Supermax 1632 Drum Sander "Deep Dive" Examination

[@grantskelton1219]

Nice. Will be getting one of these in the coming months

[@ToolMetrix]

Awesome. Thanks for watching, Grant. Cheers, Paul

[@richragan4810]

JUst found your channel by looking for some good stuff on the Supermax 16-32 sander. So I'm going tobuy one based on this video. Looking forward to more videos from you. Very well done editing and camera work.

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks for sharing your feedback, Rich. I'm glad that you found this content helpful to your research process. Enjoy your new drum sander! Paul

[@JoePalumbo221]

Great overview. I just picked one up. I haven't assembled yet 😕 maybe today.

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks Joe! Have fun with your new sander.

[@robohippy]

I may be crazy, but I'm nuts.... Anyway, I have a 25+ year old Performax 22/44, and for a home shop person, I used it a lot. I changed 2 things on it. One was I had the motor rewired for 220, and I had the drive motor on a separate 110 line. This took care of the tripping the breaker. One other thing I have been wanting to do is slow down the drum speed. With my 20+ years of using wood lathes and making thousands of bowls, I found out that sanding (3 inch discs on angle drill) with slower speeds on the drill and bowl, let the abrasives cut a lot better than high speeds. Kind of a 'traction' thing, because if they are going too fast, then the abrasive particles don't get a chance to dig in and cut. I am thinking a 3 phase motor with variable speed, to drive the sanding drum.... This type of set up is common on full sized lathes. I mentioned it to Supermax and they seem to think that slowing the feed belt down would solve the problems, but that doesn't slow the drum speed down. With slower drum speed, you get no burning, even on cherry, and your abrasives last a LOT longer, at least on my angle drill and wood bowls. Any thoughts about that? Also, when starting my wood shop, every single book I read said that any motor 1 hp and above performed better on 220 volt, which with my 22/44 was a definite yes. So, any thoughts on this? Nice presentation.

[@ToolMetrix]

Your ideas about varying your drum speed are interesting. I find that I can pretty much eliminate burning on cherry by increasing feed rate and going lighter on the feed pressure, but its possible that you might be able to achieve it by slowing down the drum as well. I heard a rumor that Warren Weber was back working at Supermax, and if that's true, you might want to contact him with your question. He was probably the guy who designed your machine, and he knows a LOT about drum sanders. As far as running motors on 220 vs. 110, an electrical engineer told me once that there is little to no benefit to the tool itself. He told me that the only situation where you would want to do it is if it was popping breakers on 110V, and you wanted to lower the amperage draw. So, I haven't ever switched on over, and so far haven't been convinced that I should. Most of my stationary tools today require 220 so I wouldn't have any candidates at the moment. I switch up my tool arsenal a lot, however, so that is always subject to change. Cheers, Paul

[@robohippy]

@@ToolMetrix Tool arsenal..... I did several videos about turning bowls, and sub title was 'weapons of mass destruction for bowl turning'.... I did notice a huge difference in power when I had it wired for 220. It never bogged down at all after doing that. This seems to be a thing that people don't agree about. Big difference in Jet's 16 inch lathe, same 1 1/2 hp motor, but one runs on 120, and the other on 220. If I am coring bowls on the 110, it trips the breaker. Never on the 220 one...

[@unemployedredneckhillbilly2023]

Thanks for the review. I am looking at the Jet version of the same sander. My old 24 inch kuster uses rubber rollers that never did a good job controlling the feed and it leaks a lot of dust.

[@ToolMetrix]

I wonder why the rollers on your Kuster are not feeding properly. I'm sure that you've messed with getting the feed pressure tweaked properly. I have rubber feed rollers on my Woodmaster, and I really like them, although they do take a little getting used to. When I first got it I had to play with the feed pressure to get it to feed straight, but since getting that right it works great and I haven't had to adjust it since. As far as the Jet 1632, it's a pretty similar machine. The main advantages of the SuperMax are the quick height adjustment (I'd like to have that on my planer and bandsaw too) and the digital readout. I also think that it's cool that they put some thought into the dust collection on this machine. I'd like to compare dust collection on the Jet vs. Supermax sometime, because that is an area that the Supermax guys put a lot of effort into for the 1632. I don't know about the Jet, but Supermax nailed it. I think Supermax got some ideas from DeWalt 735 planer, which pushes the debris down the pipe so even with a modest dust collector you can still get good collection. I think you probably still need a pretty good dust collector with the SuperMax because you are dealing with a lot of fine dust rather than chips, but the dust collection performance was a nice discovery with this tool. Of course, whatever you end up doing I'll look forward to watching your videos on it. :)

