My local tool supplier is trying to sell me a used Ryobi 1632 drum sander for 3 bills. It looked like a good deal until I started reading about the shim adjust. This is the last piece of equipment :biglaugh: I need in my shop. I am clueless on this one. I get the feeling other machines are easier to adjust. With my 20" Accra band saw and a drum sander, I should be able to make at least my own accent lams for risers and tips. Also looks like Ryobi is out of the cantilevered sander game. Whats hot,whats not?
Teagus
I have a Jet (same as perfomax) 10/20 that I like a lot.
PS: Don't get one that uses velcro to hold on the sanding strip. They generally won't go as thin.
I've got the performax 10/20, it has the 5 inch sanding drum and the sand paper is held in a slot at each end. Must have been one of the last ones before the name changed to Jet. (which is where parts now come from).
Good Luck
Mike
with some time and patients you can make one that will do what you are looking to do and grind limb lambs. its not as sexy as a big fancy one, and it takes me a hour to grind a lam stack but my homemade one is very accurate. i end up with about 0.003 variation in thickness across a 36" lam, which with the compressibility of the wood might just be me measuring. i would like to make a big belt fed one, but dont have anything currently to steal a conveyor of off, and haven't had the patients to sit down and machine rollers. I didn't have to machine any parts for my current one. i posted some pics of it on here a while back. don't rule out what you can create, or purchase something that doesn't fulfill all your current or future needs. .
I have been checking the web for info and it looks like these open sided sanders are problematic in the sand paper install area. I saw the Grizzly Baby 12". This is looking real reasonable with the top access and small shop footprint. I thought about building one except the list of custom projects is already long.
Russell,
I checked out your drum sander. What keeps the lam from shooting out like a rocket if you do not have a feed bed. I assume the sander is rotating towards you and you are shoving the lam into the sander.
My hands!!! i take it about 1/2 a turn on an 5/16 thread. it is at about 20 degrees>> about 0.015 inch per pass. it doesn't kick back bad with a full size (48") sled. i have not yet shot a lam across the shop. I have however shot a couple of riser overlays on a 1/2"x3"X24" sled. I wish i had a feed belt, and eventually it will bug me enough to put one together, but for now doing it by hand works.
here is how mine works.
(http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/vv319/xochal/rendom%20posts/Untitled.jpg)
Those performax-jet sanders have a tool for helping you get the paper on tite. It really helps. Mark