Looking for opinions on Jets new 22-44 osilating drum sander

[nickao]

Something is wrong there, you probably should have returned it if it was that way out of the box.

I will count myself lucky then because I beat the crap out of it and still never even touched those little tracking adjustments. I use it so much I wear out those rubber bushings on the shaft and am on my third set. That is the only issue I have had. 

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

I actually considered a wide belt sander.  Grizzly makes a 15" 3 HP Open End Wide-Belt Sander that's quite competitive with the Jet I bought.  Besides the fact that you need to have a pneumatic hook-up which would have been a pain, I noticed that the minimum board thickness is 1/4".  If you're using it for sanding shop cut veneer like I do, this would be a deal killer.  A great machine, otherwise...

c.

The pneumatic hookup is no big deal as it only uses a couple cfm and can easily be supplied by even a small compressor.  Does the other machine not use air but some sort of mechanical ocilation?  I would rather have air than a mechanical system I think.

As to thickness of work you can take stuff down pretty much as thin as you want.  I often do 1/32" stripwood for modeling.  All you have to do is use a backer board to feed the work.

My machine will do up to 32" with the open side but I would say that 90% of the cabinet doors my buddy was making at his shop would go through in one pass.  I told him I wanted my machine for my shop so he got a used 25" wide belt which will handle any door he will ever make.  I think he paid about $2500 for that machine.

Best,
Todd

 

[Dave Ronyak]

What is the rate of oscillation versus the rate at which the workpiece is transported through the sander?  I ask because I recall having taken some glued up table tops to a local commercial shop to have them sanded flat on their very large dual drum sanding machine which were equipped with rubberized transport belts.  I do not remember the brand of that sanding machine.  But I do remember that it took me a lot more sanding to remove the distinct "S" pattern created by their sander due to nibs on their abrasive paper and a rather slow rate of oscillation compared to the rate of workpiece transport. 

Dave R.

 

[Tinker]

Just save up your money and get a 16" or wider wide belt sander and you will never look back.  The wide belts are so superior to any drum sander it is not even a competition IMHO....

Best,
Todd

I have no experience with wide belt sanders.  My problem with every belt sander I have used in the past is that one needs to develope the right touch and feel to avoid doing unrepairable damage from uneven sanding.  I just do not use a belt sander for flattening any more for that reason.  I just don't find that much need.  I do use mine for rounding off corners and sometimes to shape/smooth an edge if PERFECT accuracy is not the issue.

for hogging, I use my RO 150.  I recently ran into a problem with that.  I am useing a lot of wood scraps to make small projects and to clean out my shop.  I no longer use my woodstove very often and so no place to feed those scraps usefully.  Actually more fun to figure things to make that might be useful.  Several small lazy susans, a whole buch of coasters to hold both glass and crackers, napkin holders and anything I can come up with to avoid just throwing away those scraps.  One experiment was to use up some of the wider scraps to make a lazy susan.  The center was a very small chunk of black locust with a very hard knot for a center.  Four short/wide pices of white pine and red oak were rotated around the center piece at90? to each other.  Once glued together, I tried sanding smoot with my RO 150.  Sanding the hardwoods worked fine, but the sander insisted on diving into the pine leaving those deeply cupped.  Greg Mann suggested I try smoothing with my DW planer which ended up doing a fair job.  Just a small amount of tearout where I planed across the grain of the pine.  Still a better job in that project than going over to smoot with my RO. 

Festool does make a hand held belt sander (discussed here a year or so ago) that has depth control that might work for a lot of projects.  I have not seen one of those. NAINA I believe, but something like that might prove handy for somebody like me who only gets to play with heavy sanding toys very seldom.

Tinker

 

[rnt80]

It does have a little tear in it now but I've had it since last spring and like I said it's never been right.  I've heard of people reversing the table to help with the tracking but I haven't tried that yet.  It won't stay aligned for more than 10 minutes and then it starts griding against the tracking blocks on the under side of the table.

rnt80,
I ran into a similar issue.  It seemed like I was always adjusting the belt and overcompensating when adjusting - the belt would grind into the ceramic tracking guides first on one side, then the other.  This continued to occur at a reduced rate even after the belt underwent its initial break-in.  I then realized that my belt was simply too loose.  The directions are a bit vague and state something like tighten until the belt will travel (won't slip) with hand pressure applied directly down onto the belt - "hand pressure" being quite subjective.  I tightened beyond what I considered firm hand pressure by about 1 turn and haven't had an issue since.

I'll give that a shot.  At this point I've got nothing to lose.  I always worried about over-tensioning the belt but at this point it's worth a try.

Joe

 

[nickao]

Tinker a wide belt sander does not have those same issues as a little hand belt sander.

All I know is I could not do what I do without that 22/44, it just could not be done. I flatten out stock to an 1/8" perfectly flat in all directions, even if the piece is a little 2" x 6" piece thats all  messed up and warped to begin with.

The small drum sander machine is a godsend for me. If they make a unit that goes to 48" or more I will be first on board. I would love an opened end 32" sander to get a full 64" capacity!

 

[nickao]

Oh jeez I beat the crap out of my table then!

There are certain softer woods I make almost two full revolutions and commonly make a full revolution per pass.

I use to pop the fuse doing that, but now its on its own dedicated 20 amp and has not popped since. I use a 60 grit to 80 grit most of the time. That grit probably helps with the heavier passes.

 

[wnagle]

Nick,

I usually have 120 grit on mine... I have some 60 grit but never tried it yet.

 

[lab123]

I bought the Jet drum sander yesterday! I took a cherry raised panel door with me to try on their demo unit and with 80 grit paper on it, it left only very light scratches on the cross grain elements. I believe with 120-180 grit the scratches will be so light that a quick swipe with a ROS will clean them right up. I couldn't believe how much nicer a finish it left compared to straight line drum sanders.