[@unemployedredneckhillbilly2023]

With a planer the rollers push into the cutter head and you don't notice slippage if there is any. On my 24 year old sander the sanding drum turns in the feeding direction pulling the work through and any slippage causes overloading the motor plus it is a fixed feed speed that doesn't help. One 4inch port is not enough for 24 inch drum. This generation of Sanders has solved all those problems and take up less floor space. Jet looks to have a similar dust collection approach and a stronger casting. Plan on using a Wixey gauge like I put on my planer so that feature on the Supermax doesn't sway me and I will never touch another Laguna machine after seeing the engineering and lack of replacement parts on my bandsaw.

[@ToolMetrix]

I agree that one port isn’t enough on a 24” machine. My wood master is only 18” and it could use a second port. The Woodmaster 25” machine does have a second port. Where is the stronger casting on the Jet? The same engineers designed both the Jet and the SuperMax, and they designed the Supermax with the downsides in mind that they learned about from their years with Jet.

[@unemployedredneckhillbilly2023]

The Jet was redesigned 2 years ago also . Look at them side x side at your local woodcraft store. The Jet main casting looks more rigid to me. Would be fun to put them side x side in a test a to check rigidity.

[@ToolMetrix]

Ah, interesting. Didn’t know that. I’ll definitely take a look!

[@fredmeyer3063]

Thanks for the information. I think it would have been nice to see how to adjust for parallel between the drum and the table.

[@ToolMetrix]

Good suggestion. Thanks 🙏

[@thomasdoyle4485]

Just curious if the feed motor gearbox uses plastic (nylon) gears like my Delta. Im looking for something more sturdy since plastic is brittle in the cold and I just broke the gearbox gears which is why Im looking for a new one. Motor and gearbox are obsolete on the Delta by the way.

[@ToolMetrix]

I’m not sure what’s inside the gearbox, but I’m guessing it’s not plastic. I'd suggest contacting Laguna to get this information as I no longer have the sander in my shop. Best of luck, Paul

[@rickdignem6080]

I was hoping you would show how to adjust the tracking belt. I can't stop mine from running off in one direction ..

[@ToolMetrix]

Sorry, yeah I should’ve done something with that. Hopefully customer service can help you out.

[@michaell7877]

I see your sandpaper a little wide on both ends, but touching in the middle. I thought for some reason, the were supposed to have a tiny bit of space throughout placement. Can you clear this up for me? Thank you for providing the in-depth vid. Helps a LOT! Great vid!!1

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks! I think the key is to have enough space across the roll so that it doesn’t overlap and bunch up. That’s bad. It’s tough to maintain perfect spacing across the whole roll because the sandpaper isn’t attached to the drum surface like it would be on a Velcro system. This approach gives you a better surface quality, especially the crisp edges that you can produce compared to a Velcro system.

[@chuckbell2949]

How easy is it to attach the end of the sanding belt? Thanks

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Chuck, It’s a bit of a tighter squeeze than the starter end but it’s not too bad. You’ll get the hang of it. Laguna has a short video that shows it better than my video.

[@donniehughes7054]

I have a difficult time getting the last end of the sanding roll to connect to the drum. Do you have any tips?

[@ToolMetrix]

It's kind of a tight fit for getting your fingers in there. There's a good close-up in this short video that might help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qH3Vfp2Em6mbh9U

[@giuseppecastaldo644]

ELLO, DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS TOOL? TOP JET OR LAGOON?

[@ToolMetrix]

I haven’t looked at the Jet in a long time so I can’t really make a fair comparison. This tool was designed by the same brilliant person who designed the Jet so at the time it was introduced it was superior to the Jet in a couple areas but Jet may have improved their design since then.

