Customer Reviews

JET 649005K 22X44 Plus 22-Inch 1-3/4-Horsepower Drum Sander, 115-Volt 1-Phase

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this drum sander a week ago.
I am rating the Performax 22x44 Plus Drum Sander with Closed Stand.
The stand is completely assembled in the box. This is the first machine that I have assembled and didn't have any extra bolts or washers. Assembly was exactly as it was supposed to be with everything lining up perfectly. All allen wrenches were provided for assembly.
I only had to tighten the brake pedal. The paint job is wonderful.
The motor assembly is extremely heavy, however, I was able to assemble the entire machine in 20 minutes.
I purchased the optional infeed/outfeed tables and think they are great but should cost less than $100, more like $50. No, they should be included, but are not necessary.

Performance: The motor is unbelievable quiet. No vibration at all. It is hard to tell sometimes if the motor is running it is so quiet. I sanded a 14 inch wide board and the results were amazing. Dust collection is a must and my Delta 1200 CFM pulls 99% of the dust.

I use a 30 AMP service for the drum sander.
Drum alignment was spot on. It was only off by .002 of an inch. No adjustment needed at all!

I give it 4 stars because the mobile base moves inline and does not allow you to easily steer the machine. I also wished the conveyor motor was a little beefier. No problems. I just would like the assurance. The motor adjusts from 0 to 10 fpm.

(Update 12-1-06: I received the "handy" tool to assist with sanding belt changes. I COMPLETELY disagree with the instructions for changing the sandpaper on the drum. It is not necessary to use this tool. I and my family think this way is much better: Attach the paper to both sides, but do NOT tighten it on the motor side as instructed. Simply tighten it by hand on the left side where you have much more room and can do it with your fingers. If you own this tool you will see exactly what I am talking about. It is so easy this way.

I am so happy I received this machine. It was given as an early Father's Day gift.

4/09 Update: If I were looking today for a sander, I would take a hard look at Steel City's dual drum sander. You can put two different grits of paper on the machine and really move things along. The price is so close. You also get two four inch dust ports on it. I would buy it now if I didn't already have the Jet/Performax. honestly

I purchase quite a bit of tools from Amazon, but I decided to buy this sander locally. There was a sale and mini show going on, so I got 10% off, plus a rep from Jet was there and threw in some free goodies, and I still received the current rebate. That was in January. I've used it on several projects now and can offer an honest review of my experience with it.
First, I'd like to start by saying my shop has become more than just a hobby shop and is quickly approaching a full time business. I felt I needed to reduce the amount of time I spend sanding. Since I already own numerous Jet machines and have been happy with their quality and service, I researched their sanders first and came to appreciate the 22-44 Plus. Out of the box(s) the machine went together pretty easily and needed only minor adjustments to be perfect. Although it did have some minor hidden shipping damage, Jet corrected that promptly.
Next came the learning curve. This is my first "real" sander so a couple sanding belts got ruined by trying to remove too much material at one time. Light cuts are the key. The crank to lower the sanding head moves down 1/64" per 1/4 turn and this is a pretty good reference to use when sanding. Sometimes I take a little more or less depending on the size and specie, but usually 1/4 turn per pass is just right for average size boards.
I've not had any trouble changing belts. After doing it a few times, it takes about 2 minutes and I don't need to use the tuff tool.
The tracking for the conveyor was a little fussy at first. I just dialed it in close and occasionally have to make a minor adjustment. This is real easy to do as Jet has put small wrenches on the adjustment bolts on either side of the conveyor. It takes about 3 seconds to make an adjustment and it can be done on the fly. Usually 1/4 turn on one of the bolts does the trick and it'll be fine for a couple more weeks.
This sander will not totally eliminate the need to hand sand with a random orbital sander, however, it will greatly reduce it. Plus it'll flatten any unevenness. T
The sander will leave a linear scratch pattern similar to a belt sander, even with 220 grit, that will need removed before final finishing. I've found loading up my random orbit sander with a slightly courser grit, the linear lines will remove with a good once-over. For example, if I drum sand to 220 grit, I can remove the scratch marks easily with a light pass of 180 grit in the random orbital sander. Also, a sharp card scraper will remove the scratch lines from 220 grit pretty easily if you prefer scraping over sanding for final finish work. Additionally, I'd recommend sending the boards through the sander 2 or 3 times on the final pass without changing the depth of cut. It'll reduce the depth of the scratch pattern and make sanding/scraping easier.
Note- although I suppose boards could be thickness sanded, it would take a looong time, so keep the planer for getting lumber close, and then drum sand to final dimension.
I took the rebate check from Jet and bought the extension infeed/outfeed tables for the sander. They are real nice for longer boards, easy to install and very stout. When installing, keep them just slightly below (mine are .04", or the thickness of a piece of 80 grit sandpaper folded in half) the height of the conveyor or else it will not feed right. I highly recommend the tables.
The fit and finish of the machine is on par with the rest of the Jet tools I own. They do a nice job finishing their tools. This is probably the least important to me when purchasing a tool as I buy them to work, not to sit and be pretty. But still, I do take care of them and it's nice they look so good year after year.
The machine comes with casters built in to the base. The casters are fixed, so they do not swivel. Nice for moving the machine back and fourth but not so nice for moving around. I'm tall and need to raise the machine up a few inches to be comfortable anyway, so a custom mobile base is in the works.
The sander saves me an untold amount of time and produces smooth parts of equal thickness. It is connected to a Jet 1100 dust collector and sanding is nearly a dust free operation.
The machine is a joy to use. Plus, it's pretty quiet. I'd purchase it again without reservation. --dave

