Bought a used Grizzly dual drum sander

[Percy]

 

 Its about 2 feet wide and is single phase....Got it for 500.00 Canadian(about37 bucks US). Havnt got it home yet....Gotta learn bout winding sandpaper on it...Any pointers on such a machine would be appreciated...

[Southside]

Sweet score! That is on my list for next year. Will have to let us know what you think of it once iyit running. 

[doc henderson]

it is not as hard as I imagined.  the manual does a good job of explaining total length and the pitch to angle the cuts for each end.  I think there is even a video.  you start at the clip end, and turn the spring loaded end piece, then wrap it around and use nylon reinforced tape on the final end.  it is easier with two people, with one rolling the other drum that you are not loading sandpaper on.  the key is to not let it slip and loose the spring tension.  this is designed to take up slack as the paper seats and find a good lie on the drum.  it is a good sander an worth every penny (not expensive and cheap build)  you can buy extra clips.  i took off the roller guards as it is slow speed anyway and required alignment to get the conveyor to track.  i bought a new conveyor belt which is the new and improved one like on newer machines so it was 360$.   i had a buddy overload it and burn up a switch.  so only an eighth of a turn or so at a time.  not a refined machine but it will sand you some wood!

[Southside]

Doc - what kind of real world production do you get out of it?  What grit do you use?  I am thinking of putting it after the moulder to offer a sanded flooring product.  

[doc henderson]

It is clunky, but once you get the hang of it , it works ok.  I put a coarser grit on the front roller, and finer on the back.  it can be used for minor planning if you will.  I put 40 or 60 on the front, and 100 or 150 on the 2nd.  I have used it to sand cookies, that are otherwise hard to do.  regular boards go through well, but some trouble getting the dust to clear and not fall on the boards, or clog the paper.  you can stop occ. and use a rubber sanding bar to clean it.  I use it for special stuff.  after you get it fine tuned, you can see what to use it for.  for strait line flooring I would go with finer paper.  mine has 2 four inch dust collection ports.  the manual is not bad, and I think the website has videos on how to change and measure the paper.  I used a framing square.  it gives you the proportion for the angle of the ends.  good luck.   I used it to sand the cookies for this bench.  the guys helping turned the crank too far, and stalled the machine and smoke came out of the switch.  the second roller is suppose to have felt on it to make the second paper thick to contact the piece after the first roller.  I got mine used and waited years to fix it.  I think they sell for new now the same as they cost years ago.  just like the 20 inch planer.   I buy the roll paper from grizzly and Norton.  it will make your fingers raw, it is good paper.

[doc henderson]

sorry I did not answer production, but I use mine for odd jobs and not running uniform boards through it.  by the way it makes you jump if the paper breaks or the clip comes off.  sounds like the drive shaft is flopping in the back seat of a car.





 

these were sanded in the drum sander.

[btulloh]

Southside, I had a Performax drum sander for a while and it was handy and useful, but I wouldn't use the word "production" to describe the output.  It did a good job and, like Doc said, it was really good at doing things that were hard to do another way, but it was slow.  For any kind of production, you'd probably need to go with a serious wide-belt sander.

The one that Percy bought looks a lot better than the Performax and $500 is a good price.  I'm interested to hear how it works out for him.  

[doc henderson]

Doc - what kind of real world production do you get out of it?   
 

@Southside you know that neither of us live "in the real world"!

[Southside]

But I like it this way! 

[Southside]

So as it turns out I came across an older - 1980's vintage - Woodmaster drum sander this weekend.  Have not brought it home yet but have a question.  It runs velcro backed paper and the seller didn't have one on the drum already cut so can anybody tell me how I need to cut the starting piece so it will wrap right?  Also, do you leave a gap between the wraps or butt them tight together?  It's only a single drum and the feed roller turn the same way as the drum so there is no speed control but it was cheap enough to see if having one will be an asset after my moulder.  

