Grizzly 10-20 Drum sander Review

[TonyinNYC]

Howdy!

When I first started building guitars, they were kits and so I didnt need a drum sander. But once I started to build more from scratch, I realized I needed a way to thin my plates. I had attempted using a plane to thin a spruce top and I failed miserably. Turned out, I just didnt know how to set up a plane correctly, so I had the blade in upside down, the mouth open too wide, etc. Long story short, I could not get the top thinned with a plane. So I went looking for a reasonably priced drum sander. If you have ever looked for a reasonably priced drum sander, you know that no such tool exists. I scoured Craigslist for weeks, checked on ebay, etc. but to no avail. Then one day, I saw an ad for a new 10-20 drum sander from Grizzly for $345.00 plus shipping. The price has gone up, but it is still a good deal. Anyway, I figured it would work well for my purposes of 3 guitars a year so I bought it.
So far, I have absolutely NO complaints about the sander. Yes, a wider belt sander would be ideal, but I really don't have the room in my small shop for it without getting rid of a bunch of other stuff. The first thing you need to do is to check a couple of adjustments on the sander to be sure it is set up properly and will give you a good, level cut across the width of the board. My sander needed needed to be adjusted so it would leave the boards flat. On this sander, you make the feed table and drum head level by shimming the low side of the feed table. A very easy process when compared to other machines I have seen. You do not touch the drum head! It took me about 30 minutes to adjust the feed table to be perfectly parallel with the drum head.
The instructions in the book are very clear about how to do this. I did not need to adjust the feed belt, it was tracking perfectly right out of the box.
For $415 I think it is a real bargain. Especially when compared to the Jet 10-20 at $750.00.

[TonyinNYC]

I forgot to add that once it is set up, you can perfectly sand your tops, backs, sides etc. It works great, and it has a circuit breaker to shut off the motor should you over load it by trying to sand off too much in one pass. A nice feature that can save you having to purchase a new motor should you forget yourself and stick a new piece of wood into it before raising the drum! You may ask me how I know this!
Sure, a 20" wide sander would do the job faster, but for the price, space savings, and how many guitars I build, this little baby will be around for a long time and will serve me well.

[Dave Bagwill]

That's the kind of review that is really useful. Thanks. How is the noise and dust-catching feature?

[TonyinNYC]

Well...despite what many people have claimed, I get pretty good dust collection with my Shop-Vac. However, I added a cyclone thing between the sander and the vacuum. It collects all the fine particles and pretty much nothing gets to the vac. Keeps my filter clean. I bought a Dust Deputy. Works awesome. Sure, I could do with more CFM, but this works for my three guitars per year schedule and the price was right. I had the Shop vac, added a HEPA filter to it though, and the Dust Deputy was $90 shipped.
Noise? With no wood going through the machine, it is quiet as a mouse. The real noise is when you put a piece of wood through it. Not loud enough that I want ear plugs and the Shop Vac is actually louder than it when wood is going through, so if I could move the vacuum to another room, or outside, it would be great.
One afternoon, when I was out of work with a broken foot, I sanded 12 soundboards from rough cut wood at over a quarter inch thick to .120" thick in one sitting. The sander never complained. I only had to stop to empty my dust bucket. One sound board will take me about 20 minutes since I do them before joining and have to do one side then the other. If I made 10 guitars a year, I would still buy this machine. It really is a great bang for the buck and I am glad I jumped on the introductory price when I did!
The machine has a 4 inch dust port on the top of the drum shroud that is bent 90* and can be spun to face any direction. I have mine set to run behind the machine where my Dust Deputy sits.
Feel free to ask any additional questions.
I should point out that this thing weighs in at about 200 pounds shipping weight. Getting it up on its stand by myself was a real challenge!! The sanding head is about 150lbs and hard to grab!

[Ray Ussery]

You ever have any problems like this Tony? I mean, some days life's a bitch, not everybody LIKE'S sanders.!! :) :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rndstnh6 ... r_embedded#!
Ray

[Dave Bagwill]

Hahahahahah

[TonyinNYC]

I have not yet experienced that particular problem with my sander yet.
Ha ha ha!