Accessories

Very Nice Machine
I purchased this about a month ago and have use it a little. So far it has performed very well. Like another reviewer said, out of the box there is almost no assembly required(just some heavy lifting to get it out of the box). The precut sandpaper goes on easily as there are no tools required. I have had no problems with the belt tracking as of this time. The machine seems to have plenty of power as long as you don't try to remove too much material in one pass. All in all, I am really glad I bought this machine.

Just a couple of notes.

1. At the time of this review, Home Depot.com is selling this for $500 with free shipping.
2. The cheapest place I have found to buy the precut belts is Amazon.

Does the job but is really touchy
After reading all the reviews, both plus and minus, I bought it. It does the job but is really touchy. As others have said, it does kick off a lot, especially if the sanding dust builds up on the drum (caused in my case by not having a stronger dust collector). The belt also wonders from side to side. I have used it for over six months and it still wonders. Not a big problem but something you have to watch. I put a piece of masking tape on each side of the belt with a arrow. When the belt wonders past the arrow I adjust the tension, which is an easy task. I would recommend this product if you are not in a hurry because you can only crank it down one quarter turn on each pass and have to run the belt at about one half spead. The drum on my unit was not level so one side sands more than another. I just turn the piece end for end and make a second pass.
I started with 80 grit sandpaper like comes on the machine but found that left scratch marks in the wood. I switched to 120 and get a better finish. The sanding belts are a little tricky to install. I tried the tool that comes with the machine but could never get it to work. You can buy the belts in long rolls from another manufactorer for a lot less.
I picked the smaller unit because I have a small shop and the price was a lot less. If I had it to do over I would buy the next size up. I have used the double pass method on wider boards and it does work OK.
The sander works great in very small pieces and on all types of woods including exotics like ebony.
I am a frequent and experienced woodworker who uses this sander a lot. Once you practise a little it does the job and saves a lot of time and money over using a random orbit sander. I would recommend you buy it if you are willing to put up with the issues I have listed above.

Jet Drum Sander
After reading other reviews I was a bit reluctant to order this sander. They weren't very positive. The main complaint was the tracking of the feed belt. I did have to dial the unit in when first set up but after that I have continually made very minor adjustments as I was sanding to keep everything running smooth.
I make guitars so I use the Jet to thickness my tone woods. I can take the measurement down to under one eigth inch with no problem at all. Just a fantastic and very even finish. I'm stoked with it!!

Shane Donavan
Laguna Beach, CA

Just Okay
I had a Performax 16-32 but had to downsize due to a recent move. This Jet 10-20 (They didn't send a Performax) is not the same quality as the Performax was, IMHO. The manual says that all adjustments were made at the factory but I had to adjust the tracking, conveyor belt tension, and roller position. The manual says that the trackers should be installed but they were already on the machine that I got. There are worn sections along the sides of the tracking belt which causes me to wonder if this machine is used. However, everything else looks new. The motor that runs the conveyor is quite noisy compared to my previous . This machine is heavy duty though as was the 16-32 and pretty much the same size and weight (except for the conveyor and drum). The dust port is on the back side of the drum roller rather than on the top (like the 16-32). Seems to be a better location for dust collection. I only ran a test piece of rough popular through so far and it came out okay. The paper is 80 grit. I ordered some finer grit paper but it's on backorder. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now.

Update August 2, 2008. I had not used this sander for awhile. I had a warped piece of 1/2" thick mahogany that I wanted to try and flatten. I did run it through a bunch of passes and it did take a lot of the warp out. For those who have had the motor lug and/or burning, this is mainly caused by trying to take too much off in a single pass. Yes, the wood will have scratch marks if the grit is too coarse. Just as in hand sanding, you have to go to finer grits toward the end of your sanding process. I finish with 180. The drum alignment was way off, but not difficult to change. This has to be done more often that one might think. The little holder tool works just fine. I'm just now buying the infeed/outfeed tables. If your paper starts filling up, you need to apply one of those gum rubber sticks. I got mine at Harbor Freight--makes your paper last a lot longer.

Performax 10-20 sander
I've had this unit for about a year. I've run several hundred feet of wood through the machine so far. The reason why I got a drum sander is that my planer would take chunks instead of cuts of wood with switchback grain. The drum sander eliminates that problem plus the snipe is gone too. You are limited to a max thickness of 3" though. I cut thick veneers 1/8" on my bandsaw and this machine is perfect for cleaning up those pieces. I never got good results using the planer on such thin wood - again, too much tearout. I would have liked to had the 16-32, but the 10-20 fits better into my small workshop.

No faults were found in packaging, fit or finish. I've had no tracking problems and changing the belt is easy. I've used the belt tool a few times, but I don't bother with it any more. If your fingers are large, you may have difficulty with the belt change.

Using 80 grit paper and the feed rate set to ~75% I find I can consistently take off 1/64" of a 6" wide board of red oak. This is more of a finesse machine - you're not going to easily remove 1/16" at a time. I can tell when the motor will tend to overload by the sound - I just crank down the feed rate for that section. If the motor stops, I hit the drum power button, let it run through and pass it back through at a slower feed rate. That way I won't have to futz with the depth setting - handy when thicknessing many boards to the same size. I rarely have the overload breaker kick off anymore.