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A decent thickness sander for the $

#42
Rodent said:
I sure wish I hadn't been mislead on the dust collection :mad: they had this on sale for $250 off regular price when I was there ... and since I was there I wouldn't have needed to pay for shipping

did you disable/remove the belt going to the internal dust collection fan? seems like that would give you a slightly reduced power draw

all the best,

R
Click to expand...

You can remove the fan belt when using an external dust collector, and it does improve the power to the sander itself a bit. On particular dusty woods like Poplar, Holly, Anigre, and Movingui, I try to keep the belt on as it helps to get the real fine stuff off the drum and out the chute. I also try to remember this for 220 and 320 runs, but even then I forget. rarely do I take enough material to bog the motor in the first place. Only thing I find that will bog it down is wide pieces with slight twists, they always remind me to remove it. This has been a very good unit for me so far.
 
#43
bass cycle, that particular sander is really good for wide surface sanding, but not accurate enough to use for thicknessing. I know a couple guys who have those, and they love them for face sanding to 320, but they all have thickness sanders to get the lateral equidistance before moving to the table sander for finish work.
 
#44
Musiclogic said:
bass cycle, that particular sander is really good for wide surface sanding, but not accurate enough to use for thicknessing. I know a couple guys who have those, and they love them for face sanding to 320, but they all have thickness sanders to get the lateral equidistance before moving to the table sander for finish work.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback.
 
#45
Just an FYI - for anyone in the Chicago area, I happened to run across a guy on Craigslist that has a liquidation company that recently bought a lot of Palmgren 18-36 drum sanders. This is the same machine as the Grizzly/Dayton/Craftsman open end sander. He's selling them for $550, brand new in the box. I don't know anything about the guy, but I called and talked with him today and he seems legit. If you search for "drum sander" in the Chicago craigslist you can find the posting.
 
#46
I've got the Delta 18x36, as does the Veillette shop.
We have used and abused that machine, and it still goes.

The biggest liability of a lot of these cheaper sanders is the open end. Some, like the Jet, move the drum assembly up and down over a stationary platen. This seems like a bad idea to me.

The Delta, by contrast, has a more rugged housing for a stationary drum, and a mobile platen.

A simple and relatively cheap mod with potential for big performance increase would be to fab. a rigid plate that closes in the open end - a 4th side for the 'box', essentially.
Nobody making electric basses needs wider than 18" of capacity, and this would substantially increase the rigidity (and, thus, accuracy) of the machine.
One of these days, I'll do it to mine and take some pics.

I had the Grizzly double 24" machine before that, and it was a real POS:
-The Hook/Loop paper is a joke. Almost 1/8" of variably compressible backing behind the grit makes it totally impossible to sand something truly flat.

-Amazingly, the drums turned "with" the feed conveyor, meaning that the work got pulled into the machine's infeed side, and shot out the outfeed side propelled by 5HP of force. Thus, the drums were "climbing" on the work whenever they were sanding. Stupid.

-Never caused me direct problems, but the pillow blocks for the drums appeared to be made of plastic, and looked pretty breakable.

In all, the Grizzly machine was big, heavy, loud, and cheaply built. It would never bog down, but the various options to attach the paper were all pretty crappy, and I never really liked using it. It's also overkill for guitars.

IMO, the Delta is the one to buy in this price range.
The paper is quick to change and widely available in pre-cut strips. I got mine on Craigslist for $500, as new.

Finally - don't rely on any kind of built-in dust collection on these. Even the single 4" port on most of these sanders is woefully inadequate.
These are big-time dust producers and need a lot of airflow to collect adequately. If you use one of these at all, get a good-size dust collector.
The Harbor Freight 2HP one is a great value, and can ( & should) be easily upgraded to a Wynn 35A canister filter for very good filtration and flow, for about $350 total.
If you want to upgrade it even further, Google "Thien separator" and build one of those.

Cheers,
Martin
 
#47
I'll agree - I got to check out one of the Delta units this afternoon, and am sold on this becoming the replacement for my Performax 22-44 when I can find one on the local Craigslist. even if purchased new, the $200 more for this over the Grizzly clone appears to be money well spent

just my opine


I like the idea of closing the end of my Performax, but it seems like it would be a total pain to keep it adjusted in sync with the opposite end. I look forward to seeing what you develop in the future for yours Martin

all the best,

R
 
#48
And a note to clarify some differences between Martins statements and the G0458. The pillow blocks on this machine are IRON not plastic like the machine Martin had. The belt drive and sanding drum are driven seperately, not at the same speed, and the workpiece does NOT fly out of the back of the machine. People are always quick to discount Grizzly machines, but companies like Gibson and Fender, and builders like John Suhr and Bob Taylor have shops full of Grizzly Machines, it led me to look a little closer, as these people/companies do NOT need to buy cheap machines.
 

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