Dual Drum Sander Plus

Dual Drum Sander Plus

Want to cut sanding time in half? If you do any kind of production work, the SuperMax 25 x 2 Dual Drum Sander is worth a serious look.

Chances are if you’re in the market for a dual drum sander, you’re well aware of the benefits of a drum sander; no tear-out, finish-sanding large pieces without picking up a random orbit sander, etc. The SuperMax 25 x 2 adds a couple nice features to that list.

First, there’s two drums. A finer grit is used on the rear drum, so compared to a single-drum sander, it’s like taking two passes at once. With a different grit on each drum, the drums need to be set at slightly different heights; the rear drum lower than the front. So the rear drum raises and lowers independently. The 25 x 2 has two digital readouts. The top one tells you the sanding height, while the bottom one shows the differential between the front and rear drum.

Second, the 25 x 2 has an edge-sanding feature. This is nice for raised panel doors, face frames, or any stile & rail work. You can quickly flush the ends of the stiles with the rails, and then finish-sand them; all without moving to a different machine.

Here’s how it works. Remove a section of the rear drum’s guard, and re-fasten it to the top of the machine, creating a 90° fence above the rear drum. There are two possible positions for the fence, so you don’t wear out just one spot. The fence is small – only 4-1/2″ tall x 7-3/4″ wide – so I’d recommend an auxiliary shop-made fence attached to the factory fence for large parts.

While the fence is handy to store and install, I wish that the two mounting positions angled across the drum, to spread the wear out further.  Also, since the rear drum will typically have a finer grit than the front drum, you can’t get too aggressive with material removal.

While you’re adjusting the rear drum for edge-sanding, you’re at the back of the machine, unable to see the digital readouts. So the folks at SuperMax installed a simple mechanical dial on the back, so you can see how much you’re moving the rear drum. When you’re done edge-sanding, a pre-set stop allows you to quickly return the rear drum into position for normal operation.

The edge-sanding feature on this machine works pretty well, although it’s not on a par with a stand-alone edge sander. The good news is that you can get by without the extra cost and space requirements of an edge sander.

The 25 x 2 will sand parts as wide as 25″, with a maximum thickness of 6″. On the other end of the spectrum, it’ll sand parts as short as 2-1/4″, and as thin as 1/32″.

The 3 hp motor runs on a 220 volt circuit. The conveyer is powered by a separate motor, allowing infinitely adjustable feed rate from 0 – 20 feet per minute. Also, the 25 x 2 has SandSmart technology which optimizes feed rate by automatically slowing the conveyor if it senses the motor is being overloaded.

As with all SuperMax sanders, the head – not the conveyor bed – moves up and down. That’s nice if you’re using an infeed or outfeed table for long parts.

It comes with a cast iron stand, and a mobile base is optional. You can also purchase infeed/outfeed tables (pictured above).