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I'm looking at the Supermax 19-38 thickness sander. It's gotten pretty consistently positive reviews, but I was just wondering if anyone here had any direct experience?

Thanks in advance

Steve

No experience with the 19-38 but I have a #913003 25×2 Dual Drum. I can't believe that it came from Taiwan. The quality of materials and construction is beyond reproach. It works very, very well. I had a Performax 16-32 that was made in the US after Jet bought the rights and, while it was a good machine that gave me no trouble, the Supermax is is notch above and if the choice were between the Jet 16-32 (which now made in Asia) and the 19-38, I'd find a few extra bucks for the latter.

I have been using the Supermax 19-38 for about a year now and it is the best small drum sander I have ever used. A friend of mine has the Performax 16-32 and I would rate it as a 7 out of 10 and the Supermax as a 9 out of 10. There is no belt tracking issue with the Supermax and the setup was much easier. Changing out sandpaper is simpler too.

I have one. Had it for about a year and I am planning on writing a thorough review of it soon. It is built extremely well...reminds me of the old Powermatic and Delta tools from the 50's and 60's. Compared to the Jet 16-32 it's about 100 pounds heavier, with beefier drum trusses (not sure what this is called), and a metal drum lid (Jet is plastic). The casters are very high quality and heavy duty with locks on all of them. Mine was accurate to .002" across ~18" width straight out of the crate. The optional infeed outfeed extensions are also very well built and solid. I got the optional digital calipers and glad I did. Supermax is in Michigan and the people there are very nice. It's a small outfit so you get to talk to a real person, that knows what's going on and not some call center with hold time. Overall, I am VERY happy with this purchase.

If I had to nitpick, this is about the only things I can think of to improve: would be nice to have an optional 6" dust port (comes with 4"), and would be handy to have the digital calipers hold calibration. Every time you turn it off, it zeros, and you have to reset it. I just leave it on all the time.

Interesting. My DRO only resets if the machine is unplugged. There isn't any on/off switch except the two that start the conveyor and the drum rotation. So, I leave it plugged in, of course.

Okay, I did it, and couldn't be any happier. It went together well, and it works darn near perfectly right out of the box. Drum is pretty much perfectly parallel with the feed belt, give or take .1mm.

I can't believe I put up with the old sander as long as I did. Under "false economy" in the dictionary, there's a big picture of that one.

Steve