Customer Reviews
Can be a pain at times, but love it 
2008-02-09
I read the two star reviews and I would agree with some of those issues. I have noticed that I only get burns when the sand paper isn't tight enough and the edges overlap while the piece is going through. I shut it down, realign the paper and off I go again. I don't find the clips to hold the sand paper down all that difficult to work with, nor do I find the adjustment for the sander drum itself difficult. I do agree there is play in the bolts, but I have found if you keep them snug (don't loosen them all the way), that the knob control to raise/lower the drum still works and you can eliminate the play and lock in your adjustment.
I couldn't live without this machine in my shop. I have a Jet dust collector hooked up to it and have very little dust getting out.
I have blown my fuse a few times by trying to sand too much stock off at once, but that's human error and once I got the "feel" for it, I rarely have any mechanical issues with the sander any more. I use it on nearly all my projects.
I purchased the 16x32 before I bought this and quickly learned that the 16x32 is just too small. The extra couple hundred dollars the 22x44 is well worth it. If you can save up that extra cash, I really recommend it. Being able to run 20 inch wide shelving, cabinet walls, etc through without having to do one edge then then other is great.
This machine does take some time to get used to for sure. I ripped up a couple sheets of sandpaper, burned some wood, blew fuses, etc while getting used to everything. But now after a couple years all those mistakes are rare. But I can guarantee you will do them all if this is your first drum sander.
Very Happy With Performax 22/44 2007-11-07
I must have read every review for this sander and the 16/32 that I could find. I also read allot of other reviews about the other sanders on the market and they all pointed me back to the the 16/32. I was concerned since the 22/44 didn't have as many reviews. So now that I have owned this sander for a few months I wanted to post my review. First allot of the reviews complain about the tracking of the feed belt. I don't know what the big deal is. It is kind of like adjusting the tracking on a belt sander. A little more tension pulls it left or right depending on which nut you tighten. I found the tracking to be easy. Lining up the drum to be square with the belt is a little more difficult but not hard. When I set up this unit I read and followed the instructions which tell you about adjusting the drum with relation to the belt. The first thing you need to do is test sand a peice of wood. The test is very easy and it will show you if the drum is lined up properly. My drum is lined up near perfect. I purchased this sander over the 16/32 because it comes with a switch that automatically slows the feed of the belt to match the machines capacity. It has a little red light the lights up when you feed rate is to fast and it automatically slows the feed to the correct rate. My little red light comes on all of the time. I have never blown a fuse. I run the machine on a 15 amp circuit. That feature is worth the extra 150.00 over the 16/32 plus you can sand allot wider lumber. Since I have purchased the machine I have be glueing up lumber with out hesitation. It is so easy to run it through the sander and for it to come out perfectly flat. I will say that you have to approach the sander with patience. The rate of feed for a board is much slower than a planer. I use a couple of rollers on stands in my shop to support the wood in and out of the sander. When I am sanding I can just stand around and watch it go through. I purchased some casters from Home Depot for 4.00 each and they work just fine to move the machine around my shop. You will also need to purchase one of the big erasers that cleans the sand paper. The life of your sand paper will be 10 times. I dont think you can operate the machine without one of these cleaners. Clean sand paper helps the machine to run correctly. It is a heavy machine. It took myself and another person to set up up on the stand. So all in all it is a great machine. I now love sanding which is what I used to hate. Buy the 22/44 over the 16/32 you will be happy.
Joe N.
Arlington VA
A great drum sander! 2006-07-26
Got my Performax 649004 this week. Also got the stand, casters and additional in-feed and out-feed table. If you buy this sander, get the casters as this unit is HEAVY!
When installing the sander on its stand the bolts that were included were not the correct size and I had to make a run to the hardware store to get the correct size.
The conveyor was easy to adjust and tracking is right on. I used a straight edge to check the accuracy of the drum and it was dead on from one side to the other.
Quality of machine is excellent. The dust collector is cheezy plastic, but with my DC it works great. If you are going to use this sander you will need a strong DC. I have the Craftsman Professional DC and when sanding panels there is no sawdust that gets past the collector.
The sander has no vibration and is very quiet. It says that it needs a dedicated 20 amp service. I run it on same outlet that I have my DC on and it doesn't trip the breaker.
The casters make it very easy to move around the shop. They all swivel and have a great locking mechanism. The casters are very expensive but worth their weight in gold.
