I wanted to add a drum sander to sand some cabinet doors I am making. I did a lot of research and came across the Supermax sander. There is not a lot of information on this sander as it has been out about a year. So I took a chance on what was listed as features that seemed to address some of the concerns with drum sanders and made the purchase. The sander is well packaged for shipment. It comes with an open stand that is fine (you will need casters), but I ordered the closed stand. I also opted for the feed tables. Paint is good, no chips or anything. The things I like about it are it was very easy to set up. It is all cast iron and sits on a cast iron frame. I checked the drum concentricity was less than 0.001. Initially the table was -0.029 low on the open end. Adjustment is made by loosing 4 allen screws and adjusting by turning one nut to raise and lower that end. Within two iterations (10 minutes) I was within 0.001 and quit there. That was about all the set up there was to it. The belt tracking seemed fine, no problems with any of the hardware or threads during minimal assembly. Everything fit nicely. Features I like are the solid metal cover. It is thick metal and when attaching a dust collector hose it is solid and has a positive latch. I like the DRO that was a free upgrade at the time I ordered the sander. I think without it I would be burning a lot of wood until I got the hang of it. I was amazed how easy it was for me to change the sand paper. They provide a little tool to hook the closed end clip, but there is plenty of room for your fingers. The Supermax has what they call a fast lever which I have not used yet. This is for sanding wider than the 19-inch width. To use it you loosen two bolts and move the lever, then retighten the bolts. This adjusts the table for sanding wider than 19 inches. The belt is a variable speed with what Supermax calls intelisand that will slow the speed automatically if too much is being taken off. It has a 1 ¾ hp motor. I somehow tested this by trying to take too much off and putting a nice 2 inch burn mark in the wood, but the motor did not stall (and the intellisand did kick in). The motor and DRO are made specifically for Supermax to their specifications, so no mfg name on them. The boards I sanded came out very flat within a few thousands the entire length and I have not noticed any snipe at all indicating the pressure rollers were adjusted properly at the factory. Lastly the Supermax Customer Support is excellent. Very quick to answer my questions and the fact that they only make sanders I think is a plus. Overall the performance, quality, support and use I give it 5 stars in every category. I think it is a very good tool competitively priced and if you are looking for a drum sander you might want to check this one out.

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