Replies

1. 
   Adrian | Jun 27, 2002 05:55pm | #1

   I'll take a crack at this....my opinions only:

   1) Yes. You'll still have to use the random orbits, but they will be to remove the 'scratch pattern' along the length of the grain, not to remove mill marks. How much sanding depends on the grit you use on the drum sander, obviously....the deeper the scratch from the sander, the more you have to do with the r.o.

   2) No. They are finishing tools. Abrasive planers (used for thicknessing), used to be more popular, but they take more power to sand to thickness than a planer does to cut to thickness...when the energy crunch came, the abrasive planers became less popular....we're talking big, 50 hp+ machines here. A lot of people now are moving to machines that have a planer head on the front, and sanding heads behind that, to get the best of both worlds, but we're talking about big industrial machines here.

   3) They do an okay job....don't expect the same result you would get out of a big industrial machine, but they are definitely a nice thing to have in a smaller shop.

   4) They will do that; to what degree of precision, or what precision you need, I don't know.

   5) I've had a two head Performax, and a Woodmaster. I much prefer the Woodmaster, but Timesavers also has a drum sander now that might be great, I haven't seen one so I can't comment.

   cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S

1. 
   patternmaker | Jun 28, 2002 01:43pm | #2

   FWIW.I have the performax 16-32.I selected this over one of the others because of the rise and fall of the head. I have installed extention tables to support the work.When thickness adjustments are made the table remains in true alignment. I use this to thickness and cut down chest sides and top glue ups. I have sanded sawed veneers to .050" in thickness. I do not use this for finish work .I seldom use abrasives finer than 80 grit. I have adjusted the sanding drum .005"out of parallel to the table.When sanding wider panels this assures that there is no slight depression where the two cuts meet. The little high spot is easily removed in the final sanding by conventional methods. I do not have a production shop.I find this small sander adequate for my needs. ¬¬¬¬PAT¬¬¬¬

2. 
   jimblodgett | Jun 28, 2002 05:18pm | #3

   I have a Grizzly 24" double drum sander and I love it.  Great for flattening any panel, not the best for thicknessing - very slow process.  That's one thing that surprised me.  It takes many, many passes to remove 1/8" for example, depending on what type of wood, and how wide the panel is.  Think about setting your belt sander down on one end of a board and walking steadilly to the other end of the board, you won't be removing much material, right?  Well, in essence, that's the way a drum sander works.

   Another thing I thought might work was putting one grit, like say 60, on the front drum for fast stock removal and a finer grit, like 100 on the back drum to clean up the 60 grit scratches a little.  But for some reason that doesn't work very well, very hard on the motor.  I think it's because the feed rate is the same and two grits cut at different rates, and that forces the 100 grit to try and cut as fast as the 60, which of course it can't - or something like that.

   Anyway, I've seen a lot of folks cuss those Grizzly drum sanders on these forums over the years, but I've been using mine for about 10 years now and if I had to start over and replace all my tools I think that's one I'd buy the same model of.  I think they're down around $1000.00 now.  Reliable, dependable, simple tool.