A drum sander is a pretty basic machine; a sandpaper conveyer belt moves the wood under a spinning cylinder/drum that is covered in replaceable sand paper. Tensioned rollers keep the wood pressed down on the conveyer so it doesn't slip. The drum can be moved up and down to apply the proper sanding depth.

The problems some reviewers have had with this machine are:

1. There is a problem adjusting the tracking of the conveyer belt, which is like a giant portable belt sander. The belt can drift to one side or the other.  The front roller is adjustable so the belt stays centered.

To facilitate this adjustment, Performax has included clever little captive wrenches built into the frame of the conveyer assembly. This should make the adjustment easy. However, mine drifted to the left and adjusting it had no effect. I ended up completely loosening all the adjusters, and starting over again. This time the belt centered and it was easy to adjust exactly to where it was supposed to be.

I suspect that the belt, which after all is 16" wide, might have been just a hair out of square and all the adjusting served to stretch it out to a perfect rectangle. I believe the problem is that some belts may be more out of square than others. The actual mechanism is unlikely to be defective.

2. Adjusting the sanding drum so it is parallel to the conveyer belt is obviously important, but it is not easy to do. There is a knob that you turn to move the outer end of the drum up and down until it is set correctly. However, one must loosen 4 (!) bolts to free the assembly so it will move and then tighten them to hold it in place. The act of tightening them moves the adjustment out of place. If you are a zillionith of an inch off on the inside, then you are way off 16" away on the outboard end. One can spend a lot of time messing with this.

Amazon recommends setting the outer end a teeny bit up when sanding panels wider than the drum. This will result in a high spot in the middle of the panel which is better than low spots or grooves caused by the outer end of the drum digging into the wood. However, adjusting the drum is such a pain that most people will be content to set it once and leave it.

 I set mine to be just a tiny bit up, an unmeasureable amount. I send my boards destined for glue-up twice through on the final sanding , turned around the second time, so that each board side is equally thick on all edges.

3. Replacing the sandpaper just takes a little practice. Clearly, it must be installed properly to work well. The paper rolls onto the drum and each end is secured by little levered clips in the ends of the drum. A little tool is supplied to loosen the inbord clip, but I find that just just reaching and pulling it up with a finger is easier.

4. Some users have problems with the drum motor overload breaker popping. Pushing the reset button starts it up again. This is all by design so that you do not try to sand off more than you should in one pass or set the conveyer belt speed too high.

You must sand at a shallow depth and at low feed rate. If you think the sanding process is too slow and get impatient, just think of hand sanding. Even set at a crawl, the machine is way faster than you. All this depends on the grit, the kind wood, the width of the wood as well as the conveyer speed and the depth of cut.

I am careful to set a shallow sanding depth and a pretty slow feed rate and so  I rarely have to reset it. If it does pop I just slow down the conveyer belt some more. This is a small machine with limited horsepower for small shops. There is a reason they make those 30 hp one-ton units. Like Norm's.

4. Some have complained about slop in the drum adjuster. The crank that moves the drum up and down has a lot of play in it so it is hard to feel how much actual adjustment is going on when the crank is turned. Tactile feel is very important when you are trying to adjust things just a hair. These sorts of measurements are too small to show up on the depth guage.

The adjuster should be equiped with an adjustable friction device. Several of my small tools have that feature and clearly a $1000 machine should. And I really miss an adjustable positive depth stop like my Makita planer. This would allow for a repeatable final sanding depth.

5. Snipe has been reported as a problem and it is. It is very difficult to hold the wood perfectly level as it enters and exits the drum. Setting up multiple roller stands is not easy and others have mentioned that the optional in and out-feed tables are difficult to level as well.

Some sort of built-in support is necessary for this machine to work properly. The tables, or other devices, should have been built in to the design and included in the price. This should not have been an option. It is like making the tires optional on a car. Speaking of options, I have a new Grizzly 6" jointer that came with built-in wheels. Very nice. Really quite necessary for the small shop. Aftermart wheels are available elsewhere.

So, what is my advice? This machine can be adjusted to function perfectly. When it is set up properly it is indeed a very useful and important tool. The problem is that the adjustments are too difficult and so many machines are out of adjustment and simply do not work as they should. In addition, not including the tables introduces an unnecessary cheap and greedy factor.

Performax is clearly not losing any money selling these units for $1000. Add on the  the price of sandpaper and options and it is an even more costly option for the small shop. A tweak to the drum depth adjuster, a redesign of the drum levelling mechanism, a positive stop for the sanding depth, incorporating feed tables and making the stand mobile are really simple and inexpensive upgrades that lucky owners in the future hopefully will enjoy. I note that Grizzly now has a comparable consumer model and I suspect other manufactorers will enter the market. That competition will hopefully lower the price and increase the utility.

The whole idea of smoothing wood with rocks glued to fabric seems sort of strange, really. Perhaps the future will bring lasers or microwaves or something  modern. In the meantime, be aware that sanders create a lot of dust, the fine and dangerous kind, much worse than shavings and such. I looked into shop dust control, hoping to get a simple vacuum, and found a whole confusing and expensive anti-dust world out there. A portable vac is not the best thing to use for high volumns of fine dust. Big dust collectors, cyclones and those sorts of things are more appropriate for this machine, but are very speciallized and expensive. I use the screaming Sears vac now (are all Sears product planners deaf?), but for many reasons that will have to change.

