I’m looking for a Cyclone Grit Drum for a Hitachi P20SB (or, I may setup another planer around the availability of the drum). I recently ordered a Shapers AU gold carbide barrel, but it showed up missing some teeth, no factory box, no warranty info…for a part this expensive, you’d think these guys would be more professional about their parts; I’m concerned these guys sent me a lemon. (They also forgot to add a rail guage, really bad service, shipping halfway across the world!) For the money, these new barrels should be perfect–no missing teeth, cleaning tooling marks from balancing, and no hang-nail teeth sticking to the side of the barrel. It looks like the casting/metal was poorly executed at fabrication. Anyone else agree or dissagree? (See photos). Shapers says it’s unnoticable when operating due the speed of the planer. But, honestly, wouldn’t you be pissed to pay for a new barrel and it shows up missing 17+ teeth? After lenghty correspondance, Shapers still can’t send me warranty info. Bad experience, be warned.
Back to the carbide grit drum: where do I get one reasonably priced in the USA? -I’m shaping a lot of EPS and XPS, could really make my life easier. Not just shaping paddle/surf boards, I do other things with polystyrene extensively.
uni: You don't say where you are at, but if you are in the US/Canada or even Europe, there are better sources at close to the same price. I don't like barrels that don't have evacuation channels in the design. I have two barrels, one on a Hitachi and another on a Skil. Without the channels, you can expect clogs and your planner to heat up and go thru bearings quicker. FoamEZ had some at one time, do a search on their website to see if they have any left. Also, they are available on the east coast at Surf Source and they have them on their site too I believe. My suggestion is that you ask for a refund, stop payment on the credit card & ship that sucker back!! It looks like that they don't care about overseas customers. Just my 2c...
i have the cyclone - i like it alot. i havent used another type of grit drum - only blades. anyways it made my planer work much more accurate and detailed. great on foam, not so good on the wood stringers. still have one with blades for the rough work on big/multiple stringers… that spiked barrel you have looks interesting - i would be bummed if it came to me looking like that…
I bought one from this guy awhile back and was happy with the whole thing. Nice quality and good service. Not sure if he's still selling them. Try a PM maybe?
yeah, can’t really see using this $19 barrel on a weekender-joe planer, but the other end of the spectrum it’s hard to find these grit barrels. FoamEZ stop selling the spiral barrels because they were destroying their planers (not balanced). -That’s one of the reasons why I went with the Shapers AU barrel; they claim it’ll last thousands of boards of shaping. The other reason is I couldn’t find a barrel of this caliber anywhere but Austrailia. Hand shaping would be cool if my boards were PU, but I’m dealing with tempramental foam.
**I’ve been hashing out the defective barrel with Shaper’s AU; I have an inclining if I return this barrel, they’ll refund me and then not sell me a clean barrel in spite of my rejecting the first one. **They swear it doesn’t matter if teeth are missing (WTF?). These guys also forgot to ship a rail guage I purchased while tallying it in the packing list. Totally unprofessional.
Shapers AU won’t tell me the warranty on the barrel, these guys come across non-schalant. Wish I could find a U.S. manufacturer. The last posts on grit drums for sale via Swaylocks were in 2009. There’s a shop in Florida that lists them online, but they say that they no longer stock them.
Meanwhile 2 members on the forum want to buy this defective one. Getting your hands on a barrel appears difficult after some internet digging. I’d like to try this one by Shapers AU if these aussies would just explain the f–ing warranty. --AND a discount. Nobody should have to pay full price for new parts that are defective. Unless there’s a shaper out there that can validate Shaper’s AU claim of 20+ years going strong on these barrels (while missing some carbide teeth), I’d have to say that what I purchased from them is basically “defective equipment”.
@ ace: thanks, understood. Maybe I’m over-reacting. I suppose if the barrel was $100, a few missing teeth out of the gate would be something to yawn at. But this beast is pricey. Shaper’s AU said nothing on their website that I should expect the carbide cutting teeth to shed before their first use. They did, however, go on and on about how perfect and longlasting these barrels are.
I like clean work & solid equipment myself, so before I’m a “Pro”, I’d like to produce some solid work knowing that my skills are tested first, and not some two-bit part a merchant sold me thinking I was too ignorant to notice.
Hey Univurshul I’ve seen the rail gauge’s at shapers and they are rubbish. Just print your rail slice from shape 3d or boardcad and cut out on MDF ect ect. Or easier, print the rail slice onto the thickess paper/cardboard that will go through your printer then rasor blade.
Thanks, Marsh. Yeah, I figured it would be something I could replicate in my own fashion. I just wanted to see what their rail defaults are all about since they were shipping the barrel anyway. The aussies aren’t kidding when it comes to board building. They make XPS without blowing agent trapped in the cells apprently. That’s f–ing awesome. 5-10 is the new 6-0 if we could figure that out.
-Shapers AU got back to me and discounted that shaping barrel they sent w/ missing teeth, but they insisted the discount was by courtesy only, and that they routinely remove sections of teeth for shapers as the stock amount they cast on a single barrel is overkill. -OK, cool. If the barrel performs flawlessly, I’ll spend more cash with these guys, I suppose they didn’t have to be this cool about my bitching & ranting. (What can I say, I like perfect parts out of the box; I paid retail for this thing). I’ve heard both ends of the spectrum about this barrel; today I talked with Bruce Jones over the phone from his shop at Sunset and he swears by the Shapers AU barrel; & said he had problems with the Cyclone (fit/size) on his planers.
Nevertheless, I’d like a second barrel to compare, preferably a grit/sander type with escape channels. If anyone has an extra or going the CNC route, hit me up. Skil 100 or Hitachi Clark
