Should I jump on this Jet drum sander? w/ pic

[Brad Hays]

I'd love to have a drum sander and I'm seeing this available for $200. Should I jump on it?

Can anyone explain how pieces are fed through? I don't see any moving conveyor belt.

 

[Peter White]

I have the same machine, someone has removed conveyor belt system and it is now hand fed. you can see the bolt holes on left side that hold conveyor system
can't see right side holes but will be under made up sled. I would not like hand fed system if piece being sanded is not moving steadily thru you get undulations on you board.

 

[Brad Hays]

Yes you're right. Someone else had advised the belt was under the wood but I couldn't possibly see how that was. It's a shame but I think I'll save my money to put toward something better.

 

[Robert Lindstadt]

Look if the drum motor works and nothing else is there Then I vote no.
the conveyer motor goes for 350 or so dont know if you can buy other parts you’ll need to add the missing conveyer! A new jet goes for about 1500 bucks!
also there are ones for sale complete.

 

[Gabriel Hoff]

I probably would not without the conveyer belt. It might be hard to find one and set it up to be accurate.

 

[robo hippy]

If the seller has the conveyor belt set up, then it would be a good deal. It can be operated as it is, but that would be more work than is practical to me. Shame they did that to the machine. You would not be able to feed short pieces through.

robo hippy

 

[Randy Anderson]

I made one for my lathe (lots of plans online) and I have to feed it by hand. I can tell you that feeding pieces through my hand can be tough, tedious and tricky. Plus, that plywood bed is not an ideal surface for sliding things across. I seldom use it so reason I made one for rare occasions. I'd pass.

 

[Roger Wiegand]

I bought a similar machine when I needed to sand about a thousand feet of cherry trim for our house and now find I use it on pretty much every project that goes through the shop. It's ideal for precise thicknessing of thin stock (for organ pipes in my case). So yes, a machine like that is a great addition to the shop. However, without the conveyer system, I wouldn't buy that one unless you really like difficult and expensive refurbishing projects.

Knowing what I know today I would have opted instead for a small wide belt sander instead of the drum sander. Changing grits on the drum sander is a fiddly and unpleasant process. The flat belt make that task easy and also avoids the problems with the spiral wound sandpaper shifting on top of itself and creating a high spot that burns the work.