Thread: Jet 18/36 Drum Sander

Review Jet 18/36 Drum Sander - JET-JWDS1836


My first review of a sawdust creating implement, manual or electric. I am damn good at creating sawdust, even when there is no intention to achieve that end.

To put this review into perspective, it’s helpful to understand my previous experiences with drum sanders. Some years ago I purchased a Carbatec WD400 drum sander second hand. It was in almost new condition. I was told it had only been used by a little old man on Sunday, whilst his wife was driving to church. (Assuming the cost of a new one,) it did the job. However, one aspect I was never happy with was the alignment of the table to the drum. Finally, I got thoroughly off with the inaccuracy and decided to fix it. Being a good little vegemite I consulted the destruction manual. After much reading, thinking (even if it did hurt,) and cogitation, the conclusion was obvious. The manual had been written by a demented Chinese engineer who had no comprehension of reality, even if he could have succeeded as a rocket scientist.

Also, their ability to take meaningful pictures that had any relationship to what he/she was trying to explain, was non-existent. Clearly aligning the table to the drum was “a brave decision Minister,” as they say in the classics. A challenge? Absolutely! But as I suffer from delusions of adequacy, I was up for it.

I tried this. I tried that. I tried the other. Then I tried the process in reverse order. After lots of four letter words, and many wasted hours later, finally a conclusion finally hit me. Doh! Talk about being slower than building a Collins Class Submarine, or dumber than a Cocker Spaniel. The sander had to be removed from the table. Then I had to try this, try that, and try the other. But wait! This process had to be completed sideways and upside down. That’s the sanders position, not mine. Also being a contortionist, with the fingers of a midget, and the strength of Atlas the circus strongman, would have helped with the bolts.

Finally, after even more time, and the inclusion of numerous, new four letter words entering the language, I had the table and the drum parallel. You beauty. Problem solved. Bliss! Challenge met. Job done. Time to solve the problems of the world with a bucket of good red wine.

I was so happy. And proud of myself. Then I tuned on the sander. Mumble, mumble, many censored four letter words. The drum is now vibrating. It may have been a nymphomaniac’s wet dream, but it was a sanders nightmare. All that upside down and sideways “adjustment” and movement of the sander did more than just move the table. It “shafted” the drum shaft, and was well and truly ****ed.

The need for a drum sander had never been greater. My dining room table was getting a new top. The middle, a meter by a meter was to be concentric squares made out of left over bits and pieces. The one end was going to be a mosaic and the other end was going to be…. well that was still to be decided. A new drum sander, with an open end was now a top priority.

As already stated, I am anal enough to always read the destruction manuals, so doing homework before buying any major item, (and most minor ones) comes naturally. It didn’t take long to decide the Jet 18/36 was the only logical choice given my criteria. It had to have an open outboard end, be of good quality, be solid without flimsy bits, and be easy to use. Oh, and adjustment of the table to the drum had to be possible without disassembling the sander to its component parts, without causing a hernia, without necessitating the purchase of a new sander after it was “adjusted” and without causing sufficient emotion stress and frustration to guarantee a trip to the funny farm.

Carbatec had it listed at $1,999. Trend Timbers lists it at $2,195 but if you are one of their VIP customers, you get 10% off. That’s $1975.50. Carbatec is substantially closer so that’s where I went, despite my general dislike for dealing with this supplier. The unit weights about 80 kg so paying for freight to my rural location is best avoided.

The fellow who served me at Carbatec was Mr Hale and Hearty himself, and a newbie to the business. He tried really hard to answer the questions raised, but I was willing to wager I knew more about the product from reading the specs. However, when he couldn’t find the answer to my question about the optional infeed and outfeed tables, he asked another staff member, who was able to provide the info.

For those considering the purchase of the Jet a word or two about the optional infeed and outfeed table. They are a great a idea and I would have been happy to pay the extra $149. I have the optional extensions on my Dewalt Thicknesser and they are a really useful addition. Best of all, the extensions fold up out of the way when not in use. Unfortunately, on the Jet, they take up space as they don’t fold up out of the way. If space is a premium, and in my case it is, this makes the option a non starter. Pity.

I also asked about wheels for the sander stand. My Hale and Hearty went to ask the senior staff on duty. Cameron, the man in charge told me they don’t stock them. Only option was a mobile base. I don’t like mobile bases and wanted wheels. After some cunning questions by this mug customer, I was told they had Kreg wheels at $99 a set, but Cameron didn’t know if they would fit. More cunning questions by me, and I worked out they would fit. I had to work hard to make this purchase.

During my exchange of info with Mr Hale and Hearty, I was told the price was $1,900. Not once but twice. That had me smiling as the price on their website was $1,999. When it came time to hand over the platinum, diamond, gold, black, and/or green credit card, Cameron stated the price was $1999. After confirming that Mr Hale and Hearty had indeed quoted $1,900 Cameron was good enough to honour the price, so I essentially got the wheels free.

