Bruce Bell | Woodmaster Drum Sanders Blog

Bruce runs a blank through his Woodmaster Molder/Planer. He got it to make picture frame stock. He orders custom pattern knives from Woodmaster to reproduce antique patterns that haven’t been made in 150 years.

Woodmaster owners are often fiercely enthusiastic about their machines. Bruce Bell, owner of Double Dragon Woodworks in San Francisco, sums up the loyalty many feel when he jokes he’d marry his Woodmaster if he wasn’t already wed.

Bruce makes light of his love for his Woodmaster but he’s extremely serious about his work as you’ll see in the photos below. We at Woodmaster couldn’t ask for more than happy, highly talented customers like Bruce who LOVE their machines!

Bruce tells his Woodmaster story…

Bruce’s Potting Bench is made of Western Red Cedar. On the bench top is one of his octagonal planters.

“I have my own business manufacturing outdoor furniture, garden structures like pergolas and ground-level decks. I work with landscape architects. I build planters and boxes of teak, mahogany, and red cedar. I build them like fine furniture. I guarantee them to last a lifetime and I price them accordingly.

Here’s how my woodworking business got started: I made some planters for my wife and the neighbors saw them. They wanted one and pretty soon I said to myself, “I thought I retired, now I’m working for a living again!”

Here’s Bruce’s “Double Dragon Woodworks” business logo made of inlaid veneer.

Increased production 20 times over — paid for itself in a week

I got a Woodmaster Drum Sander and it has improved my productivity. I can’t say enough good things about it. If I didn’t have a wife already, I’d marry my Woodmaster Drum Sander!

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I’ve never had a bit of trouble with it. If I had to sand my planter boxes by hand, even with a DeWalt® Orbital Sander, it would take me a day just to make one box. Now I can make a dozen boxes in a day. I can sand a month’s worth of panels in a day.

My Woodmaster paid for itself in maybe a week and that’s not an exaggeration. I went from making one box a week to maybe 20 or 30. They retail for $250 and up.

Bruce’s Hall/Entry table is made of birdseye maple and walnut. It measures 34″ H x 67″ L x 16″ W.

Comparable quality costs over $10,000

Why’d I choose a Woodmaster? Price, really. I did a lot of research. I couldn’t find any under $10.000. I had used a 60″-wide belt sander but that was $80,000. I read about the Performax® Drum Sander but I didn’t like those because they’re cantilevered: they have an open end.

Bruce Bell credits his Woodmaster Drum Sander with boosting his production speed from 1 planter box a day to 10 or 12. At $250 apiece and up, an increase like that puts some serious money in the bank.

I’m not buying any made-in-China imports. There’s a reason why they’re cheap: low labor costs and they don’t put that much into it. When you’re running production, you don’t want plastic parts.

He got a Woodmaster Molder/Planer to make picture frames

I bought a Woodmaster Molder/Planer to use as a molder. I’ve already bought half a dozen custom knives from Woodmaster. One of my good friends is an antique dealer who deals mainly in prints. He told me that if I could make molding for picture frames he’d give me a lot of work.

He gets some old prints where one side of the frame is split or cracked, but hte customer really likes the frame and they haven’t made that kind of molding in 150 years. I take a section of the frame, send it to Woodmaster, and then make me a custom knife. Then I repair the old frame.

Making a $40,000 entertainment center

Woodmaster has improved my productivity. I can’t say enough good things about it, especially the sander. Right now I’m working on this huge entertainment center — it’s a $40,000 project. It’s all made out of cherry and maple with veneers that I laid up myself. I put the veneers on and send them through the sander to get them all thicknessed. It has 50 or 60 square feet of veneer, all small pieces. I sliced them on my band saw, then I had to sand them so they were all uniform thickness. I could do it really easily and everything was the same thickness when I glued it all down. Everything was flat, no ripples. That Woodmaster machine is incredible.

Customer service? Stellar.

Woodmaster’s customer service is stellar — I’m not kidding. Those guys go above and beyond the call of duty. They’re so over the top, I wish I could buy cars from Woodmaster! My advice to anybody looking at Woodmaster: don’t think about it, just go buy one.”

— Bruce Bell, Double Dragon Woodworks, San Francisco CA

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