[doc henderson]

call timber king and talk with a tech.  if the holder on the drum is spring loaded, then it has to be pulled back.  Velcro backed, prob. not needed.  the one I have coils on the drum like a barber pole.  there is a 1/8th inch gap between.  they give instructions for a framing square at like 7 and 17 inches to get the angle for the tails, or you could wrap it first and figure the angle, or do some hard math.  I would call timber king and ask for a reference or search you tube.  grizzly has a video for theirs.

[xlogger]

sorry I did not answer production, but I use mine for odd jobs and not running uniform boards through it.  by the way it makes you jump if the paper breaks or the clip comes off.  sounds like the drive shaft is flopping in the back seat of a car.




(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)
 

these were sanded in the drum sander.

How many walnut cookies survive and don't crack? 

[A-z farmer]

South side
The Woodmaster operators manual says to cut the Velcro at a diagonal cut 10-1/4 long from one side of the strip to the other . This is from the 712 -718 +725 manual.But wood master would know what fits on your drum sander.
Zeke

[petefrom bearswamp]

I had a velcro one a few years ago.
I found the problem with the velcro was #1 cost of paper and #2 The softness of the velcro caused a break on the edge of the piece if you didnt run a sacrificial piece on either side. #3 sacrificial had to be longer too to prevent snipe.
I had a plywood template to cut the ends of the paper to the proper angle and used the old piece for length.
Was easy to change paper tho

[doc henderson]

How many walnut cookies survive and don't crack?

we made 50.  she got married about 2 years ago.  she kept them for a while and then gave me left overs after her family took some.  some are better than others, but the pic is after that time and all of them she gave back are fine.  so I have 30.  and her family took the rest and I assume they are fine!

[dirtmotor]

Percy , I have a sander like yours and used it for all my red oak trim in the house , I use 80 on first roller and 120 on second one it works great but you need to check alignment of rollers and height the second originally  came with a foam like layer stuck on it to make it slightly larger for second sand , mine wore off and I lowered roller slightly to make up the difference , the manual does give you basic instructs . My only complaint is you always have a little snipe on the ends .Don't sand too much at once especially if boards have been finished . I found out the hard way nearly sent a 1x6 thru the shop door . Dust is so fine I blew it out side otherwise it clogged the filters in a hurry , also needs a 30 amp breaker .

[teakwood]

I have the same dual drum sander as described but it's a shopfox. after days of testing i decided to run it just with the first roller and i use 120 or 100. the second roller has a rubber surface and at one spot it was a little bit damaged and that gave a bad result. i took it to a machinist and we tried to lower the diam on a lathe. that also didn't work perfect afterwards, the height adjustment is a real pain on the second roller, it has to be absolutely perfect compared to the first, considering the diff thickness of different grit papers!

the sander is ok and helps lower the hours of handsanding, but by no means its a production sand or a paint finish sander.

I gluejoint a lot of boards for furniture's, after jointing i put them thru the planer (max 20") just 0,4mm both sides to flatten them and then thru the sander (24"max) max 0.1-0.2mm per pass! 
it helps to reduce hand sanding time by hours. but i still need to pass with the hand beltsander and then the rotary sander to spray finish.

[Old Greenhorn]

 i took it to a machinist and we tried to lower the diam on a lathe. that also didn't work perfect afterwards, 

@teakwood I have some experience with this (resurfacing rollers) and smiled when I read the above words. i tried that too 35 years ago with the same results . Ask your machinist if he has either a cylindrical grinder or a tool post grinder for his lathe. If not, see if you can find a shop that has one. Grinding the rubber rather than cutting it is the only solution I have found that will give you 'like new' results. I have used this method on even the softest urethane rollers used in semiconductor clean room applications and it works flawlessly, but it requires patience and can make a bit of a mess.
 If you are still having problems you can add a nitrogen spray just ahead of the grinding wheel a a 'coolant' which hardens the rubber before the wheel hits it.
 Good Luck.