The Jet 22-44 is a very good drum sander. I have extensively used a Delta 16-32 drum sander for a number of years and was able to sell it for nearly what I paid for it so the upgrade to a wider unit was financially feasable. I took a look at a lot of machines and read through a lot of the operators and parts manuals. This looked to be the most foolproof, reliable, easy to operate and should have a low operational cost.

The machine came in three boxes and were very well packaged. The boxes contained the sanding head, cabinet, and conveyor belt. Assembly is very easy. The sanding head goes on top of the cabinet and then the conveyor goes inside of the sanding head. The conveyor even features ceramic guides to help eliminate creep of the conveyor belt. I have yet to adjust the belt tracking. A standard 20 amp circuit is sufficient to operate the sander. No special wiring is needed.

The smart sand feature works well on the machine. I can set the belt feed to 60 or more and the smart sand will slow the belt down when wider stock is fed through and back up when narrower stock is sanded. This feature has really made using this unit a real pleasure as I dont worry about stalling the motor, burning/gouging the stock, or ruining the sand paper. The key is don't take too much off during a pass.

Turn the depth wheel 1/4 of a turn for the next pass or 1/8 turn for highly figured for unusually hard woods like locust or wenge. I usually check the temperature of the wood on exit andput it aside if it starts to get fairly warm. No scientific data but it does seem to help eliminate spotty burn marks especially around the occasional knot that may be present. these usually will hand sand out fairly easily but why not eliminate it from the start.

Working with burl, birdeye and other highly figured woods sucepible to tearout on a planer/surfacer is very easy with this machine. It just takes a little more time to surface down these woods. Sanding surfacing makes it possible to make some very nice projects much easier.

After using it to sand over 1000 bf of oak and walnut I have no concerns. I use 80 grit most of the time and then sand with a random orbit sander with 80 and then 120 and its ready for finish. On door panels I will sand the individual parts right after the dry fit so there are no cross grain scratches. Finish sand after glue up. I have also glued up and then sanded the whole panel. in this case its better if you drum sand to 120 before the finish sanding to hel get the cross grain sanding marks out. Also becareful (as one should anyway) when gluing up to assure the style is in plane with the rail. Sometimes the clamp can cause this problem if the jaws are not perfectly parallel on the clamp. But this machime can certainly sand it flat again should this happen.

