Drum sander advise

[Teagus]

My local tool supplier is trying to sell me a used Ryobi 1632 drum sander for 3 bills. It looked like a good deal until I started reading about the shim adjust. This is the last piece of equipment    I need in my shop. I am clueless on this one. I get the feeling other machines are easier to adjust. With my 20" Accra band saw and a drum sander, I should be able to make at least my own accent lams for risers and tips. Also looks like Ryobi is out of the cantilevered sander game. Whats hot,whats not?

Teagus

[rbbhunt]

I have a Jet (same as perfomax) 10/20 that I like a lot.

[rbbhunt]

PS: Don't get one that uses velcro to hold on the sanding strip.  They generally won't go as thin.

[Mike Most]

I've got the performax 10/20, it has the 5 inch sanding drum and the sand paper is held in a slot at each end. Must have been one of the last ones before the name changed to Jet. (which is where parts now come from).

Good Luck

Mike

[Russell S.]

with some time and patients you can  make one that will do what you are looking to do and grind limb lambs.  its not as sexy as a big fancy one, and it takes me a hour to grind a lam stack but my homemade one is very accurate.  i end up with about 0.003 variation in thickness across a 36" lam, which with the compressibility of the wood might just be me measuring.  i would like to make a big belt fed one, but dont have anything currently to steal a conveyor of off, and haven't had the patients to sit down and machine rollers.  I didn't have to machine any parts for my current one.  i posted some pics of it on here a while back.    don't rule out what you can create, or purchase something that doesn't fulfill all your current or future needs. .

[Teagus]

I have been checking the web for info and it looks like these open sided sanders are problematic in the sand paper install area. I saw the Grizzly Baby 12". This is looking real reasonable with the top access and small shop footprint. I thought about building one except the list of custom projects is already long.

[Teagus]

Russell,
 I checked out your drum sander. What keeps the lam from shooting out like a rocket if you do not have a feed bed. I assume the sander is rotating towards you and you are shoving the lam into the sander.

[Russell S.]

My hands!!!  i take it about 1/2 a turn on an 5/16 thread.  it is at about 20 degrees>>  about 0.015 inch per pass.  it doesn't kick back bad with a full size (48") sled. i have not yet shot a lam across the shop.   I have however shot a couple of riser overlays on a 1/2"x3"X24" sled.  I wish i had a feed belt, and eventually it will bug me enough to put one together, but for now doing it by hand works.  

here is how mine works.

 

[mater]

Those performax-jet sanders have a tool for helping you get the paper on tite. It really helps.  Mark