[@giuseppecastaldo644]

@@ToolMetrix DO YOU FEEL WELL WITH LAGUNA?THANKS!

[@ToolMetrix]

It’s an amazing machine. You can’t go wrong here.

[@Veteran1965]

What grit are you using to sand that table top?

[@ToolMetrix]

I don’t remember what it was.

[@garypicc803]

Great info. Thx! on my list.

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks for the feedback, Gary! Cheers, Paul

[@gerrygolder7537]

Very nice I’ll have one

[@ToolMetrix]

They are available :)

[@mikerobertson5919]

Thanks for the info. What is the height of the conveyor belt with the stand and wheels? I have an outfeed table that I would try to line this up with.

[@ToolMetrix]

Sorry I do not have the tool in my shop anymore

[@mikerobertson5919]

@@ToolMetrix Uh oh that's not a good sign lol

[@ToolMetrix]

No, not at all. That sander is awesome! I’m a tool reviewer with a small shop. I wish I could keep all the tools but in reality I don’t have the space.

[@jasonscott6478]

Hi Paul. Nice work on this video, just like all of your other videos. I'm looking at picking one of these up soon, but I'm curious as to why you only had it in your shop for a few months. You seemed to really like it, based on your commentary, so I'm surprised you got rid of it so quickly. Are you able to expound on that here?

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Jason, that's a great question; thanks. I like to make videos on as many tools as I can get my hands on, and unfortunately I have a small shop so I can't keep them all. I would liked to have kept it longer; it's a perfect drum sander for what I do. I just didn't use it enough to justify the foot print. I also have a drum sander as part of my Woodmaster 718, although I don't use it very often either. I find that having a planer with a helical cutterhead reduces my need for a drum sander by a big chunk. I'd still like to have one for running short and/or thin pieces through, or the occasional end grain cutting board, but it's hard for me to give up the space. I built my shop before I knew I'd be doing tool reviews; if I would have known that back then, I would have built it a lot bigger. And if I had built it bigger, I'd definitely still have this drum sander.

[@jasonscott6478]

@@ToolMetrix Thanks much for the quick reply. I was concerned that you may have had issues with it, and you didn’t want to disclose that in a public forum. I’m glad to hear that you liked the sander and would have preferred to keep it. I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to cancel my purchase. Looks like I will be picking mine up tomorrow, as planned. Thanks again.

[@ToolMetrix]

Awesome! Enjoy the sander. What was your purchase to pickup lead time?

[@jasonscott6478]

@@ToolMetrix Less than a week, because I happened to catch one in stock at my local woodworker's supply store. I was quite stunned to walk in and see it there, as they are currently out of stock everywhere, with an approximately 2 month wait before the manufacturer starts shipping them out again. My understanding is that the Supermax plant is shut down due to Covid, and is way behind on orders.

[@ToolMetrix]

That’s great!!! I hadn’t heard about a plant shutdown but I’ve heard about some lead times on equipment in general. People are hunkering down and building stuff!

[@robertwelch5584]

Read a lot about tracking issues, unreliable digital gauge and poor customer service from Laguna. Any comments on that?

[@ToolMetrix]

I haven’t experienced those problems.

[@droddis]

Hey Paul, sucked me in again! Picking one up tomorrow. Any recommendations on the grits you used most often? Did you switch grits in and out, or did you tend to leave a higher finish grit in the machine most often? Thanks for another great video!

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks for the feedback! I usually have either 80 or 120 grit on a drum sander. I don’t end up switching grits very often. I mostly use the drum sander to get a good flat surface, and if I’ve only run 1-2 pieces through, I find it quicker to just finish the finer grits with a random orbital sander. The exception to that is where I’m running a bunch of pieces through, and then it makes more sense to spend the time swapping out grits. Enjoy your new sander! It’s amazing what a drum sander can do for both quality and productivity.

[@roddiscommunications1349]

@@ToolMetrix had fun over Christmas getting used to the new sander. It's definitively not built for fast, and significant amounts of material removal. But as you said, it's awesome for sneaking up on a thickness, and for those figured pieces of wood. Would you have any concern with sanding off glue remnants from cutting board glue ups? Or should I be able to pass those through without worrying about gumming up the sandpaper?

