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I am thinking of purchasing a thickness sander. I will be using this to thickness my sides and, if the sander is wide enough, my plates. What do you recommend?

Thanks,

Doug Ubele

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Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

You can't go wrong man, it will be one of the most used machines in your shop. Check the Online Resources...

I have a Performax 16-32 openended sander. I use it for thicknessing everything. Top, Back, sides. I have had it for about 1 1/2 years. I have ran over 9 guitars worth of wood through it so far with no problems. A good solid machine.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

I used my 16-32 Performax for over 100 guitars. It has its quirks but
there's no better machine for the money. The Delta seems comparable in
many ways, though the service from Performax is unbeatable.

I switched to a 25" Performax last year and have grown to prefer it to the
16-32 but it's more expensive to operate (conveyor belts are much more
expensive, only 2/3 the number of sandpaper strips for the same price)
and takes up more room. The fact that the drum is supported on both
sides makes it possible to hog off more wood in one pass without
disturbing the alignment.

Hope that's helpful.

Rick Davis

went to look up performax at amazon, and most of the search results were condoms. Why did those jerks have to buy Tool Crib?

Rick, you inspired me to buy one 'til I looked at the price.

Build your own. Much cheaper, and will probably work just as well, if not better.

I built my own, and when I measured around the perimeter of a joined top, I could not discern any difference in thickness using a vernier caliper with one thousanths of an inch increments. At first I thought I must be reading it wrong, checked it again against a digital caliper to remove the boofhead factor, same result.

If you buy one, like Rick says; you want one that has the drum supported at both ends.

Performax is made by Jet tools if that helps.

josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

I have the Performax 16-32 as well- its a great machine. I paid 700.00 at Amazon, free shipping.
IT was a bit tricky to set up, but once the drum is straight and tightened down, your all set to go.
The conveyor belt split onces, I called performax, they set me a new one, no questions asked, great customer service.
Id argue that you (don't) need the unit that is supported at both ends, the 16-32 is not, it is suspended over the conveyor belt at one end only.
Obviously the larger unit would be nicer -I think - but also more money.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I don't own a thickness sander but I do know that many guitars have be made with the Performax 16/32. This is an open ended sander that works on wider boards. The type of sander that is supported on both ends can't process a wider board. Grizzly, for example, has a 16" sander for $895 but their next size up $1325. That's a 24" version but you only need a 17 or 18 inch sander. 16" is too small for a whole top if you are making anything larger than an OM.

I'd go for the open ended sander and deal with the stair step that you get when you sand a wide board. I've heard that that stair step can be made indetectable if the tool is set up properly. Or, a couple of swipes with a scraper will take care of it.

Haven't built mine yet (have almost all the parts, though) but the reason I'm going with at least 22" wide is so I can run some of the more resinous woods through it angled, or for backs, even sideways. Read enough tips and hints from various people on various forums (Mario springs to mind) to convince me that, if building your own, might as well future proof it for dealing with cocobolo and the like!

Delta's new equivalent to the Performax is an 18" model. I've had no experience with this machine but it would be wide enough and the cost is about the same.

I have the little Performax 10-20 for space reasons. There is no stair step if you adjust it just so, but you will end up with the center slightly thicker than the outsides. Since this mimics how I graduate anyways, that's actually a nice thing for me.

Is the performax 10/20 adequate?

The trade off with the smaller units is accuracy. The frame of the machine
isn't rigid enough to give the consistent results necessary for lutherie.
For a little more money, you'll got alot more machine with a 24"
Woodmaster drum sander. www.woodmastertools.com
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

I have the Performax 22-44 for 12 years and I find it underpowered (1-1/2 hp)and not rigid enough.
I've been thinking of getting a 2 sided fixed machine or a small wide belt. Does anyone have any experience with the Grizzly 18" wide-belt? I spoke with John Monteleone when he first got his and he recommended it,but he hadn't had it very long.

I have the performax III, which is the predecessor to the 22-44. it is a nice machine as long as not trying to do very wide boards, so I agree with the former post about being underpowered. It also has tracking problems with the conveyor belt. It works nice on softer woods like our guitar tops, but not as well on harder woods.
Tom

I have the Grizzly 16". When buy a new one will go 24" but this works very well. Paper is a pain to change, but once get used to it goes on ok. I think they could do better also with dust collection, but again I put a 1 1/2hp on it and does ok. I seen an article somewhere for making a thing to also blow dust inside of it for better collection I may do. All in all though my next one will be a Grizzly but just little bigger. If go that way spend few more bucks and get 24" and get the base that you can roll around. I wish I had it and this thing is heavy. It is a dual drum and runs 220.

I have the Delta 18/36. It works fantastic.

It takes a little trial and error to get a sense of how much material you can remove with what grit paper at what feed rate, but once you get the hang of it, it's hard to imagine how you ever lived without it.

[QUOTE=Dickey] You can't go wrong man, it will be one of the most used machines in your shop. Check the Online Resources...[/QUOTE]

My thoughts exactly!!

I'm still running my old Ryobi, I don;t even know if they sell this anymore but after about 8 years it's still going. When the conveyor belt tore they sent me a free replacment that was made of rubber and it works much better than the old sandpaper type. I just tweaked the allignment this weekend and it sands true all the way across. Last year I set it up with hook and loop paper and I really like that addition. Changing paper is a breeze and the paper seems to last about twice as long now.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John, I've got a Ryobi as well, just haven't gotten around to using it yet. I'll be contacting you about setup and the conversion to hook and loop here shortly.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

John,
did you just put the stickyback hook stuff on the drum in a spiral?

I have the Grizzly 18" wide belt. I absolutely love it! No problems and the
belts seem to last forever. In my opinion, a wide belt is really the only
way-anything else is a compromise.

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Sylvan
http://www.wellsguitars.com

It's all in the lineal feet of sandpaper per revolution.
If you do the math it's an incredible difference in the belt alone.

Wide belts have it going on.... providing you can finance it....

Sylvan, I think you may just win the "OLF guy with the coolest tool award." I know a guy here in town making instrument stands. He's ordering the 18 " Grizz....

Ive been using a 16 -32 for few years now. its a good machine, but i need something that does the job faster....

I spend way to much time in performax pergatory, and would love to get a better/faster machine.

thanks for tip on thew grizzly Sylvan.

would anyone like to buy a slightly used performax?

Matt