The inline stand seems a bit narrow especiallly given that the feed table overhangs it by a ways but it is not a stability issue. I dont mind the inline wheels as the machine is usually pulled straight out from its storage location for use and rolls straight back in when done.

The optional feed tables should have come with the unit but it is possible that one would not need these if running stock of less than 3 or 4 feet long. It does take up more space. I would have liked to seen a design where the table was a set of arms with a roller that would flip up then one could feed stock with the roller arm up or down and flip them up for storage. When running wide stock say 40 inches like on a table top then give the stock some support on the edge that is not under the drum head. In/out feed rollers are recommended for stock 5-6 ft and longer.

Dust collection is mandatory. And an ocassional cleaning of the paper is good too. Soft woods like pine dont do well as it clogs the paper rapidly. Hard woods like oak, walnut, et al work very well.

Changing sand paper is easy. The handy tool they give you is still sitting in the package. I found that it was easy to change the paper with out it. Though my fingers are fairly thin, others may find it difficult to pull on the sandpaper clamp. The tool would be useful in these cases. Start on the outboard side and wind your way to the tensioner on the inboard (motor) side. I re-checked the sand paper tension after running a board after changing the sand paper and found it not necessary. The right hand side has a tensioner on the sndpaper clamp and it keeps the sandpaper taught. Only a little practice is necessary and changing sandpaper is easy.

The sander came nearly perfect on the paralellism. It is easy to see that it could be a bit frustrating to set paralellism if needed but no more than say setting jointer or planer blades. In fact it should be a bit simpler as there is only the one drum to set. Careful snugging, checking, and then tightening of the bolts should eliminate any creep in the adjustment.

I did notice a curious oddity when making a thin piece of veneer od about 1/16" thick. The drum was making contact with "something" when lowering it down to the thickness of the veneer. It turned out that my dust collection system had enough suction that it was actually picking up the belt. The belt appeared to be tight enough and closing down the gate partially for the sander solved the problem. The sander doesn't need a large volume of air as the particulate size is rather small. Not often when things work too well that causes an unexpected negative consequence. I don't make veneers very often but this most certainly is one of those "not in the book" things you learn.

In short this is a great machine.

When this thing is tuned and working properly, it's a great machine. Alas, those moments are rare. I spend more time adjusting it than actually using it.

First, setting the sanding drum parallel to the table is a pain in the ass. The owner's manual says that parallelism is set at the factory and should not hafta be set by the owner. When I received mine, it was out by 3/8"! This is a huge amount. Obviously, the quality control department was at lunch when my machine was assembled.

To set the parallelism, four bolts are loosed and a knob is turned. The problem arises from the fact that there is so much play in these components, that by the time everything is re-tightened, it is out of parallel again. So, to set it is very much a hit-or-miss process.

Second, attaching the sandpaper belt to the drum is another pain in the ass. There are two clips that hold the sandpaper, one on either end. The first one is easy to set because it is on the outboard and you can see it and reach it. But the in-board clip cannot be seen. The clearance between the drum and the frame is really tight. Performax supplies a wire thingamajig to open the clip and keep the sandpaper taut. This works kinda. But if you have bear paws for hands, forget it.

Third, it's tough to keep the sandpaper taut. Pulling the sandpaper taut, working the thingamajig and pulling the tab into the clip is an exercise in frustration. Then the belts will stretch and need to be re-tightened. And the belts will always rise away from the drum by about 1 mm where they turn into clip. The clip is at 90 degrees to the drum, so, you could crease the sandpaper so it fits better but when you do that, it weakens the sandpaper and it will break. So, with this bump, you really don't have a full 22" because it doesn't sand correctly at the bump in the sandpaper. And forget trying to sand something 44" wide-I'd rather use 36 grit as toilet paper than sand a wide face frame.

Fourth, wood burns for no apparent reason. I get these areas, usually 3/8" wide where something attaches itself to the belt and boom, there is a band of pitch that is burned onto the sandpaper and will never come off. This pitch immediately starts gouging the wood. I use a dust collector rated at 1100 CFM and I clean the belt often with a crepe rubber stick. Also, whenever I sand something greater than 6" wide I increase the depth of cut only 1/8 of a revolution at a time (1/128"). So, I've come to the conclusion that this is underpowered.

