Official Luthiers Forum!

I am hoping to get some feed back on the Woodmaster 38. I am sure it is a good industrial sander but does it have the accuracy that a luthier requires? I am concerned about the felt/velcro attachment of the sand paper to the drum.

I have an older Woodmaster 38" drum sander which uses the velcro on the main drum and 4 sandpaper covered drive rods/drums. It will certainly do the job, it is super heavy duty, plenty accurate, and has handled anything I could throw at it. Now it is a lot slower than the big belt sanders, and a at times a bit tedious to maintain, but I haven't found the velcro drum attachment a problem at all. As far as drum sanders go I think it is a pretty decent machine.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars

Greg,
Have you sanded tops with rosettes already inlayed? I was wondering if the softness of the velcro would conform differently when passing over woods of different hardness.

Yes, I've used it for sanding tops with and without rosettes installed, as well as many other operations, never found the velcro to be a problem. The only issue I have found with mine is that the piece being sanded will end up being a tad thinner at the front and rear(where it enters and exits the drum)than in the center, I plan for it so it isn't a problem, but might be something you would encounter too.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars

Steve,

I own and use the Woodmaster 38" drum sander. I bought mine about 8 years ago when I was building furniture for surfacing the really figured woods that a planer would tear out.

I have used it for all my top and back surfacing include tops with rosettes. The issue I had to get used to is that with the contrast of the softer spruce with a hardwood rosette like cocobolo, et al., tread lightly. I mean crank up in very small increments and run it through only until you get the top all on one plane. At this point, turn it over and take the rest from the back side of the top (ask me how I know).

By the way, I use 100 grit when doing the tops. Some folks have written that they do not use the reversing switch but I find it worthwhile for doing tops and many other sanding jobs. Don't bother with the mobile base if you can build your own. Otherwise, good luck, you will love it... and support our economy at the same time.

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

I have the Woodmaster 24" drum sander and love it. I don't have any issues with the velcro system. I've never used it (or any other drum sander) for leveling rosettes, though. I do that with a scraper and a sanding block.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I too make several passes over the rosette to get things level before thinning again, otherwise you might find the rosette a tad high, but it is a simple process and the machine works fine.

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Gwaltney Guitars

Todd, do you use any pliable backing on your paper? H&L, etc? As long as its paper to metal drum, I would think there would be no issues.

Mike

The Woodmaster works just fine. In fact, I would say it is the best option for the luthier within the drum sander category. I switched to a Grizzly wide-belt and obviously, you have huge performance gains when upgrading to that kind of machine.

The advantages of the Woodmaster are primarily the dust collection and the bigger drum. It is a well-made machine and simply doesn't load with resin as much as the other drum sanders. The velcro system works just fine and the velcro sandpaper is very stiff (meaning you will get a smooth surface). I never had any problems with uneven sanding at the front and back or with the rosette area. The only negative is that there can be about 0.005" buffer created by the velcro system. This means that as you approach your final thickness -- you need to pass the wood thru about 5x to know the actual thickness. Once you know that, then you can determine if you need to take a little more off --- the you can turn the crank exactly by the amount you need.

In other words, there is a certain pattern to using it but you can achieve excellent results with it.

The Woodmaster drum sanders use velcro (aka "hook and loop"). As I said, I don't have any issues with it. The machine works great for me in every way.

When it comes to leveling rosettes, I prefer to do that by hand. That just reflects my style of working, I guess. I want all the lines in my rosettes to be as perfectly sharp as possible. I know the drum sander can't achieve that result better than I can by hand, and it might not do it quite as well, so I don't risk it. It doesn't take that long to do with a scraper and sanding block. There are a lot of tasks like that in guitar making that I do by hand because that's how I can achieve the level of craftsmanship that I'm after.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I understand Todd. H&L on drum sanders can create leveling issues with mixed hardness woods. That was the point. I agree with ur aproach

Just to be sure no one is being misled by what I've said, I have not had any experience with the Woodmaster that would lead me to think I might have difficulty getting an even, level surface if I did use it to level my rosettes. In fact, I have on occasion done some other sanding with it involving mixed material hardness without having a problem. What others have said in this thread corroborates that this can be done with a Woodmaster, H&L notwithstanding. In my experience, the key to getting an even, precise thickness and level surface with this or any drum sander is to take light passes, especially several passes at the same height setting at the end of the process.

I am probably being over-cautious by not using the drum sander to level my rosettes. It would probably work fine if done carefully, taking very light passes. My concern is the sharpness of the purfling lines, not whether or not I could effectively level the surface. I've seen some rosettes that appeared to have been leveled on a drum sander, where the purflings were sort of mashed into the surrounding spruce and didn't look sharp enough for my standards. I've stuck with my simple method using a scraper and sanding block with a "it ain't broke, so don't fix it" attitude. But, again, the less-than-satisfactory results I've seen on some other rosettes apparently leveled on a drum sander probably could have been avoided simply by taking lighter passes.

Like with just about everything, it comes down to technique/finesse more than the choice of tool for the task. It is certainly possible to screw up a rosette using a scraper and a sanding block, too. But it's also possible to make it perfect with that method.

My main point is that I have had no issues whatsoever with the H&L system on the Woodmaster. In every way, my Woodmaster exceeds the performance of the Jet 10-20 I had before; in many respects it exceeds it by, like, a million miles. I HIGHLY recommend the Woodmaster drum sanders. Also, BTW, the 24" machine is plenty big enough for lutherie, in my experience.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

The light passes part is the key.

And I agree about the thin purfling issue (especially when it is the fiber stuff). I have seen the same exact thing.

Mike