Replies

1. 
   pintodeluxe | Dec 21, 2021 11:45pm | #1

   A drum sander is a finicky tool. I'd use a planer 99 percent of the time, if it was wide enough for the job. A drum sander takes a lot longer to get anywhere. A lot longer. Start with a reasonably rough grit, like 80 grit for panel glueups. Occasionally the paper will overlap on one side and create burning. Occasionally one end of the sanding roll will tear off. Otherwise it's just a slow ants march toward smooth panels. Even 120 grit leaves pretty deep grooves that need a lot of sanding to remove. I'd rather sand a board off my helical head planer than a board off the drum sander. But all that said, I'm glad to have a drum sander for those panels that won't fit through the planer.
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2. 
   john_c2 | Dec 22, 2021 02:21am | #2

   When you take your boards to the local millwork, are they using a drum sander, or a wide belt sander? They are very, very different machines.

   Everything pintodeluxe wrote applies. Drum sanders are slow, and a pain. The paper can burn for no reason. If you are doing 4/4 or similar stock only, put the money toward a 20" thickness planer. Or learn to love a jack plane and smoother if boards are wider than your current thickness planer.

   That's the hate. Here is the love. Drum sanders are the only efficient way in a small shop to thickness lots of really thin and delicate parts. Anything that gets close to 1/8 inch in my planer gets chewed up into chips. I regularly go as thin as .05" on my Drum sander. As above, it's slow and frustrating at times. But it's the only way. If I had 3 phase power and 10 grand, I'd go for a wide belt sander. But that'll never happen.

1. 
   user-6851987 | Dec 22, 2021 07:10am | #4

   They use a wide belt sander, probably a 20 grand machine, all electronic. When I build say like doors to flatten, furniture panels, etc. the results are perfect. I have a thickness planer 13” (DeWalt). I’ve never run boards cross grain, always thought the wide belt, would be better. Too bad someone doesn’t make a smaller wide belt! Thank You for your info!

3. 
   JeremiahJ | Dec 22, 2021 02:47am | #3

   A drum floor sander, also known as a belt sander, is a heavy-duty machine designed for heavy sanding of solid wood flooring. A drum sander cuts through the wood, obliterating multiple layers of wood as well as any varnish, giving you a new surface to refinish.

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1. 
   Badger1805 | Dec 23, 2021 08:38pm | #6

   Ben Strano, is this a bot reply? Why would someone in this forum describe a floor sander in response to this question?

4. 
   Badger1805 | Dec 23, 2021 08:37pm | #5

   Just another drum sander owner (Performax 16-32, now distributed by Jet, I believe) who finds it to be extremely finicky (not difficult to get it set up correctly to give parallel boards up to 32" wide, but the paper easily clogs and burns after a short time, no matter how light of passes I make), slow, unpredictable and in my case, once it gets warmed up after maybe a dozen light passes, it begins to trip my 20 amp circuit breaker. Worst tool in my shop, by far. I only use it to flatten chessboards and the like, or to surface resawn veneers.

5. 
   user-6851987 | Dec 23, 2021 09:19pm | #7

   Thank You for that useful info. I’ve decided not to buy one, and just keep asking if the local millwork to sand and flatten boards(doors, wide panels and etc)for me occasionally ! I hate to ask and be a pest, but it’s my only option. I do thank you for your honest opinion!

6. 
   Badger1805 | Dec 24, 2021 04:54pm | #8

   If you pay them for their time and materials, you aren't a pest. If they do it for free, you must otherwise be a great customer of theirs and also aren't considered a pest.

   The local shop I've used on occasion charges $60 an hour for their wide belt sander. A few large panels might only take 15 minutes in total (i.e., a $15 charge), so you would need to spend a lot of money to justify buying a drum sander anyway. However, although the surface they leave may be flat, it still needs considerable sanding afterwards. I also doubt that they could do thin veneers on their machine.

7. 
   jim_hall | Dec 24, 2021 05:04pm | #9

   I own a SuperMax 16-32. I bought it a year ago and really like it. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase or something. The feed rate slows down automatically if you overload the motor by taking too big a bite. There's a digital thickness readout which is handy for repeatable height adjustment and a lever that bypasses the rotating height adjustment arm to quickly adjust the height. I've used it to clean up and repurpose old fence boards that I wouldn't want to run through my planer, remove bandsaw marks on thin resawn wood, sand end grain cutting boards, wide panels, and small, short pieces that would get gobbled up in the planer. I'm using 180 grit paper. I tried coarser grit but found it too aggressive and sanding to deeply into the wood. If the paper starts to clog, I clean it with one of those eraser-like cleaning sticks while its spinning. I burned one board when learning how to use it. It hasn't blown the circuit breaker. I almost always run a test piece first to make sure it's doing what I want it to. I check the sandpaper often to make sure it remains tight on the drum. I did have a problem keeping the conveyor belt centered but finally found the setting that keeps it in the right place. It is slow but does what I want it too. I'm happy with it.

8. 
   user-6851987 | Dec 24, 2021 05:50pm | #10

   You are correct, their machines are big 42” belt sanders or wider. The machines are not for small parts whatsoever. I always pay them for their time and trouble, and can wait a few days for them to do the project. I don’t expect them to stop in their production and cater to me. They sand most of their stock to 150 grit, so it’s not too bad to finish sanding!