Hi, I lurk here occasionally. I used to post several years ago under
paintpot. I owned a paint store for 19 years, then got out of the business
about 2 years ago & went to work for a former customer of mine, a general
contractor. I finally got on with the Missouri Division of State Parks
several months ago.

I have been woodworking most of my life, thanks to my father, who departed
when I was 20. I have a pretty complete shop, but have started to use quite
a bit of quartersawn white oak, due to several planned arts&crafts style
projects. I bought a couple hundred feet of it kiln dried, but in the
rough for (gloat) $2 a board foot. The problem is when I run it through the
planer, I get some chipping. I have changed knives, taken very light cuts
and tried wetting it before running it through at a slight angle, all to no
avail. The planer is an old Belsaw 12" 9103.

So I am considering a drum sander to do the final cleanup of the oak. The
stuff I think I would use it for would be well under 16" in most cases, but
there are times I could use a larger width ( I would like to build a
hammered dulcimer in the future, and there is always the occasional table
top). I was looking at the Performax 16-32 and Delta 18-36 models because
of their open end design which would give the extra width. But in reality,
how well do they work? I can see 2 possible problems. First, how rigid is
the open end design compared to the closed type like the Grizzly 16" drum
sander? It seems that there would be a certain amount of deflection over
the 16 - 18" width. Second, if I were to run a 30" wide table top through
one of the open end models, will there be a gouge somewhere near the center,
due to the edge of the sandpaper on the drum? The problem I see here is
that it seems that supporting the outboard material properly would be
crucial to getting a smooth top without a possible gouge mark.

The only other thing is the Grizzly has 2 drums which ( I think) you could
put different grits on to basically rough sand & finish sand in one pass,
but it doesn't have a variable feed rate. Again I don't think this would be
a big problem, since it feeds at 11 fpm, which I think should be about
right.

If any of you have experiences with either or possibly both type machine,
please give me your opinion on this.

Thanks in advance,
Festus

Hi Festus,
I have the Delta. I do not have any problem sanding 30-36" pieces and I do not
use an outfeed table. (It would be a PITA with the Delta anyway.) There never
has been any centre marking. If it does occur you can adjust it out. It is for
finishing and is painfully slow if you try to use it as a thickness planer. With
that said, it still makes dealing with your type of chip out problem a breeze.
If I had to do it again, and there was a Performax dealer around I would
probably go that way based upon the general consensus in this form. Cheers, JG

Festus wrote:

Hi, I lurk here occasionally. I used to post several years ago under
paintpot. I owned a paint store for 19 years, then got out of the business
about 2 years ago & went to work for a former customer of mine, a general
contractor. I finally got on with the Missouri Division of State Parks
several months ago.

I have been woodworking most of my life, thanks to my father, who departed
when I was 20. I have a pretty complete shop, but have started to use quite
a bit of quartersawn white oak, due to several planned arts&crafts style
projects. I bought a couple hundred feet of it kiln dried, but in the
rough for (gloat) $2 a board foot. The problem is when I run it through the
planer, I get some chipping. I have changed knives, taken very light cuts
and tried wetting it before running it through at a slight angle, all to no
avail. The planer is an old Belsaw 12" 9103.

So I am considering a drum sander to do the final cleanup of the oak. The
stuff I think I would use it for would be well under 16" in most cases, but
there are times I could use a larger width ( I would like to build a
hammered dulcimer in the future, and there is always the occasional table
top). I was looking at the Performax 16-32 and Delta 18-36 models because
of their open end design which would give the extra width. But in reality,
how well do they work? I can see 2 possible problems. First, how rigid is
the open end design compared to the closed type like the Grizzly 16" drum
sander? It seems that there would be a certain amount of deflection over
the 16 - 18" width. Second, if I were to run a 30" wide table top through
one of the open end models, will there be a gouge somewhere near the center,
due to the edge of the sandpaper on the drum? The problem I see here is
that it seems that supporting the outboard material properly would be
crucial to getting a smooth top without a possible gouge mark.

The only other thing is the Grizzly has 2 drums which ( I think) you could
put different grits on to basically rough sand & finish sand in one pass,
but it doesn't have a variable feed rate. Again I don't think this would be
a big problem, since it feeds at 11 fpm, which I think should be about
right.

If any of you have experiences with either or possibly both type machine,
please give me your opinion on this.

Thanks in advance,
Festus

I went with performax and have never looked back. Good running easy to
adjust machine from the start and its been five years now of pretty heavy
use.

Jim


"JGS" wrote in message
...
Hi Festus,
I have the Delta. I do not have any problem sanding 30-36" pieces and I
do not
use an outfeed table. (It would be a PITA with the Delta anyway.) There
never
has been any centre marking. If it does occur you can adjust it out. It is
for
finishing and is painfully slow if you try to use it as a thickness
planer. With
that said, it still makes dealing with your type of chip out problem a
breeze.
If I had to do it again, and there was a Performax dealer around I would
probably go that way based upon the general consensus in this form.
Cheers, JG

Festus wrote:

Hi, I lurk here occasionally. I used to post several years ago under
paintpot. I owned a paint store for 19 years, then got out of the
business
about 2 years ago & went to work for a former customer of mine, a
general
contractor. I finally got on with the Missouri Division of State Parks
several months ago.

I have been woodworking most of my life, thanks to my father, who
departed
when I was 20. I have a pretty complete shop, but have started to use
quite
a bit of quartersawn white oak, due to several planned arts&crafts style
projects. I bought a couple hundred feet of it kiln dried, but in the
rough for (gloat) $2 a board foot. The problem is when I run it through
the
planer, I get some chipping. I have changed knives, taken very light
cuts
and tried wetting it before running it through at a slight angle, all to
no
avail. The planer is an old Belsaw 12" 9103.