I have sanded several door panels and drawer fronts and the results were incredible. I also had several oak cabinet doors I had taken off a kitchen island, they are 21 inches wide and 24 inches long. I set the sander to take off about a 1/64" to remove the original finish and it did a fantastic job. There was no snipe at either end.
Sander came very well packaged with no damage. The boxes it comes in are the heaviest cardboard boxes I have ever seen.
You can't go wrong with this unit. I am very happy that I bought the Performax drum sander.
Look Elsewhere 
2006-03-29
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"). I'll also do multiple passes at each depth. So, I've come to the conclusion that this is underpowered. (And no, there are no glue linescausing this.)
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.
Now there are a few good things. The tracking of the conveyor belt is easy to set and it stays there. I've never had a problem with the flex in the cantilevered design. Snipe is an easily managed issue. And when it is perfectly adjusted, the belts are taut and new, it is a beautiful machine.
One reviewer mentioned that he never uses his planer anymore. I think this reviewer has spent way too much time in the finishing room without the exhaust fan turned on. Using this to true and square lumber would take 10X as long as a jointer/planer.
Another reviewer mentioned that this machine will leave a surface ready for staining/finish. Well, maybe, depending on the particular application. But one reason I got mine was to flatten doors after glue up. Because the rails run parallel to axis of the machine, the resulting sanding marks are perpendicular to the grain direction. Most people, myself included, find this objectionable.
In conclusion, unless you like fiddling with your machines more than you like working wood, stay away from this.
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 Griizly for cleaning drum sanders.
Performax22x44 2006-03-01
Product was well packaged to prevent damage, with instuctions that were easy to understand. Works well to surface and demension stock, with very accurate setup. Very pleased.
Outstanding Professional Quality Tool 2005-11-25
The Performax Plus Drum Sander Features an exclusive SandSmart controlled, infinite variable feed rate from 0 to 10 feet per minute for superior finishes with no overloading. Patented, abrasive take-up fasteners mean quick paper changes while a TEFC motor prevents dust infiltration. A continuous-duty design allows heavier use for longer periods. A precision-flattened, reinforced steel conveyor bed with a no-give power feed conveyor belt offers consistently smooth feeds. The drum height and downward pressure are adjustable to eliminate snipe. The Mini sander also Features a self-cooling, machine-balanced, 5-inch by 10-inch extruded aluminum drum with zinc-plated steel tension rollers mounted next to it. An easy-to-use cast iron, height adjustment, hand wheel allows both radical height changes and minute adjustments to 1/16-inch for precise stock removal. A safety power switch with overload protection on the front of the base protects the operator from accidental starts. Operating at 1,700 RPM, the drum also Features a sealed ball bearing for permanent lubrication and smoother sanding.
Awesome Machine 2005-11-19
After much hemming and hawing between the deltaX5 and the Performax 22-44 Plus, I ultimately decided to bite the bullet and go for the big boy. I think the greatest factor influencing my decision was not cost but rather because of my gut feeling about it. Granted, I had not used either one prior, but just playing with them in the store made me feel the Performax was a better choice.
Capacity and cost aside, the Performax in my opinion is just plain better built. It has much heavier metal and the height adjustment is super smooth and precise. Compare that to the not-so-smooth 4-corner deal and lighter framework on the delta and I get a much better feel for the Performax. More to the point, the table height adjustment wheel on the delta is anything but smooth nor is it easy to turn - not when compared side by side to the almost fluid-like motion of the Performax. That alone is rather critical to me because when you are making many multiple minor adjustments that only move the table 1/64th of an inch or so per pass, precision and an easy turning mechanism are critical.
As far as operation, assembly, and adjustments on the Performax, well they are amazingly simple. Everyone has heard the horror stories about getting the Delta set up correctly and maybe much of that is operator-related, but the Performax was pretty much ready to go right out of the box. I had only minor tweaks to make to the belt tension and drum arm and it was all quite painless. Mine came with these new belt-tracking guide thingies installed under the table that keeps the belt painlessly on track. Once it was up and running everything worked like a charm. I was quite amazed at the power of the conveyor. Don't worry about it bogging down - it's not going to happen. Besides, the feed system is auto-regulating and automatically slows the feed down if it senses too deep a cut or too fast a feed. That is a great feature to stop burning and sniping because it basically lets you know when you messed up and you learn quickly how fast and how deep you can go.