The unit is well packaged and is easy to unpack. Set up is also easy. The stand only takes minutes to put together. Its rock-solid and the finish shows the quality build. Nothing out of alignment or difficult to connect. Given its weight, it does take two people to get the sander onto the stand and bolted down. The addition of the Kreg wheels allows it to be moved around with ease. The wheel option is more aesthetically pleasing than an unsightly mobile base.
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Only one slight problem with the assembly. I couldn’t adjust the tiny screw in the winder handle. Jet handled the enquiry both professionally and helpfully. It turned out they have experienced this type of problem previously. The humidity in the shipping container on the high seas can be very high. It can get bloody hot in the container too. Apparently hotter than a conversation with the ex over the property settlement. Due to the heat and humidity, it’s possible for a tiny rust spot to develop, which can cause screws to freeze. A squirt of WD40 and the screw in the handle freed up. Problem fixed. Pity a squirt of DW40 won’t lubricate a divorce settlement.

So far, so good. It looks impressive. That’s unlike the ex after the divorce settlement.

The unit came installed with a length of 60 grit abrasive. (My ex was rated at 40 abrasive.) My first project using the sander required 180 grit. No problem. A couple of weeks previously I purchased twenty five meters of 180 grit and the same length of 80 grit. The width of the paper was 75 mm. This was “purr”fect for the old sander.

All I had to do was to work of the angle of the dangle so I could cut the paper to the right size. Easy peasy! Yep. Any mug could work this out. Hummmm, it appears I am not just any mug. I wasted about two and a half meters trying to get it right and then decided to consult the experts. Belt and braces time.

The first step was posting a request for suggestions on this forum. Hopefully someone had experienced the same problem and had worked out a solution. Whilst waiting for responses, I rang the Jet people. They were sympathetic, but they were didn’t have a readymade solution. Their paper was 86 mm wide and they had no info about using 75 mm abrasive. However, they did make one very helpful tip. Use cut up newspaper (or similar) when mucking around trying to make a template, so as not to waste loads of abrasive paper.

Bloody good idea. No newspaper. No problem. Sheets of printer paper cut into strips and taped together was a fine alternative. Now to try and work out the angle of the cuts. Half a tree’s worth of paper later, I finally figured out why Jet was using 86 mm paper. When 75 mm paper was used, it was impossible to get reasonable coverage of the drum. Bugger.

The Forum posters who were trying to assist also came to the same conclusion. The diameter of the drum was the same as the old Carbatec (and the previous Jet model,) but the length of the drum as different. That’s why the 75 mm paper is unsuitable.

The 50 meters of abrasive I had just purchased had cost roughly $150 including freight. About $3 a meter.

The Jet suppliers sell pre-cut lengths of 86 mm abrasive (about 2.3 meters) for around $23 a hit. That’s about…… how much a meter!!

Naturally I decided to buy the rolls in 86 mm. It was a special order. It took about ten days for (Kerry) The Sandpaper Man to get them into stock. Cost of the 50 meters was about $250. Not a huge additional cost in the scheme of things, but buyers should note that stock of the 86 mm abrasive is not as readily available as other sizes. Getting it in a hurry would be very difficult.

Enough about all this techno paper crap. Time to kick start this baby. Hum. Might be better to press the green button. Kicking the Jet would result in severe damage to one’s foot. Wanna bet that warning will be the next one published in the manual! Every other possible idiot action is already listed.

First observation. The built in depth gauge is as useful as a smoke detector at the bottom of a swimming pool. Inaccurate. That doesn’t begin to describe it. If this one was “set up” in the factory, it was done by a blind person’s seeing eye dog, who was undoubtedly under the affluence of incholol.
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Sure, it can be reset but even then, like all this type of equipment, it usefulness would still fall way short of what is really needed. This, of course, is a digital gauge. I guess that no one at Jet knows about these devices. Perhaps some kind soul could show them one. Given this is a redesigned, brand new model, not having a digital gauge is just plain, bad design. Being smarter than the average bear, I had a Wixey on my old Carbatec. Now all I have to do is work out how to become a genius bear and install it on the Jet in a way that does not turn the Jet’s smooth lines into those resembling a garbage truck. It won’t be easy as the Jet looks better than a rat with a platinum tooth. (Yellow gold is so last century.) It has a classy, sleek look.


Without a useful gauge, it takes a couple of passes to get the depth setting right. Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it would be so much better with a digital gauge.

