June | 2015 | Woodmaster Drum Sanders Blog

Here’s a happy couple who’ve found the secret of a full and rewarding retirement. John and Kaye Lepien are woodworking partners. “We work together and design things together,” says John.

“It gives us both a creative outlet so we don’t just sit around as so many retirees do.” And how’s business? “We’re almost busier than we’d like but it’s awfully hard to turn jobs down.”

“I taught Industrial Arts for 36 years. I retired in 1997 at 57. Today, my wife, Kaye, and I run our own woodworking business, J & K Creations, and have a Woodmaster Drum Sander. Business is great. In fact, we’re busier than we’d like to be. It’s awfully hard to turn jobs down.

It’s not about the money

John and Kaye’s daughter sells the work her parents do with their Woodmaster. Her online catalog describes this piece, “Handcrafted in Michigan. Colonial Pipebox. Distressed Olde Forge Mustard paint by Olde Centry Colors with brown stain. Box measures 17.5″h x 6″w x 4.25″d. Sorry pick not included.”

Money is not the object of our business at all. It’s not about the money. Our business keeps us active and busy. So many people retire and have nothing to do. They just sit around and they die! I see it all the time.

This business is something Kaye and I can do together. We’re here in the shop together all day long and that’s great. We work together and we design things together. It gives us both a creative outlet.

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Every day’s different

I once worked in a factory at the same machine for 8 or 10 hours a day and I said ‘I’m just not going to do this for the rest of my life. It’s boring!’ Today, in our business, every day’s different and I love it.

Kaye and I started out selling what we made at craft shows. Then our daughter bought a store in downtown Iona, Michigan, ‘Keeper of the Crows,’ where she sells primitive home décor and antiques. We supply over 50 primitive-style wooden items to her store.

We make ‘primitives’ and antique-style items of pine and poplar. We round the edges and corners and mar the surfaces a little. Then Kaye paints them and we sand off the corners to give a ‘distressed’ look. Kaye adds stain and we finish it with Crystalac. It acts like a lacquer but it’s water-based and dries in no time.

Folding cutting boards and more, every kind you can imagine

Online, John & Kaye’s “Colonial Candlebox” is described and sold as, “Distressed redish/orange with dark brown stain. Box measures 14″h x 8.5″ w x 4.75″ d. Sorry does not include flower pick.”

We make custom furniture, too. I use walnut, cherry, maple, hickory and more. There’s no waste: I save all the cutoffs and leftover pieces of hardwood from other projects and make every kind of cutting board you can think of. They sell like crazy, especially at the Holidays. This is where our Woodmaster Drum Sander comes in so handy. We make 40 or 50 cutting boards at a time. We glue them up and send them through the Woodmaster and they come out perfect.

“We use our Woodmaster Drum Sander 4 to 5 hours every day.”

“Colonial Shelf” by John and Kaye. Their daughter sells their work online. She writes, “Love this little shelf/setter. Distressed sage green. Shelf measures 16 1/2″h x 12″w x 5 3/8″d. Sorry crock not included.”

Our 38” Woodmaster Drum Sander works like crazy. I use it every day, four or five hours a day. We use it to make all kinds of things — fancy little boxes; mahogany cribbage boards; furniture; shelving; kitchen islands; cabinets; US flag boxes; all kinds of things. We designed and make a folding cribbage board. I did a kitchen and bathroom out of white pine for a retired state trooper. I make a lot of things that have drawers so I make 50 drawers at a time with the drum sander. We’re very diversified and we’re always making new designs. I’d be lost without my Woodmaster Drum Sander.

Also, I do custom sanding. A lot of people come in asking me to sand things for them. A young man just brought in 10 walnut boards he wanted sanded. I just made a 6’ by 34” wooden floor panel for a fellow who’s turning a Cadillac hearse into a limousine. The word gets out and I get calls. I don’t advertise, the word just spreads. I got three calls yesterday!

I’d never used a wide drum sander until I made a big project for myself using a friend’s drum sander. I got a Grizzly® drum sander but I hated it and practically gave the damn thing away. After that bad experience, I shopped around and got my Woodmaster. I used it every day. All the time.

He sets sanding depth by ear

I got the 38” Woodmaster Drum Sander because I wanted to run doors. I just ran more than 30 doors for one job! Here’s how I set the sanding depth: I set it so the drum doesn’t quite touch the workpiece. I turn the Woodmaster’s handle until I can hear the drum just kiss the wood. Then I turn it just a touch more — that’s my setting.

In 36 years as an Industrial Arts teacher, I’ve seen all kinds of equipment and, yes, that experience influenced my decision to buy a Woodmaster. I’d buy another one in a minute. The people at Woodmaster are great, too. You can call and talk to them. I call them a lot when I have technical questions. I get on the phone with Woodmaster and I get people who know what the hell they’re talking about!”

