I did get a spare motor just for the drum sander. But it was all ready to go sitting on top of the saw so I tried it. It worked better than I thought. Belt tension is pretty easy, just lower the arbor. The BT3100 that this is sitting on works with a speed controller. I was able to slow the motor down in order to sand the drum. The glue was getting to hot on the drum and gumming up the sandpaper. Slowing down the rev's help a bunch.