Jet 10-20 Plus Drum Sander on sale

Jet tools are on sale for January 5-9 2017 15% off!

I just pulled the trigger on a new 10-20 Plus. Looking forward to receiving it. $100 off, no tax, and free shipping online.

I'll keep my shop built drum sander for fine grit passes. But I think I'll like the 10-20 for dimensioning.

RPA_Ukuleles said:

Jet tools are on sale for January 5-9 2017 15% off!

I just pulled the trigger on a new 10-20 Plus. Looking forward to receiving it. $100 off, no tax, and free shipping online.

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Good for you, Rodney. Me too, except for tax. It's $650 at Woodcraft, Rockler, and Amazon is carrying it also (for Rockler?). I've been wanting one for about 15 years, and finally ordered one.

Congrats on your purchase! I went to Woodcraft to pick one up but they only had a floor model. So I figured delivery to the house from an online retailer was the next best option.

My shop built sander is quite slow at thicknessing, I'm looking forward to a little more productivity with this.

RPA_Ukuleles said:

My shop built sander is quite slow at thicknessing,

I'm looking forward to a little more productivity with this.

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Hope to hear back on how you like it.

My hand plane is even slower, plus it's hard to get the thickness as uniform as I'd like without getting carried away. I planed one top under .06" at the right upper bout before I caught it. After that error, I went to measureing after each individual pass. Then, I found that an ROS does pretty good, and is easier to control than a plane. Hopefully, that will be a thing of the past, and my various woodworking projects will be sanded more uniformly.

I've already downloaded the manual from the Jet site.

I'm sure you will love your new sander. I have been using my shop built sander for 13 years and have been wanting to pull the trigger on a commercial unit for a long time. Finally took advantage of this 15% off sale and got the new re-designed model of the 16-32 sander from a local distributor. Used it yesterday for the first time and it worked great. I was pleasantly surprised that the dust collection works much better than it did with the shop made unit.

Hey Dominator,

Hope you like your sander. I like mine a lot. I'll be curious to hear how thin you can sand without using a backer board. I have problems taking a top all the way down because the grit of the conveyor belt contacts the grit on the drum in places, which results in dulling of the drum paper, gum-up and burning. A rubber stick cleans the paper pretty well but it is still dull and burns. As long as I use a backer board when I get thin, all is well. I did find it is imperative to make sure the backer board is perfectly uniform.

Nelson

My new 10-20 drum sander showed up yesterday. For being pretty small, it's a beast. The conveyer is awesome. I'm quite tired of pushing boards thru my shop built unit.

Yank, the Jet is supposed to sand to 1/32 thickness board, but agreed that the belt could contact the drum. The manual says the following about how much contact the drum should have (essentially, how much pressure - or to take off in one pass?)

A good rule of thumb when sanding with grits finer than 80 is lower the drum so that it contacts the work piece but can still be rotated by hand. When using grits coarser than 80 grit, you can lower the drum slightly more. However, a combination of several variables will determine the proper depth of cut to use, including the following:
Abrasive type and grit size.
Width of the piece being sanded.
Hardness of the piece being sanded
Feed rate of the piece being sanded.

So, seems like if the grit of the conveyer is contacting, that's too much pressure.?? But if you're going that thin, what choice do you have.
I'll have to experiment to see what works for me.

Glad you are up and running too, Rodney.

Mine came in a couple of days ago, and I've sanded a set of sides, at .075 without an issue, (although I haven't been looking very closely either). Come to think of it, I did hear a couple of random, light scraping noises. I guess it's probably wise to use a carrier board, with some 100 or 80 grit stuck on it for traction to keep the wood that's being sanded from slipping.

Would like indeed/outfeed tables also, but can't find any. The earlier Performax used to have them as accessories, although they're not hard to build; just use that time that we all have abundantly.

I've used buy 16/32 for 12 years without a problem. The feed belt did break early one but I replaced it with an upgraded one available through Amazon.

Yankulele said:

Hey Dominator,

Hope you like your sander. I like mine a lot. I'll be curious to hear how thin you can sand without using a backer board. I have problems taking a top all the way down because the grit of the conveyor belt contacts the grit on the drum in places, which results in dulling of the drum paper, gum-up and burning. A rubber stick cleans the paper pretty well but it is still dull and burns. As long as I use a backer board when I get thin, all is well. I did find it is imperative to make sure the backer board is perfectly uniform.

Nelson

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Sorry Nelson, I have been away. I have sanded to .076 without any issues. I too may have heard a slight scratching sound where the drum abrasive slightly contacted the conveyor abrasive on the very outside edge. The edge tends to want to lift up slightly. A friend has the older model and just changed the conveyor belt abrasive and had this problem as the edges of the belt were raising up a fair bit.

I missed out on the sale but Im considering the 'baby' Grizzly models (10" and 12")
Terrible reviews-mostly about conveyer motor breaking. Any feedback from u guys?

I really like it, and now that I have sanded several backs and sides see few minor issues of concern on the 10-20.

First, is the right front belt guide that can let a thin piece slip under and get stuck while the drum is churning and possibly digging a groove (that's another reason for a carrier board for thin stuff under 1/8th inch).

Second is the tracking, and tendency for the belt itself to drift right (after laboriously setting and resetting while spending enough time (more than 10-20 minutes) for the setting to take hold. This is a slow drift, and a few sides can be sanded before readjusting, BUT... I've read on amazon reviews that there is a fix -- loosen two lock screws located near the back RH side of the belt (going into the motor frame), and keep them loose. I haven't found those; and they're supposedly not connected to the adjustment levers.

Lastly, I haven't changed sandpaper yet, and the installed-from-factory 80-grit is course. It's good for dimensioning, but leaves grooves. For now, I'll try my ROS to sand out those small grooves and move up in steps to 220 or finer with it. But I'll soon see what all the grief about changing out sandpaper is like, because I'd like to use finer grits.

Also, I'm aware that the height adjustment treads wear out, as reported in Ken's posts. Probably a good investment against future failure.

Other than the Jet 10-20 is a worthy and work-saving machine.

Rrgramps said:

Other than that Jet 10-20 is a worthy and work-saving machine.

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Or in the immortal words of Mrs. Lincoln: Other than that, the play was pretty good.