Now, that's not to say you won't end up with snipe if you cut too deep but basically if you don't overdo it, it won't snipe. I actually had to really push it to make it snipe, but as long as you work with some common sense, snipe won't even be an issue. Besides, the feed rollers have tension adjustments, which is another big plus over the Delta. And as for noise, forget it. You can barely even tell its running.
Probably the greatest test for me was flipping a panel around and checking for a ridge line where the two passes meet. Even with the 80 grit that came with it, there was no ridge line. I was completely amazed. I'd imagine that with 120 or 150 grit you can pretty much almost be ready for staining with minimal if any finish sanding.
Ok, so the bottom line is this: If you are planning on using it as a planer, you probably won't be as happy as you would with a real planer. Although the machine is very capable of doing that with 36 or 60 grit, it's not designed to remove tons of material at a time and you are asking for problems with loading the drum and feed rates and all that. As far as using it as intended as a drum sander, it is quite the awesome machine. Plenty of power, solid construction, smooth adjustments and overall ease of use make this a great choice. Mine came with a closed stand with an interior shelf which is cool but even the open stand unit is still nice. Dust collection is mandatory. Heavy? yes. Expensive? Yes I guess so, but a wise man once said, "Buy quality - cry once. Buy cheap - cry every time you use it." I've not shed a tear since I bought it!!!
Nice Machine- quality is there and performance, too 2005-08-20
"Robusto" pretty much said it. The machine, like any, needs to be setup properly... do NOT bolt it together and assume factory settings to be spot-on.. they may very well be, but it's up to the end user to verify and adjust as neccessary.
Read the manual, good tips on developing "feel" for usage and how to adjust.
First runs of glued up panels went well, "ground 'em down" to 120 grit on the 22-44 and quickly finished 'em off with my ROS to final prefinishing stage.... still collecting sanding strips, perhaps going to 180/220 will eliminate the need for the ROS during pre-assembly sanding.
I don't expect this unit to replace my planers for sizing and "hogging" down the rough stuff, but it should suffice nicely for all flat sanding with minor touch up with ROS prior to final finishing.
Assembly went OK, the drum unit is a bit of a load (for this 'ole-man, at least) to get up on the stand, so a helper would be handy.
Plastic dust shroud is servicable, it would be nice however, if Jet would redesign the "latch" with less of an interior profile .... allowing more efficient air flow and less dust build up in the center of the drum ..... (my 2hp collector keeps the rest of the drum very clean)
Installing the sanding strips require some practice, but I've managed to swap 'em out in about the same time it takes me to change the blade in my table saw. The "Tuf tool" is an optional aid for the interior takeup fastner... I use my fingers to feel the location and pressure of the fastner.
Haven't needed to install the feed tables yet, so I can't speak to "concerns" of usability.....construction of same, however, is pretty much in-line with what I've seen used by other manufacturers with this type of accessory and price range. I did opt for less expensive/third party casters... they work just fine.
Finesse is the key operative.... not "git 'r dun"
Keep the unit maintained and "tuned"
Clean it up during and after usage.
It should last a long while.
Great Quality!!! 2005-04-05
One must realize that this will not take the place of a good planer - none of these drum sanders are meant to remove a tremendous amount of material in one pass (however, I believe big belt sanders can eliminate need for a planer).
That being said, this product does a great job at sanding. The machine is well-made and very quiet. I have had no trouble whatsoever with the motor overheating or tripping my 25 amp circuit. I did need a conveyor belt replacement as mine had a "bubble" - Performax sent me a new one within a few days. Their customer service is very good.
I was initially concerned about the cantilevered design. I read complaints regarding the Performax 16-32" flexing under load or pressure. I haven't experienced this at all. It will flex a little if you really push it but this doesn't happen under normal usage.
I would really suggest this product over the competition in this price range. If you have an extra grand lying around, Grizzly makes some excellent quality belt sanders that might be more useful for some folks. However, I find this sander totally meeting my needs and expectations - and I have high demands of my woodworking tools.
Some important suggestions for those who are buying this product:
1) Align the drum head to the table. Ensure all bolts are tightened. This is a
product that needs to be properly set-up to work correctly!!!
2) Run the piece through several times and in different orientations for the intial
run. Don't take off more than a quarter-turn and run through twice at
each depth.
3) By an abrasive cleaning stick (~ $10). As soon as any dust loads the paper, clean
it off. This will help eliminate burns
4) Use the correct grit sandpaper for the job.
