Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Guys
I'm going to buy a thickness sander with the proceeds from my recent commission. I'm really looking forward to getting it!
The choice is between the Jet 10-20 or the Jet 16-32.
I have the money but the 16-32 is an expensive piece of machinery.
Would your advice be to go for the 16-32 or is the 10-20 perfectly adequate for guitar building use?
Many thanks for your help.
Mat

None,build it yourself...!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Mat,

I had the same dilemna and consulted Obi Wan Colin who has had both models. He recommended the 10-20 as when properly set up he found it better and more accurate than the 16-32 (something to do with the longer arm of the 16-32 supported only on one side). Space considerations also played their part and I settled for the 10-20 in the end. You can sand jointed tops and backs by putting them through in two passes and turning them round.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

The 10-20 is perfectly adequate for guitar building. I have one and have not wished I had a wider machine at any point. The 16-32 is nice as well, I have used one and it performed very well. If I had to do it over again I would still buy the 10-20.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Thanks Dave/Burton
That's good news too - leaves more money for wood
(Tom, I know you're right but life's too short and I wouldn't be able to do it properly anyway!)

I'm pleased with my 10-20.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

+1 on the 10/20. It has done everything I need it to do....

+ anitherwan ! (local scottish accent)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

The 10-20 is cool, no doubt and I use mine at least a few times everyday.
However I just re-sawed 24+ sets of Madagascar RW and I wish I had a wider machine to clean up 2 plates at the same time. It takes forever… Something to think about if you're going to process your own tonewood, purfling sheets and so on.
Not that I have a choice personally, not enough room in the current shop.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I have the 16-32 Delta....I don't worry about the arm being supported on one end...I keep alternating the top as I pass it through...Everything works out just fine..Larry

I've got the 16-32 Performax and love it. I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

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Bobby Masten

On the cantilevered drumsanders you also have the option of mounting a removable stabilizer like this:

Well that's quite clever. Your invention?

Did you have to drill holes in the drum housing Tarhead?

If you are stuck on the Jet brand then you can ignore this, but I picked up a Grizzly 18" for $600 off of craigslist recently only 6 months old. Works great so far, but I have not used it enough to recommend it over a Jet, but basically I got it for the price of a 10-20 new. If you can wait a little bit I am sure you can find one on craigslist or elsewhere, which might make the 16-32 more feasible or something else that is bigger.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

Nope, Saw it on the Ryobi forum when I got my WDS1600 sander. When SteelCity Tools bought the tooling from Ryobi for that sander, they came out with a stamped sheet metal stabilizer as an upgrade for their version (In the print out). I never bothered to do it to mine. It's pretty stable if you don't hog off big bites and flip the board around for a second trip to average it out.

Ed I didn't install it on mine, just passing on an idea I saw on the Ryobi forum. On the Ryobi WDS1600 (16-32 Cantilevered Drumsander) you would have to drill 2 holes. I'm not sure on the Jet.

As I said above while you were posting I never did install the stabilizer. I didn't see a big issue with the sander and had no problem with flipping the board and running it through a second time to average any error.

At the time the people who were touting the stabilizer were claiming it helped. Obviously the owner of that sander wasn't a heavy user. The good thing about that sander is you can shim the base and get the table to drum relationship very square from one end to the other. My brand new used, older 22-44 Performax keeps the drum still and moves the table up and down. I just starting to work with it so we will see how well I can dial it in.

I'm also shopping for a drum sander, although something a little more heavy duty than a Jet. I checked Grizzly and general, but the Grizzly don't seem to go under 1/8" thickness and the General under 1/4". I'm sure I saw a video of Robbie O'Brian using a Grizzly sander, so there must be a way to go thinner than 1/8".

I also saw a youtube video of Chris Paulick on thicknessing top plate, and his sander in the video looks great, although I can't figure out the brandname and model from the video. (I PMed him for more info).

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Allain,
You can use a sled made out of an MDF board or piece of Melamine shelving to elevate your workpiece ~3/4" and run that through the sander. Just put a cleat on one end to keep it from launching.

I've only ever had the 18/36 Delta that I purchased last year, but I can say that I really like this thing and have thicknessed to .060" with no more that .004" difference across the whole width. Very nice machine IMO.

I have a Woodmaster 718 with their pro pack. About $2,300. I realize that this is waaay more money than is being discussed but consider the following for those who may need these other capabilities. Oh, it does require 220 voltage. Single phase.

http://www.woodmastertools.com/s/planers.cfm
http://www.woodmastertools.com/s/acces.cfm
http://www.woodmastertools.com/s/price.cfm

Here is the good news. This machine planes to 18" wide. My planer has a large 3 blade cutter head. I couldn't live without this planer. It works wonderfully. If you have the big bucks you can get the new spiral head planer cutter. My three blade unit works fine. You can pull the planer head off in 5 minutes and replace it with an 18" belt sander. You can pull that off and make it a four (or more) gang rip saw. Pull the ripper blades off and put on the molding mount and molder blades, and mold all the door headers, window frames, trim molding, crown molding, base molding, etc. for your house. (Your wife will like that). I purchased three molding shapes out of their 500+ available and did my whole house with the three patterns.
My two cents....
Dave

I had a 10-20. Now have a Woodmaster. My life is so much better. It was definitely worth every penny of the investment. Saves a ton of time and trouble. If you have space for a Woodmaster, my recommendation would be to find a way to raise the money for it. Your life will be a bazillion times better than it would be with a 10-20. Make that a gazillion. A million gazillion.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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

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

I used a 16 32 and a 24 drum .I went with the wide belt sander but there is a difference if you have the space. It makes changing sandpaper so much easier . The one piece of advice when getting a tool is get the best you can afford. A 16 / 32 is much better than a 10 by 20. It affords a larger sanding area and thusly less paper changes .
Another point is DUST COLLETOR , get one and use it . You will soon see that these machine can create dust faster than you can sweep. Good luck on your tooling .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks for all of the responses.
Being in the UK my options are limited to the Jet.
Space is always an issue so if the 10-20 works it seems the way to go.
And yes John, thankfully I do have a dust collector
Thanks all
Mat