The automatic feed limiter doesn't solve this problem. In fact, if the feed limiter kicks in, at least 50% of the time, I'll get a wide swath of burn marks. So, I always feed so slow the feed limiter doesn't kick in.

Fifth, the belts break long before the abrasive is gone. And given the cost of these belts, it makes using this machine too expensive.

So, unless you like fiddling with your machines more than you like working wood, stay away from this.

Oh, there are a few good points. The stand is nice and sturdy. The casters are great. And the stand has a nice shelf to store sandpaper. Nice paint job too.

UPDATE A friend reccommended that I not use the crepe rubber to clean my belts. This has helped reduce burning a lot. So, I would now give this machine 3 stars and strongly reccommend that you do not use the crepe rubber pad sold by Grizzly for cleaning drum sanders.

After looking at the units offered by Delta and Grizzly and reading the reviews I opted for the performax. The machine arrived very well packed (it came in 4 separate boxes and was delivered by two different carriers on two different days AHHH!!!). I spent maybe an hour putting things together and tuning it up. The sander was out of parallel but this was an easy fix. After assembly I noticed the depth gage was missing. A quick call to WMH customer service and I had the parts in two days(they could not have been nicer).
My only complaint is the casters are inline and do not allow for turning the machine when you move it. As for tracking the conveyer belt it took about two minutes and has not moved since. All the complaints I have read about these machines lead me to conclude that the buyers were trying to cut too deeply and to fast. I will also say that abrasive planning is definitely possible if you go slow and take shallow cuts. I surfaced a 33"X48" butcher block counter top with this sander and the results were very impressive. Like very machine in a shop, you just have to take time to learn it and its limitations. I highly recommend this tool for any small pro shop or the very serious hobbyist.

I just purchased a Jet/Performax 22-44, I almost went with the Delta but after reading reviews such as these, I learned that the Delta lifts the stock from beneath to effect a thickness adjustment - to me, this is a serious design issue and made my decision to by the Performax 22-44 simple.

Like others, my machine arrived well packed and in good condition. This is a simple machine, nonetheless, I'm the type that goes over everything in minute detail before plugging in. I was able to lift the sanding head up onto the base by myself with a come-along type winch secured to an overhead joist. The assembly went perfectly,taking only an hour or so including the infeed/outfeed tables.

When it was time to start up, I had a tracking problem with the feed belt that I wasn't able to overcome by belt tensioning, and found that the drive roller was out of position (too low) at the motor tie-in. This was easily corrected by removing an access plate at the base of the drive box which allowed me to raise the roller to its correct position by loosening two clamping screws. The belt then tracked properly and now adjusts normally.

The machine is well designed and well manufactured. The sanding head is cast iron and parallelism of the drum with respect to the conveyor is easily accomplished. Once set, the position appears to hold. I was concerned about dust removal, but the vacuum port position works well and this is actually one of my cleanest machines.

Be careful with the abrasive paper, I purchased the rolls to save money and was careful to cut right down the center of the red line (suggested for the 22-44)only to find that the strip was too short to make it into the clip! I checked this against the length of the strip that came with the machine and sure enough it was too short. Before cutting another, I checked its length against the good strip and AGAIN it was about two inches too short to fit into the clips. This roll stock is a great way to save money, or to LOSE money if you're not careful.

The "Smart Feed" conveyor drive technology works beautifully, it's really quite hard to stall the feed, BUT I've experienced strip breakage by taking too heavy a cut, and in this case, the cut was only 0.007" or so. When this happens, the workpiece gets beaten up by the flailing strip which can also overlap, causing "digs" even to the point that you may lose the piece. I chalk this up to learning curve, normally a 0.007" cut is no problem, but you need to learn how to read the machine given various wood types and widths. Note that I may have prevented this by reducing the feed rate or by taking a lighter cut. The grit also plays a roll in depth of cut and I find that 80 grit has works well for thicknessing. It would be good to remember that any of these machines is only as robust as the abrasive strip. (Note that upon further examination, when the strip broke, I was cutting near the inboard limit of the machine where the strip tapers down so it can tie into the clip - since the cross-section of the strip is diminishing in this zone, the strip is subject to breakage. Under normal circumstances, one does not cut at this extreme position. I think the lesson here is when making use of the inboard limit cutting zone, make only light cuts).