I can't go below 3 stars if, in the end, the machine actually performs as it should, but the inconvenience and cheapness factors noted above and in other reviews cost it a couple of stars.
A drum sander is a pretty basic machine; a sandpaper conveyer belt moves the wood under a spinning cylinder/drum that is covered in replaceable sand paper. Tensioned rollers keep the wood pressed down on the conveyer so it doesn't slip. The drum can be moved up and down to apply the proper sanding depth. The problems some reviewers have had with this machine are:

1. There is a problem adjusting the tracking of the conveyer belt, which is like a giant portable belt sander. The belt can drift to one side or the other. The front roller is adjustable so the belt stays centered. To facilitate this adjustment, Performax has included clever little captive wrenches built into the frame of the conveyer assembly. This should make the adjustment easy. However, mine drifted to the left and adjusting it had no effect. I ended up completely loosening all the adjusters, and starting over again. This time the belt centered and it was easy to adjust exactly to where it was supposed to be. I suspect that the belt, which after all is 16" wide, might have been just a hair out of square and all the adjusting served to stretch it out to a perfect rectangle. I believe the problem is that some belts may be more out of square than others. The actual mechanism is unlikely to be defective. 2. Adjusting the sanding drum so it is parallel to the conveyer belt is obviously important, but it is not easy to do. There is a knob that you turn to move the outer end of the drum up and down until it is set correctly. However, one must loosen 4 (! ) bolts to free the assembly so it will move and then tighten them to hold it in place. The act of tightening them moves the adjustment out of place. If you are a zillionith of an inch off on the inside, then you are way off 16" away on the outboard end. One can spend a lot of time messing with this. Amazon recommends setting the outer end a teeny bit up when sanding panels wider than the drum. This will result in a high spot in the middle of the panel which is better than low spots or grooves caused by the outer end of the drum digging into the wood. However, adjusting the drum is such a pain that most people will be content to set it once and leave it. I set mine to be just a tiny bit up, an unmeasureable amount. I send my boards destined for glue-up twice through on the final sanding , turned around the second time, so that each board side is equally thick on all edges. 3. Replacing the sandpaper just takes a little practice. Clearly, it must be installed properly to work well. The paper rolls onto the drum and each end is secured by little levered clips in the ends of the drum. A little tool is supplied to loosen the inbord clip, but I find that just just reaching and pulling it up with a finger is easier. 4. Some users have problems with the drum motor overload breaker popping. Pushing the reset button starts it up again. This is all by design so that you do not try to sand off more than you should in one pass or set the conveyer belt speed too high. You must sand at a shallow depth and at low feed rate. If you think the sanding process is too slow and get impatient, just think of hand sanding. Even set at a crawl, the machine is way faster than you. All this depends on the grit, the kind wood, the width of the wood as well as the conveyer speed and the depth of cut. I am careful to set a shallow sanding depth and a pretty slow feed rate and so  I rarely have to reset it. If it does pop I just slow down the conveyer belt some more. This is a small machine with limited horsepower for small shops. There is a reason they make those 30 hp one-ton units. Like Norm's. 4. Some have complained about slop in the drum adjuster. The crank that moves the drum up and down has a lot of play in it so it is hard to feel how much actual adjustment is going on when the crank is turned. Tactile feel is very important when you are trying to adjust things just a hair. These sorts of measurements are too small to show up on the depth guage. The adjuster should be equiped with an adjustable friction device. Several of my small tools have that feature and clearly a $1000 machine should. And I really miss an adjustable positive depth stop like my Makita planer. This would allow for a repeatable final sanding depth. 5. Snipe has been reported as a problem and it is. It is very difficult to hold the wood perfectly level as it enters and exits the drum. Setting up multiple roller stands is not easy and others have mentioned that the optional in and out-feed tables are difficult to level as well. Some sort of built-in support is necessary for this machine to work properly. The tables, or other devices, should have been built in to the design and included in the price. This should not have been an option. It is like making the tires optional on a car. Speaking of options, I have a new Grizzly 6" jointer that came with built-in wheels. Very nice. Really quite necessary for the small shop. Aftermart wheels are available elsewhere. So, what is my advice? This machine can be adjusted to function perfectly. When it is set up properly it is indeed a very useful and important tool. The problem is that the adjustments are too difficult and so many machines are out of adjustment and simply do not work as they should. In addition, not including the tables introduces an unnecessary cheap and greedy factor. Performax is clearly not losing any money selling these units for $1000. Add on the  the price of sandpaper and options and it is an even more costly option for the small shop. A tweak to the drum depth adjuster, a redesign of the drum levelling mechanism, a positive stop for the sanding depth, incorporating feed tables and making the stand mobile are really simple and inexpensive upgrades that lucky owners in the future hopefully will enjoy. I note that Grizzly now has a comparable consumer model and I suspect other manufactorers will enter the market. That competition will hopefully lower the price and increase the utility. The whole idea of smoothing wood with rocks glued to fabric seems sort of strange, really. Perhaps the future will bring lasers or microwaves or something  modern. In the meantime, be aware that sanders create a lot of dust, the fine and dangerous kind, much worse than shavings and such. I looked into shop dust control, hoping to get a simple vacuum, and found a whole confusing and expensive anti-dust world out there. A portable vac is not the best thing to use for high volumns of fine dust. Big dust collectors, cyclones and those sorts of things are more appropriate for this machine, but are very speciallized and expensive. I use the screaming Sears vac now (are all Sears product planners deaf? ), but for many reasons that will have to change. I can't go below 3 stars if, in the end, the machine actually performs as it should, but the inconvenience and cheapness factors noted above and in other reviews cost it a couple of stars.