[@ToolMetrix]

No problem to run glued up panels through. Be sure to scrape of all the excess glue from the surface. Also, don’t be in too big a hurry to run the panel through after glue up. Best to wait at least a few hours so the glue isn’t gummy. If it’s still soft the heat from the sandpaper will soften it more, and potentially clog the paper.

[@benjaminbryson4537]

Great review! Hey what size is that shaft coming through the bearing on the drum?

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks Benjamin. Sorry, I don’t know and I no longer have the sander.

[@mclarkin0906]

Thanks for the video. I have a quick question. Once you have the infeed/outfeed tables flush with the belt do you have to readjust them if you fold them down?

[@ToolMetrix]

You shouldn’t have to unless something vibrates loose. I had the sander in my shop for a few months and never had to readjust it.

[@riccardomoni3598]

How much..price? Possible 220volt?

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Riccardo, you can find pricing here: amzn.to/2RUnaen. I don't know if this can be rewired for 220V. It only comes standard as 110V. You could check the manual to see if it can be rewired for 220V.

[@deblee6582]

How much is the supermax

[@ToolMetrix]

supermaxtools.com/products/wood/16-32-drum-sander-71632/

[@johnwilk4525]

where did you get the expandable conveyor?

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Johh, Here you go: amzn.to/35LypKm

[@nos2142]

Nice review I'll take 2

[@ToolMetrix]

Why buy one when you can have two for only twice the price!

[@diyballard2393]

@ToolMetrix Hey I am looking at this tool and its JET counter part 16/32 they appear similarly priced so can you give a pro/con of these two tools?

[@ToolMetrix]

I don't have any hands-on experience with the Jet. But, Jet bought PowerMax years back, and the guys who designed PowerMax also designed the Jet. Smart people, nice machines. Then, those same guys left Jet and started SuperMax and designed the SuperMax 1632 to address the shortcomings of the Jet 1632. Then Laguna bought SuperMax recently. So that explains the similarity. The big areas of improvement, as I understand it, are the dust collection and the quick height adjustment mechanism. I love the quick adjustment, and I wish I had it on my table saw and band saw. It's slick. I can't speak to the dust collection on the Jet, but the SuperMax is outstanding in that regard. I have heard that Jet has since improved their dust collection as well, but I haven't seen it firsthand.

[@diyballard2393]

Thank you, very helpful.

[@alanrees4837]

what angle do you cut the belt as i don't have a old belt for a template

[@ToolMetrix]

Not sure. You will find a handy cutting template on page 13 of the manual on line

[@twong789]

Your outfeed table is not installed properly. It has too much of a gap. It should have only a 1 inch gap between the rollers and the table, like the infeed table. Remove the 4 screws on the table and rotate the table 180 degrees. See other videos on KZbin. Btw, great review on the product!

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks for letting me know, and thanks for your feedback on the video. Cheers, Paul

[@luis13055]

en mexico donde puedo comprarla

[@ToolMetrix]

Hola, Luis, If Amazon delivers to your area you can order it here: amzn.to/2RUnaen. If not, I would contact Laguna to see what the best way to source it might be. www.lagunatools.com

[@SuperKwame1]

Just how much does it cost out of the Bank.

[@ToolMetrix]

The base price of the sander is $1199. Casters are $89, conveyor system is $180.

[@frankb.3556]

@@ToolMetrix Conveyer system? Do you mean infeed and outfeed tables?

[@ToolMetrix]

No. It’s the expanding roller system that is shown in the video.

[@frankb.3556]

@@ToolMetrix Oh. Got it. That's not a bad price for that deal.

[@bradouellette6558]

Mine is being delivered tomorrow, so psyched , I couldn’t get rid of my delta drum sander fast enough , what a piece of junk

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Brad, what did you not like about your Delta? I've never used one. Let me know what you think of the Supermax once you get it set up.