The only other minor issue is the thickness gage, its accurate but you can't see the scale as well as you could, because the pointer (formed steel strip)covers the numbers that you're moving toward during thickness setting. Not a big deal but a nuisance.

When purchasing, I also took a look at the Steel City machine, but to me two drums adds to the complexity and I don't like the idea of using finishing paper before you're ready to finish. The specs say it will only cut down to 1/4" thickness while the Performax will cut down to 1/32".

Overall I'm delighted with the machine and I'm learning to take it a bit slow until we get to know each other.

I have several years experience with the Delta 18/36, the Performax 16/32 have now used the Jet 22/44 machine for precise sanding of glue surfaces and sanding musical instrument parts for ten months. I have found it to be excellent in every regard. It is quiet, adequately powered, precise and very nicely built. Don't underestimate the sheet steel table and cheesy looking conveyor tensioning mechanisms. Properly adjusted, maintained and operated this is a first rate machine capable of producing precise results. My experience with the Performax 16/32 (nine years)also indicates that this machine has the durability to perform for many years without trouble. I would buy this machine again in a heartbeat.

Jet 22-44 w/Cabinet Base, September 4, 2008


Received this unit in early August and everything arrived at one time. Went together very easily, but I did have help placing the drum assembly on the base. Word of caution, "Do not try to assemble this by yourself there is a good chance you'll either hurt yourself, the machine or both!"

Only problem I've had with the unit thus far is an out-of-round conveyer belt. I did call JET, not Amazon, and spoke with a very helpful gentleman that got me a replacement belt ASAP. Within three days the new belt was at my front door. Kudos to JET and their customer service folks!

After installing the new conveyer belt, checking my drum to table alignment and hooking the unit up to my dust collection system, I was up and quietly running. To date, I have passed approximately 800 board feet of Maple, Walnut and some Bubinga.

I know a number of people have stated that they have had some problems with installation of the sanding belts, but I have not. I start on the left side of the drum and finish on the right side without the use of the tool. I did practice changing the sanding belt during the time I was waiting on my new conveyer belt so that might be the reason. Practice does make perfect!

I too agree that the infeed/outfeed sanding support tables should be part of the item, not sold individually as an option. I would also like to see a poly/rubber conveyer belt made for this unit too!

I'm only giving this unit a four star rating because the conveyer belt was unserviceable and the infeed/outfeed sanding support tables were not included with the sander. I will give the JET Customer Service folks five stars.

One last thing, "Buy the grit sandpaper you use the most on a roll and cut it to fit. You'll save yourself a lot of money that way."

This drum sander is very easy to adjust and use. I had to take the top apart to move it because it was to heavy for me to place in the spot where I needed it. The sanding operation is very good if you take your time and give the machine a chance to work. I have used it extensively and I am still on my first strip of sandpaper. I did finally have to reverse the paper and have use the waxed stick to keep it in good shape. Setting the drum to the table is easy if you remove the sandpaper. All you have to do is use a block of wood and use the adjustment knob to make it level. Job done easy. I think I waited to long before getting this drum sander. It is well built and has a lot of cast iron in it. I can't even wonder what it would work like if it was built like the Delta Drum Sander. Which has a lot of pressed steel in its frame.

Just assembled my 22-44. Assembly was easy, It would have been even easier if I would have had some help, the drum head is HEAVY. When you are stupid you have got to be tough...
The unit was spot on and required no adjustments. Hooked up the dust collector and went to work. I am amazed, this machine is something I will never be without, and wish I would have bought one earlir. It takes the cupping of the wood out and NO snipe at either end. Couldn't be happier...