So I am considering a drum sander to do the final cleanup of the oak.
The
stuff I think I would use it for would be well under 16" in most cases,
but
there are times I could use a larger width ( I would like to build a
hammered dulcimer in the future, and there is always the occasional
table
top). I was looking at the Performax 16-32 and Delta 18-36 models
because
of their open end design which would give the extra width. But in
reality,
how well do they work? I can see 2 possible problems. First, how rigid
is
the open end design compared to the closed type like the Grizzly 16"
drum
sander? It seems that there would be a certain amount of deflection
over
the 16 - 18" width. Second, if I were to run a 30" wide table top
through
one of the open end models, will there be a gouge somewhere near the
center,
due to the edge of the sandpaper on the drum? The problem I see here is
that it seems that supporting the outboard material properly would be
crucial to getting a smooth top without a possible gouge mark.

The only other thing is the Grizzly has 2 drums which ( I think) you
could
put different grits on to basically rough sand & finish sand in one
pass,
but it doesn't have a variable feed rate. Again I don't think this
would be
a big problem, since it feeds at 11 fpm, which I think should be about
right.

If any of you have experiences with either or possibly both type
machine,
please give me your opinion on this.

Thanks in advance,
Festus

Festus,

For the price range, the Delta and Performax 16/32 are the only choices I
know of right now. I went with the Performax. The initial alignment is
crucial to getting excellent results. There have been several posts by
others and myself that have expanded on the Performax alignment procedures
and a couple of small modifications to make things easier.

I use it to surface plane rough cut lumber that has squirrelly grain which
will cause tearout as you've noted. Depending on how much I need to remove,
I'll start with 36 grit and progress to 80, then 150 (or better depending on
the wood and finish to be applied). You really need a dust collector hooked
up to it too.

As for sanding pieces wider than 16", not a problem. You crank in about an
1/16th turn to raise the outboard edge about .002" (or so) and have at it.
When you're done, if you do see any difference such as a raised edge, a
quick sanding with a palm sander will take care of that. To test mine after
doing the initial alignment, I used a 3' square piece of 1/4" ply I had
laying around. Made some big X's across the face with a pencil and ran it
thru. After the first pass using 100 grit paper, you could see the low
spots where the pencil marks were. After the 3rd pass and no adjustments,
the panel was sanded evenly with no pencil marks anywhere and no indications
of marring, burning or leaving any ridges. You will get burning/ridges when
using a coarse, X weight rolls since the paper does tend to bump up a bit
where it gets folded and fastened to the drum. I pre-fold the ends before
inserting it into the holder and it helps but on coarse paper you can't get
around that. The finer grit rolls (120 and up) do not bump-up as long as
you pre-fold the ends before inserting.

The extension tables are an option (or were) when I got mine and since I
roll my sander out from the wall to use it, the extension tables come in
very handy.

Lastly, when I did my comparisons, the Delta was noted for having a problem
with the raising mechanism slipping and once it did, you had to do a
complete table alignment to get everything back. I did have first-hand
experience with that at the local WWW store and that was the clincher for
me. But.... I understand that Delta has come out with a new model and its
well worth looking at before you make a decision based on our experience.
The Delta also has an outboard sanding drum attachment which may be a nice
feature to have. I don't think you would be making a mistake buying either
model but if you can afford more and have the shop room, then your choices
are even greater.

Bob S.

"Festus" wrote in message
...
Hi, I lurk here occasionally. I used to post several years ago under
paintpot. I owned a paint store for 19 years, then got out of the
business
about 2 years ago & went to work for a former customer of mine, a general
contractor. I finally got on with the Missouri Division of State Parks
several months ago.

I have been woodworking most of my life, thanks to my father, who departed
when I was 20. I have a pretty complete shop, but have started to use
quite
a bit of quartersawn white oak, due to several planned arts&crafts style
projects. I bought a couple hundred feet of it kiln dried, but in the
rough for (gloat) $2 a board foot. The problem is when I run it through
the
planer, I get some chipping. I have changed knives, taken very light cuts
and tried wetting it before running it through at a slight angle, all to
no
avail. The planer is an old Belsaw 12" 9103.

So I am considering a drum sander to do the final cleanup of the oak. The
stuff I think I would use it for would be well under 16" in most cases,
but
there are times I could use a larger width ( I would like to build a
hammered dulcimer in the future, and there is always the occasional table
top). I was looking at the Performax 16-32 and Delta 18-36 models because
of their open end design which would give the extra width. But in
reality,
how well do they work? I can see 2 possible problems. First, how rigid is
the open end design compared to the closed type like the Grizzly 16" drum
sander? It seems that there would be a certain amount of deflection over
the 16 - 18" width. Second, if I were to run a 30" wide table top through
one of the open end models, will there be a gouge somewhere near the
center,
due to the edge of the sandpaper on the drum? The problem I see here is
that it seems that supporting the outboard material properly would be
crucial to getting a smooth top without a possible gouge mark.

The only other thing is the Grizzly has 2 drums which ( I think) you could
put different grits on to basically rough sand & finish sand in one pass,
but it doesn't have a variable feed rate. Again I don't think this would
be
a big problem, since it feeds at 11 fpm, which I think should be about
right.

If any of you have experiences with either or possibly both type machine,
please give me your opinion on this.

Thanks in advance,
Festus