[@bradouellette6558]

ToolMetrix The worst issue was the conveyor belt , I bought a replacement OEM delta belt and could never get it to track properly , made endless calls to Delta tech support thinking I must be missing something , and tried countless times going step by step to set it up and was never resolved , secondly the elevator system consists of 4 thread screws kept in sync by a belt that loops around them , well it didn’t take long for the belt to stretch out and just skip on the gears instead of turning them even though everything was clean and lubricated , you had to physically lift the head while turning the elevator crank to get it to lift , going down was not an issue. I have several older Delta machines in the shop that perform admirable, but the stuff that coming out of Delta now isn’t work a crap.my 2 cents. Just received the Supermax today 👍

[@ToolMetrix]

Thanks for sharing, Brad. I'd be interested in your thoughts on how the Supermax compares after you spend some time with it.

[@waltwashburn17]

I really appreciate all of your deep dive reviews, however I wish they were more of an honest review and less of an in-depth commercial. Perhaps you could compare the sanding performance to your woodmaster?

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Walt, I like my WoodMaster 718 a lot. These two machines are so different that I don't know if I would do a comparison video, but I'll give that some thought. The Woodmaster is a great space saving machine, which is nice in my small shop. It's awesome at making molding, probably the best in its class. I make molding every once in a while, and when I need the capability I'm happy to have it. It's a very good planer, but probably not quite as nice as a dedicated stationary planer. With the helical cutterhead I can get a very nice surface finish, and I really like the variable speed rate. I typically run the feed at about half speed and it gives me great quality. 99% of the time that I'm using the WoodMaster it is set up as a planer. The gang rip saw capability is really cool, but I never do large production runs of molding, so I virtually never use the machine that way. If I was running a molding business, I think I would buy a second machine and set it up as a dedicated rip saw. It would be a huge time saver, and it produces really good quality blanks. The drum sander is the weakest link on the machine. The design is optimized for making molding, so the feed rollers are far apart to allow for large molding cutters. That means that you can't send small pieces through the sander or planer. Has to be a foot long. You also can't sand or plane less than 1/4" with the rubber feed rollers without a sled. Dust collection on WM is pretty decent for planing or making molding, when the chips are bigger, but the fine dust produced with sanding is a challenge. The method of attaching paper is also very different. On one hand I really like the velcro application on the Woodmaster because it prevents the sandpaper from sliding and overlapping under pressure, which will cause burning. But I don't like that I have to apply fabric tape on the ends of the sandpaper roll to hold it in place. That prevents me from changing grits. I just leave the 80 grit roll in the machine and hand sand the rest. The SuperMax, on the other hand, makes belt changes super quick and easy, so I don't mind going through multiple grits. The WM also uses a 5 HP motor requiring a 220 V 30 amp circuit, which is great for planing, but I don't see as much benefit from sanding because of the small drum size. The drum on the WM is much smaller than the SuperMax (3.5" diameter vs. 5"). Bigger drum leads to better surface finish. That said, the WM drum is super high quality, heavy duty machined steel, as is their molding/planer head. But, the smaller drum side is a definite compromise due to the multi-function purpose of the machine. If you look at the smallest dedicated drum sander that WM makes, the 26" model, it uses a 6" drum, with the same 5 HP motor that they use on their multi-function machines. That size drum will take advantage of the big motor and give you a lot more performance, along with better quality from the bigger drum.

[@waltwashburn17]

ToolMetrix Thats very helpful. Thanks a bunch!

[@ToolMetrix]

My pleasure Walt.

[@4691cvdivad]

You sure this is a 1-¾ hp?

[@ToolMetrix]

Look through the comments. I think I made a post about that right after I uploaded.

[@edholtgraver7771]

useless to me - I hoped to see how the end of the sanding roll was installed and it is not as easy as you (don't) show

[@ToolMetrix]

Hi Ed, Sorry you were unable to see what you had hoped for. I'm not sure what else I could have shown. I cut out some of the footage where I was wrapping the abrasive around the drum, but I showed where I attached it on the trailing end. I didn't find the process to be difficult at all. It's just a spring loaded mechanism that you open, insert paper, and let it clamp down on the paper. You can found a great 1 minute video on the exact topic that you are looking for here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qH3Vfp2Em6mbh9U, and they have a much better camera angle on the portion of the process that you are hoping to see. Hopefully this helps. Cheers, Paul