— John Lepien, Woodmaster Owner, J & K Creations, Saranac MI

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Besides cabinetry, Jeff builds handsome Adirondack chairs with his Woodmaster Drum Sander. This style chair, with slanted seat and back, is both handsome and comfortable.

OK, woodworkers, which would you rather do: spend an 8-hour day pushing a hand-sander around, or zip your work through a Woodmaster Drum Sander in 15 minutes? Or let’s put it another way: how’d you like to reduce the time you spend hand-sanding by 97%?

For cabinetmaker/furniture maker, Jeff Rhone, those time-saving numbers are real, and those questions are no-brainers. But the time Jeff saves is just one of four reasons he chose the Woodmaster Drum Sander. Please read on…

Jeff Rhone’s running a great business from a small wood shop — just 600 sq. ft. He put his Woodmaster on casters so he can tuck it out of the way between sanding tasks.

“I run a one-man custom cabinetry shop. Most of the work I do is custom cabinets and furniture. I specialize in small cabinetry jobs, kitchens, pantries, mudrooms, closets, entertainment centers, and so on. I started woodworking in a small custom cabinet shop. We’d take on anything — furniture, refinishing, everything. Our main bread and butter work was custom cabinets. Eventually, I went out on my own.

Everything from face frames to furniture parts — saves literally days of hand sanding

I first ran into the Woodmaster Drum Sander in trade school. The school had a Woodmaster and I thought it worked great. I ended up getting a Woodmaster 38” Drum Sander and I’ve used it on every project I’ve built since I got it — everything from sanding down face frames to sanding all the pieces for the Adirondack chairs I build. This sander has saved me literally days of hand sanding. It is a Godsend.

“The cart in this photo is a gun cart,” Jeff tells us. ” The gentleman who asked me to built it uses it in old style Western shooting competitions. It has a gun rack and room in the box for ammo.”

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My current shop is just 600 sq. ft.. I have a lot of big tools like shapers and so on but the Woodmaster fits right in. It has a small footprint and it’s on casters so I can move it where I want it. My Woodmaster works out perfectly.

I do everything myself, I don’t send anything out. I do one project at a time, anything from cutting boards to kitchens. I make a lot of Adirondack-style chairs and the sanding the Woodmaster does is remarkable. It does in 15 minutes what would take me a full day to do by hand.

Slashes sanding time 90%

Here's a handsome entertainment center ready for installation. Jeff does all manner of cabinetry — kitchens, bathrooms, closets, more.

Here’s one of Jeff’s handsome entertainment centers ready for installation. He builds all manner of cabinetry — kitchens, bathrooms, closets, more.

Woodmaster says a cabinetmaker spends 60% of his time hand-sanding, and that the Woodmaster saves 90% of that time. I agree with that 100%. For example, making chairs. When I was hand-sanding, it would take me a whole day to hand-sand all the parts for just two chairs. Today I just sent all the parts for four chairs through my Woodmaster in under half an hour. And the surface quality the Woodmaster creates is great. (Note: when we did the math, Jeff’s Woodmaster actually saves him 97% of the time he spent hand-sanding.)

Between sanding jobs, Jeff’s Woodmaster rolls out of the way so he’s able to maximize the utility of his 600 sq. ft. shop.

I chose the 38” Woodmaster Drum Sander so I could run 36” cabinet doors and face frames without any issue. I can do entry doors up to 36”. This size works great for butcher block counter tops I make, too. They’re 25” wide — a 24” sander’s not quite wide enough for that.

The other Woodmaster advantage is the ease of sanding a lot of small parts. I just send them through side by side. They come out the other end and drop onto a table I have set up to catch them on the outfeed side.

Jeff chose Woodmaster for 4 reasons: Affordability, Made in America, Small Footprint, Saves Time

I chose Woodmaster for several reasons. First, it’s affordable. It’s cost effective — you’d pay twice as much for a Powermatic. Second, it’s made in America. That’s important, keeping jobs in the USA. USA tools are better made than imports. Third, it has a small footprint. I’ve got it on optional casters and I can move it out, use it, and move it back. Other sanders didn’t work like that.

And fourth, it saves time and everybody knows time is money. For somebody like me, a small shop woodworker, it’s saved me literally days and days of hand sanding. It paid for itself a year ago. I’d give this machine a 10. It’s one of my most-used machine in my shop, right after my table saw and my chop saw.

Booked 3 months ahead — no regrets

I don’t advertise and don’t want to. Right now, I’m booked out three months or more. I’d recommend it to other woodworkers and I’d do it again myself. I researched drum sanders for almost 10 months. I don’t regret my decision at all.

I can’t ask for a better drum sander. It’s a quality machine. The way it’s made, I could use it all day long and never have an issue. I love it, wouldn’t get rid of it. Woodmaster, keep up the good work!”

— Jeff Rhone, cabinetmaker, Woodmaster Drum Sander Owner, South Dakota

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QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

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