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Like all tools in this category, the speed control varies from that of a startled snail’s pace up to ten feet a minute. But the Jet has one extra feature. A red light comes on if the speed is too fast and needs to be reduced. A nice to have addition but one that is more about looks than real function or necessity. One thing about the feed mechanism that is well thought out is the drivebelt itself. The belt’s surface looks like its coated with rough sandpaper, however its way better quality than abrasive paper. What ever the belt is made of, once the pressure rollers engage the timber, slippage of the job would be near impossible. I am bloody glad that they don’t make toilet paper from this stuff. Bloody would not begin to describe the result.

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Adjusting the depth of cut is easy. The crank handle moves smoothly. The ring around the handle has graduated marking with very fine increments. That makes fine adjustments to the depth of cut accurate and easy. Great. Yep. But it would be so much better if you had an accurate starting measurement. Have I mentioned Mrs Wixey’s little son Barry’s toys yet?

The Jet comes with a 60 grit belt installed. This grade would be prefect if you needed to remove 25 mm of baked on enamel from a length of wood. It’s more aggressive than my ex mother-in-law. No doubt this is the next best option after a controlled nuclear explosion. Not the best option for normal woodwork. I had no option in using this grade as the special order of useful paper was still ten days away. It worked and worked well, provided you wanted wood that’s gouged with lines of grit indentations. Really looking forward to the 80 and 180 grit arriving.

When I was ‘ farting’ around playing silly buggers trying to get the 75 mm paper to fit, I had to remove the supplied 60 grit 86 mm paper. Removing, and especially putting the paper back on the Carbatec was as pleasant as a case of haemorrhoids. The previous model of Jet came with a little tool that was reputed to make it significantly less painful. According to Jet, changing paper on this new model was meant to be a breeze. In some ways, it is, but in some ways it’s as bad as a visit to the proctologist. Not fun at all. Why you ask.

The paper that comes with Jet is cut to an exact, and I do mean exact template, that’s both size and shape. The amount of paper that is taken up by the clip holding mechanism is very small. There is no margin of flexibility. Its exact, no ifs and no buts. Its been designed by a “very clever boffin” (total nerd) who doesn’t understand the realities faced by mere mortal idiots like me. In theory, and I stress in theory, its easy to change paper. Unfortunately theory and practice in the real world, can differ substantially.

The 60 grit paper is thick and not very flexible. Just like the ex-mother-out-law. When it’s been taken in and out of the locking/holding mechanism, it quickly developed what amounted to a small fold like indentation. The combination of the thick paper and fold, made placing the paper in the locking mechanism difficult. This is the result of that small fold. That paper was useless.
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I thought the solution would be easy.

All that was needed was to cut the paper a tad longer on either end. That would allow more paper to go into the locking mechanism and make it easier to manage. That bloody Murphy was a real optimist. It didn’t work out as predicted. The width of the paper going into the locking mechanism needs to be exact or unintended consequences result. Two lengths of 2.3 meters of paper were ruined trying to play with a bit of extra length. You can see the results when the paper is either not cut exactly, or not inserted into the clip perfectly.
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The paper saga continued. The destruction manual doesn’t have a diagram or specs on cutting the paper to the correct dimensions. I rang Jet to get them. The guy I spoke to was surprised when he couldn’t find the info either. He said he would call me back later the same day. It must be a state secret or highly classified information. No call back was received. Now that is disappointing service.

One other point of unnecessary annoyance that shows this was designed by a boffins and not shown to users before finalisation. The drum cover locking mechanism doesn't use a convenient latch to lock the cover down. It uses a hex screw. That means that every time access to the paper is required, out comes the hex driver. Not user friendly.
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After these comments you may get the impression that the Jet is a pile of hot excrement but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a great looking machine, is solid and well made. It sands brilliantly, and that’s its raison d'être.

Being a glutton for punishment, I also had a shot at levelling the table to the drum. It’s a bit fiddly, but relatively simple and painless. Its in a different universe when compared to the old Carbatec. And that’s not just good. It’s great.
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It only has two real downsides. The lack of a digital gauge can be fixed with the addition of a Wixey, and in reality is a must have addition. By the time I had finished this review I had fitted my remote reader.
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The abrasive paper issues are not insurmountable. Jet was so close to getting this perfect. It’s a real shame that coming up 2% short has such a negative effect on the ease of use of the unit. Users will either have to pay a high price for pre-cut paper or be 100% exact in cutting it themselves. They will also need to be just as exacting when fitting the paper onto the drum. Getting the paper right without a template is a real pain in the butt. If you buy a Jet the first thing you need to do after unpacking it is to remove the included grit from the drum. Carefully measure all the angles and sizes. Then lock the original in a home safe. Better yet in a bank vault.

Now that I have finally got past the initial abrasive issues, it’s a dream to use.

Worth buying? Absolutely! But it could have been a dream machine with a little more thought. Instead, its just very, very bloody good.

These were the first two pieces that were used to christen the Jet.
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