jaws don't open up until you push the clip back as far as you can. Then feed the tail of the belt through the lower jaws and when you start to release the clip the cramping jaws close on the belt and then the top section of the clip tensions the belt. I did find that the tail of the belt needs to be quite long, and for fine paper I put duct tape on the back of the paper were it goes through the drum and into the clamp. I even use paperback and don't have any problems now.
As for the table adjustment, once you set the table and drum parallel to each other I don't need to touch this again unless they move out of parallel. If I'm doing a two pass sand then on the inside of the table (motor end) there are two screws that I loosen and on the front of the sander there is a leaver I twist to the right to slightly raise the table, then tighten the screw again and away you go. When finished just reverse this process.
With the feed belt adjustment you can get it right but the adjustment must be very gradual, and not just on one side.
Sorry if you already know this stuff, but this is just what I found.

Regards
Rodney

So Fallen Woodwork any update, did you get an machine?

Hi Rod,

Not yet. Had a few expenses that took priority with upgraded dust extraction being one of them.
Only just got the dusty working in the past few weeks after the switch box was replaced under warranty.
The supplier sent the replacement via standard post which took 6 frick'n weeks to arrive
Same supplier I was looking at getting the drum sander from so yeah, there's that to consider

Originally Posted by Liamray

I’ve just bought a Sherwood 20” Drum Sander, and after using it to sand a couple of small occasional tables (35cm x 45cm) that I’d made, and a small coffee table (55cm x 45cm), and dressing half a dozen pieces of pine (10cm x 3cm x 120cm), the coupling that joins the motor to the Drum started to disintegrate. Yes I contacted Timbecon and they sent a new coupling, but this $2,000 machine is just over 2wks old? And the coupling has failed already! Like I said they sent a new Coupling but I had to fit it, which meant I had to go out and buy a ‘Puller’ to get the coupling off the Drum and Motor, and spend an hour fitting the new one and then adjusting the whole machine again. The other thing is that no amount of ‘adjustment’ will stop the feed belt from running off to the Motor end of the machine, I have literally spent hours adjusting and readjusting it and it will not ‘centralise’! I don’t know about the LAGUNA but the Sherwood while it is solid, has some issues. The adjustment screws for the table height are useless and I had to replace the crappy grub screws with High Tensile Hex head bolts. The catch for the abrasive paper on the motor side is really hard to get to grab and hold the paper tight, especially finer grade paper, I had to put super glue on the 320 grit paper I put on so that it would be ‘stiff’ enough to get it to go through the retaining clip, very annoying. I don’t think I would buy the Sherwood if I had it to do over, pretty disappointed that a machine that is just over 2wks old and done very little work failed!



702CD7F8-2441-4259-B2FB-C178BA4D7AE8.jpg

Why did you have to fit the new part? The company you bought it from should have a service technician who comes out to do it. I wonder if you will have warranty issues if it ,or another part that you have had to refit, fails and needs repair.
I simply don’t understand how these suppliers think they can get away with just “supplying a new part free of charge” it’s simply not good enough.

Yessem i agree.

Originally Posted by rod1949

So Fallen Woodwork any update, did you get an machine?

After many months and 3 failed attempts from the suppliers to get the new dust extractor working it was finally fixed.
Over the Christmas period there was a deal too good to pass. A post covid labour crisis discount and free shipping.
This closed the deal as I was looking at over $500 for road freight for a 3000km+ journey
So I went ahead and got the 19-38, stand, out-tables, + some consumables.
I saved over $1000 however this came with a caveat...

Working through the pallet and various boxes and getting to the bottom I found that it travelled said distance wrong side up
When unpacked I found that there was about 1-2mm lateral flex if I pushed my thumb firmly at the distal end of the drum arm.
I image this movement is normal however this process would have occurred 10's or 100's thousands of times over a 3 day journey with some rather bumpy road sections in between.




The conveyor belt and drive motor came in the separate box above it.
The drum support arm is cast iron, very heavy and very solid with the arm having about 19mm thick attachment to the head frame and 8mm thick gussets. There are no visible cracks in the arm, gussets or head bracket.

Whats the likeliness that cracks may appear further down the track having made it this far?

I have the same machine acquired just before Xmas. Very heavy duty machine over all but the support for the wheels bolted in is a little lacking as one of mine have tilted to the side so it moves like a broken trolley now. May have to put them all off and get a new mobile base for it

Cheers
Nathan

Thanks for posting Nathan. Was it poor welding of the wheel support or lack of steel thickness on the frame that caused the wheel to buckle?

I was going to order the laguna wheels but they were out of stock - expensive too.
I need to put wheels on mine at some stage but will weld some extra meat onto the weak area

Are the laguna wheels worth it or do you think these bunny wheels are just as good:
Easyroll 100mm 55kg Grey Rubber Swivel Plus Brake Castor - Bunnings Australia

I didn’t buy the wheels intentionally as I picked up this unit new condition second hand and it came with the stand wheels in and out feed tables. Yeah it seems to be a combo of the thickness of the steel and no gussets. I’ve operated this on a concrete slab so I assume it’s just from one of the wheels being locked or something and moving it around has made it bend over time. They’re tall also so height would play a role. I prefer how low the wheels are on the roller bases anyway so I’ll take off the original wheels I’d say. Find something with a lower profile that fits the holes, the brakes are good but oversized for the frame their on I think