JET 16-Inch Drum Sander, Open Stand, 1-1/2 HP, 115V 1Ph (JWDS-1632)

I'm a hobbyist woodworker with as passion for making end grain cutting boards with inlays using a CNC router. There is a ton of sanding to be done if you want the inlays to look seamless and professional looking, and after about my first 5 cutting boards and countless hours pushing an orbital sander around I knew I had to up my game and buy a drum sander. After tons of researching and shopping I settled for this machine, and I ordered it from Amazon in March of 2020. If you've never owned a drum sander before and are seriously considering one, let me tell you that there is a bit of a learning curve when you first start using it. I destroyed the first roll of sandpaper I installed on it in the first 15 minutes, and I did more harm than good on that first cutting board I ran through it. It's not something that you can run a piece of wood through in the first pass and it comes out the other side perfectly sanded. You have to be patient and run your work through several times, with very small sanding increments to get good results. If you set it to sand too deep, with the conveyor set too fast you'll destroy the sand paper and burn the surface of your work pretty quick. Don't get into a hurry. But once you figure out the sweet spots of depth versus conveyor speed depending on the wood, this thing will make you look like a pro. Changing the sandpaper isn't too bad but it's not a quick change process and I've found that 120 grit is the most versatile for my needs and leave that on most of the time. It's so much better than an orbital or belt sander because it's easy to create dips and cups. But with this thing, your work stays perfectly level and consistent. Very important when I'm sanding my inlays. It's now December of 2021 and my drum sander is still going strong. I'm finally to the point where I want to buy indeed/outfeed extensions. This has become one of the most important tools in my shop and if my shop ever caught fire, I might would even risk it to drag this machine out to safety. I'm half serious, half joking because as of me writing this review I see that the sander is almost $900 more than what I paid for mine almost 2 years ago, making this truly a financial investment! If tons of sanding is an important part of your woodworking process like it is mine, you'll soon wonder how you ever got along without this machine in your shop. It's truly been a life saver for me and worth every penny I spent on it.

Love this sander ! I added the infeed / outfeed tables. Great sander. Very heavy duty drum motor and good feed motor. The sander came with 2 damaged parts but the JET customer service sent me replacement parts promptly, in which I installed easily. Highly recommended!

Why did I wait so long to get this? This machine works amazing. I did upgrade the stand to have lockable wheels which works great in my garage since everything needs to be put to the side to make room for vehicles, and even that was super easy to do with this stand's design. Changing paper is very easy too with the toolless design. Absolutely no complaints

Outstanding piece of equipment and outstanding customer service. Maching arrived with a broken dust cover. After calling the service number, a Tennessee number, a nice woman answered the phone and in less then 5 minutes a replacement piece was on the way. Sander works wonderfully. I highly recommend using with a dust collection system. Sander makes lots of wonderful dust. I highly recommend this drum sander.

Sander was delivered but UPS at some point shipped it upside down. The sander broke loose from the thin plywood that was bolted to the bottom and it broke the dust hood and the table parallelism adjuster. I returned the damaged unit and ordered another. I hope the next one arrives undamaged or I will continue to return them until I receive an undamaged unit. Jet should have labeled the box with "THIS END UP" !! The sander is heavy duty and well made.

I bought this sander about a year ago. We make cutting boards, charcuterie boards, cheese boards etc. What we sand is all hard wood, ash,cherry,black walnut,maple. The sanded has been trouble free, and done a very good job of starting the sanding process and some flattening of the boards. It is a real time saver and was an excellent investment.

Does as advertised. Works great. Set-up is easy. Pleasantly surprised how well it works.

Just a note on my experience with Jet Tools company. Many of you I am sure know Jet Woodworking Tools and many own some of their equipment. I own a Jet 12” disk Sander; Jet Lath; Jet Mortice machine; Jet Drum Sander Model 22-44 Plus. My Drum sander broke down, a bushing on the drive belt went bad and damaged the bushing, the adjusting arm and wore the idle rod. I was able to order the bushing, a $5.00 part but the adjusting arm and idle rod (they call it the driven rod) have been discontinued. The Driven rod was not that bad, and I could use it, but the adjusting arm was not usable. I purchased this in 2006 and it has been a wonderful machine. Now the replacement machine sells for $2,459.00 not including tax. Jet has decided not to carry replacement parts for their machines, they refer you to E-Replacement to get parts. The problem is since Jet does not provide parts, they also do not have them. I found a number of other parts dealers, but they also do not have the parts. Now the adjustment arm is a piece of steel 3” long with a 90-degree bend at the end and used to adjust the tension on the driven rod to tighten the drive belt. If available, it would cost less than $10.00. Jet informed me that just like the auto industry people rely on after market parts. That would not be a problem if Jet produced a million or more machines of each model as the auto industry does. I’m sure there would be companies willing to make the parts as needed. But for a company that only makes a few thousand machines off a model, there are no companies willing to step up to the plate. Their advice is to upgrade to a new model. For the sake of a $10.00 part I have to purchase a new machine at the cost of $2,459.00 plus tax. You need to know who you are dealing with and what would happen if your machine breaks down after the warranty expires. We do live in a “buyer beware” environment.