Loren

 

[nickao]

Nick,

I usually have 120 grit on mine... I have some 60 grit but never tried it yet.

Don't you burn the paper using that 120?

I use my sander to get things flat and rough sanded, 120 is a finish sand for me and I have never used it with a drum sander, it just will not flatten stock with that grit without taking forever. You can not take anything off the lumber at all but maybe a 1/64" without burning the crap out of the 120 paper. I guess you use it for close to finish  sanding. I use it mostly for  flattening lumber or as a thickness sander. I also use it for cleaning up figured lumber that  even a Helical planer will tear out.

 

[wnagle]

Your right Nick, I usually get pretty close with the planer and just finish the pieces in the drum sander.  And 1/64 at pass is about all I take.  If I have a full width piece, or something rougher or if I need a heavier removal, then I use a lower grit.  As far as higher grits, I never usually go above 120 on the drum sander because it seems to burnish the wood above that.  After that I go to the 150/3 for finishing and removing the linear marks from the drum sander. 

Also, I fit a wixey digital height guage on my drum sander which makes it easy to come back later and re cut a piece to match previous thicknesses.  If I'm batching a bunch of pieces, I just write down my final digital reading and number of passes.  Its hard to zero perfectly so that the reading is the actual thickness of the wood, but it really doesn't matter, it's a reference point to match.  I'd like to try the oscillating drum...but I have so many other things I need, It's a little lower in priority.  I bet it wood be awesome for your work.

 

[nickao]

Please post a picture of how you attached your Wixey to the the drum sander if you can.

I have a new style Wixey to attach to my 22/44 and have not got around to it. Maybe if I see yours I will get motivated to copy the install. I have a new display for my Delta X5 planer as well and want to get them both set up digital and matched. I use both together commonly.

Nick

 

[wnagle]

Nick,

I just bought one of the new ones this week too... so I don't have to bend over to read it, but I still have the old on.  Here is how I mounted it on my 22-44.  I  just bent the original pointer around and attached to the wixey aluminum bracket with a small bolt.  It was a temporary mount at the time and I've never changed it and it works fine as is.  I was going to replace the soft aluminum with something stiffer but never got around to it.    The original pointer is still over the scale for rough adjustment.  As for the wixey assembly itself, I tapped into the casting to hold a piece of purple heart and then attached the wixey to the purple heart with a couple screws. 

I want to mount one on my X5 delta as well but haven't got around to making a bracket yet.

[attachimg=#]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\0223090858

[attachimg=#]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\0223090859

 

[nickao]

Looks like you have a lot of goodies in that shop!

Yep those are the old style and I even have one in the box I never put on.  I know have the newer style also and like the way those are simpler to see the numbers on.

I never put that thickness gauge or pointer on my unit I have been using it by feel from day one. Is that bracket(before the piece that attaches to the Wixey )part of the original unit. That is two pieces , correct?

I am going to have to look through my stuff to find it.

 

[sw1211]

If anyone is looking for a digital height gauge, that isn't dedicated to a specific tool, with the numbers horizontal vs vertical this one from Lee Valley is nice.  The only thing I wish it had is a thumb/finger wheel to make adjustments to desired heights.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=61612&cat=1,240,41064

 

[wnagle]

Nick,

The pointer is what came with the 22-44.  I merely attached it to the soft aluminum piece that came with the wixey.  I just took a closer look and the old wixey is made much cheaper than the new one.  Aluminum frame on the old versus steel on the new.  I'm going to take the old one off and replace it with this new one.  I lost the spring off the old one when I installed it.  The spring alows you to lift it up and place your board in the bottom space, then zero.  When you release it your setting is zeroed accurately for the cut you just made on that piece.  Works in theory... close in practice... since different amount of passes or widths of boards change whats really happening even though your at the same setting.  That  feature will be really nice on the thickness planer though.  I still have to make a bracket of some kind for the X5 Planer.

 

[wnagle]

Ok nick,

I put the new wixey on... Heres how it calibrates. 

1  Run a piece through the sander at any setting until you get a smooth flat board. 

2  Lift the top lever of the Wixey, sliding the spring loaded scale up.

3  Cut off a piece from the test board, place the cut off in under the spring loaded scale oriented correctly          measuring the sanded sides.

4  Lower the spring loaded scale onto the test piece of wood and zero the wixey scale by holding the on/off button until all zeroes appear on the read out.

[attachimg=#]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Calibrate to thickness.jpg

5  Remove the piece of cutoff and let the springloaded slide return down to it's resting point.  The reading on the wixey is now corresponding to the height of your test piece.

[attachimg=#]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Thickness setting.jpg

6  Run another board through, cut off a small piece to measure and comfirm.

[attachimg=#]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\check cuttof.jpg

 

[nickao]

You know I probably looked at that metal bracket for the pointer everyday for 3 years. Now that I want to put it on I can not find it!

Nice instructions I will do mine the same way, thanks!

 

[wnagle]

Nick,

The metal bracket isn't really stiff enough.  It has some play up and down if the wixey isn't lined up just perfect.  So something stronger wrapping around the casting , or maybe even wrapping all the way around the back would be better at moving the gauge up and down without any bounce or play.  I even sprayed my wixey with top coat to make it move a little easier.

 

[nickao]

Got ya I will search around the shop I should have something that will work, thanks again.

I  just received an upgrade for one of my old Wixey and the new display slid right on with no problem. For 19.99 it was a good way to get the new style and not have to toss the old one and spend another 59.00 or whatever they cost for an entirely new unit.

Nick