Overall, this is a great product that will give you uniform results. I highly recommend!!!
Good sander! Just be aware of its limitations. 
2005-01-04
Purchased a Performax 22-44 Plus from www.amazon.com a few months ago. Figured I'd post my experiences with the 22-44 and Amazon since I know I found these reviews very helpful when it came time to make my own decisions on what and where to buy.
Woodmaster, Delta, Grizzly, and Performax, seem to be the manufacturers most discussed when the topic of drum sanders came up.
The specific pros and cons have been discussed extensively in various newsgroups. Suggest a few Google searches using the appropriate key words to form your own opinion. In any case, I decided on the Performax 22-44 Plus based on the following (obviously, ymmv):
Woodmaster: (+) best quality, (+) excellent performance, (-) very expensive
Delta: (+) good quality, (~) debatable performance, (+) affordable
Grizzly: (+) good quality, (~) debatable performance, (+) affordable
Performax: (+) good quality, (+) good performance, (+) affordable
I wasn't able to try out any of these machines prior to purchase, so the above observations were based on my review of the various on-line threads and magazine reviews. Now that I've had a chance to use this thing a while here's some of my personal observations.
First off, there were quite a few comments about tripping/popping breakers if you weren't careful feeding material (the 22-44 draws up to 20 amps under load). I'm scratching my head on that one. I run my unit on a dedicated 15 amp breaker; sometimes on the same circuit as my 1 1/2 hp dust collector by accident. I've found the sandpaper begins burning/gouging the wood long before it'll pop a breaker. This end result is the same regardless of the grit (i.e., 36 to 220). I usually sand pieces 5 to 8 inches wide (mostly oak); however, I've fed a few glued boards 16 to 20 inches wide with the same results. I only tripped a breaker once when I inadvertently tried to feed some 3/4 inch material through the 22-44 with it set to 5/8. It tried to take off an 1/8 inch in one pass (1/32 is about max in one pass)--the drum came to a screeching halt when the breaker popped. Patience is the only game in town with the 22-44. From my experience (i.e., my feeding style), it takes 3 or 4 (sometimes more) passes at a given height before you can safely crank the height down a quarter-turn (1/64 inch) for subsequent passes. Rush and you'll burn/gouge the material and drastically reduce the life of the sandpaper (if not ruin it altogether). With belts running about $5 to $10 a pop (Klingspor is the best value IMHO; also OEM for Performax), it's an expensive mistake. Angling the material just slightly for each pass with an occasional straight feed greatly increases the effectiveness of the sanding. It reduces burning and increases the efficiency of the sanding process. Sanding depths less than 1/8" will cause the conveyor belt to rub the drum's sanding belt occasionally. The primary culprit are the distortions (deformities) to the conveyor belt resulting from sitting in one position too long (i.e., while in transit). I've sanded down to 1/16" without a backer board. The only consequence (to my knowledge) has been the occasional "smoothing" of the conveyor belt surface and slightly increased wear to my sanding belt.
A pleasant surprise with the 22-44 has been the consistency of the sanding depth (this is assuming you've properly set the left/right side drum height). I've found after sanding with 120 grit or higher, no detectable differance in height *anywhere* on the material (middle, corners, etc.). If you need precise thickness for several pieces, don't touch the depth handle (it may not be easily repeatable without a bit of trial & error sanding using your thickness guage). I assure you anything you final sand at that static setting will be same, exact thickness as the other pieces you sand at that same setting. Some users noted conveyor belt tracking problems. One minor adjustment during the first hour of use was all my 22-44 needed to track correctly.
Quality of construction and material ranges from excellent to outstanding. The machine itself is very quiet. However, the sanding process can get very noisy. Do *not* use the 22-44 without a dust collector--it's hard on the machine, sandpaper, and most importantly, your health. I decided against the purchase of Performax in/out feeder supports. Since they don't appear to be adjustable, it seemed moot. I've been very successful (zero snipe) using the same support devices one would use to safely, accurately cut a large item on your table saw or planer.
I had some issues with shipping damage which amazon.com and WMH Group (distributor for Jet, Performax, Powermatic, etc.) rectified satisfactorily. Fixes didn't happen overnight and required followup and patience. I got the feeling both companies genuinely care about their customers. However, they're just too big and cumbersome to give that hold-your-hand, it'll be ok in the morning response. If that's important to you consider buying locally.
My two cents :)
