performax 16-32 plus

Re: performax 16-32 plus

Hoa Dinh in Alameda

>"looking for something to some of the final sanding after the planer"

The Performax 16-32 is not for final sanding.

I have one for a few years now. It is great for tearout-prone lumber such as maple and for panels too wide for my 12.5" planer.

The surface of lumber from the drum sander still has many sanding marks. It still needs finish sanding. I use my ROS, starting from grit 120 (the same grit as the sanding strip used in the drum sander). Using higher grit sanding strip in the drum sander does not produce ready-to-finish surface. In fact, sanding strip with finer grit tends to burn the wood. When the wood is burnt, there is a good chance the sanding strip is ruined too.

The drum sander is quite slow. You need to be patient. I use it only for "difficult" lumber. "Easy" lumber such as poplar goes directly from the planer to ROS.

-- Hoa

Hoa hit it right on the money

Rob Sandow

>I have a Performax 22-44 Pro, and it is great for a lot of things, like sanding rail and stile frame doors after glue-up and taking the bandsaw marks off of thin sawn veneer. But it is definitely not the right tool for sanding after planing. Your planer will leave a much smoother surface than a drum sander. After planing, you should probably just use a random orbit sander.

Rob

Re: Agreed

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>Several years ago, I bought one, and used for maybe 6 weeks. Someone in our club asked me about it, and I made him a heck of a deal on a barely used machine. It did me little good, and took up valuable space in the (crowded) shop. And it sucked up my time, too. My neighbor has a similar Delta, and a standing offer for me to come and use his. In the three years since selling mine, just once have I gone to use his.

What I thought I needed it for turned out not to be important to me - shop made veneer. YMMV.

Re: Agreed

Barry Irby

>I agree with all of the above. I have a 16/32 and really like it, but there are times it goes months without any use. I have it on a rolling base and low enough to park under the wing of my TS. Stays pretty much out of the way.

When I do veneer I use it a lot. When I cut wood with "terrible" grain, I use it a lot. When I cut wood too wide for the Planer I use it.

And I agree its slow and not a finish sander. I find the 80 grit belt to be the most useful and sometimes get use for the 36 grit for reducing (slowly) really rough stock. 120 works well, but anything finer tends to burn the wood and waste time. Go the the ROS. If you can plane your stock you will get little benefit from a Perfomax.

So, If you don't do wide planks or wood with snarly grain that a planer would destroy, probably not very useful, but when its good, its great.