Official Luthiers Forum!

"Understand that a dust collector is a mandatory part of the setup.."

Living in a less than urban setting, I have my ryobi (16/32) drum sander on a rolling cart. I roll the sander outside when I use it. I either brush the dust away or use a small compressor and blow gun to clear the dust from the machine. If I used it in the shop I would definitely want a dust collector (bigger the better) hooked to it.

I got this far by never being in a hurry, heck, I'm the king of stretching out projects, sometime multiples. Belt sander, ROS, planes, and autobody block sanding techniques. These days I find I'd rather "build" a guitar than be a "sander". Besides, I'm getting to that age where I'm starting to be nicer to myself. Only 57, but I'd like to have a nice run for the next howevermany years one has left.

You guys have changed my viewpoint on the narrower (10/20) style drum sanders. All of this information is very very insightful and helpful. Thanks all.

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

I've had my Performax 22-44 Plus for 12 years and it does everything I need it to do. It's a good unit if you have the patience to go slow.

Abalone and wood rosettes are no problem and come out quite well using multiple passes at the same setting.

Same with thicknessing tops and backs. Multiple passes at the same setting can allow you to dial in thicknesses quite accurately.

Major league dust collection is mandatory.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

http://houston.craigslist.org/tls/5894891398.html

If my wife and I hadn't had a new baby 8 weeks ago I'd be all over this one. Looks worth checking out at that price.

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Bobby Masten

welcome cwood,
I built my own thickness sander from the ShopNotes plans… but modified it to accept a 16" top with ease, larger 6" drum, upgraded the motor etc.. I skipped the conveyor etc.
Its easy to build one, and while its never let me down.. I still wish I had a nice conveyor fed commercial unit for pure ease.. but the expense here in Canada (you never see them used where I live, Gilligan's Island) and footprint are limiting factors for my humble single car garage shop..
This one I can pack away when not needed.. Ive seen even simpler emanations that this style Ive built.. You can always slap one together until you settle on one.. good luck!
Cheers
fellow cwood

Hi cwood

I have just bought a second hand fox 16/32 drum sander for about £450 ($560) and am using it constantly already, has a problem with the belt speed adjustor not working but hopefully a cheap fix.
Bought this after building my third and promising myself never to thickness by hand again. Thickness by hand was the only part of the build I didn't enjoy at all, now the process is now quicker/easier and more accurate.
Also bought a decent bandsaw which is worth its weight in gold to me.

I'm leaning hard on the SuperMax 19-38.....prolly go ahead and pull the trigger.

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

Super max is the same one I got after looking around. Our local Woodcraft had a sale plus threw in the outfeed tables. They talked me out of the Jet and Performax ones they had on the floor. Very nice unit. Took a couple of hours to assemble the stand (by myself), get the frame mounting bolts into the bed of the sander unit, and align the arm. Nothing much for a guy who refurbs welders. Sucker is heavy. You'll need help getting the sander unit up onto the stand.

Anyone have one of the Grizzly double-drum units like this: https://www.grizzly.com/products/24-Dru ... rizzly.com

I've had my eye on that for a while, not just for guitar making but for finishing stock to dimensions. I get really unpleasant snipe with my planer so I'm thinking this might be the ticket for taking stock the last 1/16" to final dimensions. And of course it would be handy for thin guitar stock.

I've planed resawn material down for backs and sides, but it gets dicey under 1/8". The stress from the cutter, even with really super light cuts, is too much on thin material. I've had sides self-destruct around .090".

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

I picked up my virtually unused Grizzly 18" wide belt sander for $1800. on Craigslist.

I started out with the Performax 16-32 then the 22-44. They worked OK, but nowhere as good as the widebelt.

Before I had a drum sander I watched a guy on youtube sending material through a planer on a sled. I thought I would try it. I basically made a mahogany grenade that fired splintered wood in a all directions out the back of the planer.

Filed in the "only do that once" category.

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I can't imagine it would work at all on anything but nice straight grained stuff. I didn't use a sled. Maybe if the material was stuck to a piece of plywood with double-stick tape it would work a little better, but certainly not for curly-anything. That would be an expensive disaster!

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

Speaking of sleds. I use one on my sander. I think it helps the sander give more consistent results than without one.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

I've been eyeing something like that for a while too. The only thing that causes pause is that it uses velcro paper. I have a 16/32 that does pretty good work with solid drums and I'd think that the velcro could cause some mushiness in the paper. This is all speculation though. The sponginess might be ok for a cabinet maker but not so much for us I think.

On the same page there's a link to this one: https://www.grizzly.com/products/24-Dru ... rizzly.com which doesn't use the hook and loop paper. That's the one I'd probably get.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

That's a good point about the hook-and-loop squishyness. I actually had the other one in my cart, but switched to this model because it had variable speed on the the feed rate (and the other one was out of stock).

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

I also had a 16/32 and it worked just fine. I could set a slight taper to it and have it thinner at the outside edge. Works just fie as long as it;s properly set up.