supermax or powermax (jet) drum sander


tcarswell

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have the Jet 16-32 and made a simple modification which I think I got off the Joe Woodworker site. Funny thing is I just leave the open end 5 thousandths high for everything. An 8" board might be 2 thousandths thicker on one side which usually doesn't matter. If it does then spin 180 and send through 2nd time at same height.

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Thanks ace and congrats green that's awesome I've yet to read anything negative about these units. Oh yeah dust collection is going to be 4 inch flex hose for a week or two. After that my whole shop is getting rigid spiral metal type ductwork. It's kind of what I do for a living so I don't really have any excuses not to do the good stuff lol

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Thanks ace and congrats green that's awesome I've yet to read anything negative about these units. Oh yeah dust collection is going to be 4 inch flex hose for a week or two. After that my whole shop is getting rigid spiral metal type ductwork. It's kind of what I do for a living so I don't really have any excuses not to do the good stuff lol

 

Awesome....in the future you may want to consider having the drum sander on it's own separate vacuum source and filter. The dust is a lot finer and will be clogging the filters faster than wood chips. I have a separate dust collector (Craig's list) for my drum sander that sits over top a garbage can where most of the dust collects and a bag filter for the escaping can dust. It's the cats ass!    

 

-Ace-

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It's up and running like a champ ! Totally surpassed my expectations! I had four cutting boards waiting for it and I got them all the way from glue up to 150 in 20 minutes with my first use. Dust collection is literally 99.999 percent of the dust produced and it was dead on perfectly aligned out of the box. My only complaint is with the instructions they were a tad lacking in my experience but not terrible. I'm really impressed with the overall fit finish and quality of this tool. It feels built to last a life time.

Thanks so much for your suggestions guys I really appreciate it.

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It's up and running like a champ ! Totally surpassed my expectations! I had four cutting boards waiting for it and I got them all the way from glue up to 150 in 20 minutes with my first use. Dust collection is literally 99.999 percent of the dust produced and it was dead on perfectly aligned out of the box. My only complaint is with the instructions they were a tad lacking in my experience but not terrible. I'm really impressed with the overall fit finish and quality of this tool. It feels built to last a life time.

Thanks so much for your suggestions guys I really appreciate it.

Awesome! I've got a couple of panel glue ups waiting to be cleaned up. How long would you estimate it took you from unpacking to up and running? How long for paper changes?

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Thanks guys ! I had a friend of mine come over and help do the lifting and such with me. I had my ten month old baby on my backpack the whole time . It took 2 1/2 hours of relaxed work to get it set up and to make sure the settings were perfect. Luckily they are ! I wouldn't know about paper changing time yet. I'll let you know tomorrow I have stuck with the factory wrap.

PS are the zirconium wraps worth the cash ? It's an extra 70 bucks a roll is that worth it for pretty standard hour a week drum sander use ?

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T, where did you order from? Being that my Performax 10-20 is getting too small for all my projects and upcoming projects. The 10-20 is getting sold and I'm thinking of ordering the Supermax 19-38. Would be good for doing the face frames for upcoming 30 or so cabinets I'm going to be building, as well as the table I'm gonna be building. 

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Oh I forgot. I use a harbor freight 2 hp dust collector. I ran flex pipe 20 feet to the drum sander and put a 4 inch elbow on the top . This setup catches 99.999 of all dust I didn't expect the harbor freight to collect as well as it did. I do need a cyclone or separation bin.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got my sander up and running and thought I would report back to the thread.  Here she is, in all her glory:

 

IMG_5280_zpsp29a6htx.jpg

 

Setup was a breeze.  Took about 2 hours really taking my time and listening to music.  I did have to make a couple of adjustments.  The drug wasn't quite aligned right, it was off by a few thousandths.  Probably wouldn't have made a difference but I took the time to get it dead on anyway.  It was a snap to adjust.  The other thing was that the feed rollers were a bit too low, and stock kept getting hung up on them.  It took me about 5 minutes to move them up a tiny bit and that solved the problem.

 

The machine is impressive top to bottom.  Someone above mentioned the fit and finish - couldn't agree more.  Everything about it is well constructed.  They didn't half ass anything, at least to my eye.  Probably the second most "physically impressive" machine in my shop (first being the sawstop).  Probably my favorite part is how easy it is to change paper.  I'm extremely lazy and hate changing blades in my table saw, bits in my router, etc.  Yes, I'll reiterate that I'm lazy.  Anyway I can change the paper on this thing in less than two minutes.

 

Finally, my harbor freight dust collector does just fine with it.

 

I will say that I agree the instructions are quite lacking.  Not the biggest deal in the world, but it does aggravate me because it's something that takes very little investment to get it right.  Like I said, not the biggest deal in the world, but it's worth noting.  Maybe i'm just spoiled by my sawstop in that regard.

 

It came just in time for me to flatten some case panels:

 

IMG_5289_zpsvous5rrg.jpg

 

It takes some getting used to in terms of how deep a cut to take - more than once I tried to take too big a bite and ended up burning the stock and paper.  Chalk it up to experience I suppose.

 

Anyway, I'm very happy with the purchase and hope this helps someone else decide.

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You will enjoy it. The only advice I can give on not taking to big of bites is:

 

I run the feeder on fast and pass the board through, as the board is moving I lower the drum till it just kisses the wood and let it sand through. Run the board back through till the board is even. Turn the feed speed back down and lower the the drum just a bit. Then rock on. 

 

It doesn't take a lot just simple easy adjustments. You will get the hang of it in a jiffy. :)

 

-Ace-

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That should make life easier. The general rule for initial height is under 80g the drum should still roll by hand when touching the wood. Obviously you don't want to check each piece but try it a few times and you will get a feel for it and the sound. You will save a load of paper by getting it right.

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