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How can they jack this $560 in less than a year. You could have bought this eleven months ago for $999.99. You still want to complain about the price of gas, well, I'm not buying this. I suggest you do what I'm going to do, sharpen up your scrapers. Comparably, Nikon camera lenses in this price rang over eleven months have only gone up $40.00 dollars.
Use this machine with care and it will perform to the level of a $1500 drum sander. I have had a few problems that I have found to be operator error. But for $1500 this is an invaluable tool in my shop, and use it often with excellent results. This is not a planer and is not intended for thicknessing.This is not a wide belt sander built for agressive production work.This machine is for surface prep and should carry with it no extra expectations. I have found that when used as intended, using the machine within its limits, it performs quite well. Taking off too much material, running material through at too fast a rate, using green, or pitch filled woods will gum up the paper and burn the wood. I have found that preparing large panels with a hand plane save me a lot of time and frustration and get me better results.If you want production quality and are intent on saving time I would suggest a 3 phase wide belt sander. I have had it for two years and have used it enough to burn through several large rolls of paper.I have used Grizzley and Woodmaster models as well and find this machine to have outperformed both.
Buying this machine expecting it to thickness and/or perform like a $10,000+ wide belt sander is rediculous. Take your time, take off a little at a time. I have also used wide belt sanders and would much prefer to have one of those in my shop, but the cost is nowhere near my budget. Be careful and precise when applying the paper to the roll.
I ripped up a couple sheets of sandpaper, burned some wood, blew fuses, etc while getting used to everything. But now after a couple years all those mistakes are rare. I don't find the clips to hold the sand paper down all that difficult to work with, nor do I find the adjustment for the sander drum itself difficult. I have a Jet dust collector hooked up to it and have very little dust getting out. If you can save up that extra cash, I really recommend it. I read the two star reviews and I would agree with some of those issues.
I shut it down, realign the paper and off I go again. I do agree there is play in the bolts, but I have found if you keep them snug (don't loosen them all the way), that the knob control to raise/lower the drum still works and you can eliminate the play and lock in your adjustment.I couldn't live without this machine in my shop. Being able to run 20 inch wide shelving, cabinet walls, etc through without having to do one edge then then other is great.This machine does take some time to get used to for sure. The extra couple hundred dollars the 22x44 is well worth it. I have noticed that I only get burns when the sand paper isn't tight enough and the edges overlap while the piece is going through. I have blown my fuse a few times by trying to sand too much stock off at once, but that's human error and once I got the "feel" for it, I rarely have any mechanical issues with the sander any more.
But I can guarantee you will do them all if this is your first drum sander. I use it on nearly all my projects.I purchased the 16x32 before I bought this and quickly learned that the 16x32 is just too small.
The life of your sand paper will be 10 times. It is a heavy machine. I now love sanding which is what I used to hate. My little red light comes on all of the time. First allot of the reviews complain about the tracking of the feed belt. It is kind of like adjusting the tracking on a belt sander. So now that I have owned this sander for a few months I wanted to post my review. I dont think you can operate the machine without one of these cleaners.
A little more tension pulls it left or right depending on which nut you tighten. You will also need to purchase one of the big erasers that cleans the sand paper. The first thing you need to do is test sand a peice of wood. I use a couple of rollers on stands in my shop to support the wood in and out of the sander. I run the machine on a 15 amp circuit.
My drum is lined up near perfect. I purchased this sander over the 16/32 because it comes with a switch that automatically slows the feed of the belt to match the machines capacity. When I set up this unit I read and followed the instructions which tell you about adjusting the drum with relation to the belt. Lining up the drum to be square with the belt is a little more difficult but not hard. It has a little red light the lights up when you feed rate is to fast and it automatically slows the feed to the correct rate. Buy the 22/44 over the 16/32 you will be happy.Joe N.Arlington VA Clean sand paper helps the machine to run correctly.
When I am sanding I can just stand around and watch it go through. That feature is worth the extra 150.00 over the 16/32 plus you can sand allot wider lumber. I will say that you have to approach the sander with patience. The rate of feed for a board is much slower than a planer. I was concerned since the 22/44 didn't have as many reviews.
I also read allot of other reviews about the other sanders on the market and they all pointed me back to the the 16/32. I found the tracking to be easy. I must have read every review for this sander and the 16/32 that I could find. The test is very easy and it will show you if the drum is lined up properly. So all in all it is a great machine. It took myself and another person to set up up on the stand.
I purchased some casters from Home Depot for 4.00 each and they work just fine to move the machine around my shop. I don't know what the big deal is. I have never blown a fuse. It is so easy to run it through the sander and for it to come out perfectly flat. Since I have purchased the machine I have be glueing up lumber with out hesitation.
The dust collector is cheezy plastic, but with my DC it works great. Also got the stand, casters and additional in-feed and out-feed table. I have the Craftsman Professional DC and when sanding panels there is no sawdust that gets past the collector.The sander has no vibration and is very quiet. I run it on same outlet that I have my DC on and it doesn't trip the breaker.The casters make it very easy to move around the shop.
I also had several oak cabinet doors I had taken off a kitchen island, they are 21 inches wide and 24 inches long. There was no snipe at either end.Sander came very well packaged with no damage. The casters are very expensive but worth their weight in gold.I have sanded several door panels and drawer fronts and the results were incredible. Got my Performax 649004 this week. I used a straight edge to check the accuracy of the drum and it was dead on from one side to the other.Quality of machine is excellent. If you are going to use this sander you will need a strong DC. I set the sander to take off about a 1/64" to remove the original finish and it did a fantastic job.
The boxes it comes in are the heaviest cardboard boxes I have ever seen.You can't go wrong with this unit. If you buy this sander, get the casters as this unit is HEAVY.When installing the sander on its stand the bolts that were included were not the correct size and I had to make a run to the hardware store to get the correct size.The conveyor was easy to adjust and tracking is right on. It says that it needs a dedicated 20 amp service. I am very happy that I bought the Performax drum sander. They all swivel and have a great locking mechanism.
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