I have a 25" drum sander and I've just started a job that is going to leave me with a lot of edges to sand. Call me picky but even with an 80 tooth carbide blade I can see small saw marks in the end of the wood that make a huge difference when stained. All of this wood is being cut with the grain. Anyway has anyone ever rigged something up to hold board upright on a drum sander? The only thing I can think of is to tie it to the top somehow. IDEAS?
I'm guessing you don't have a jointer...
I have done this with good results. Rip the board slightly wider (32nd) than you need then rip again to the finished width. Cutting such a small amount with only part of the blade gives a much smoother cut than just one full kerf rip.
Clamp several parts together.
How long are the boards?
If they are relatively short you could build a sled. Have a cleat at the back and a fence on the side that you can clamp against. You should be able to find a "toggle clamp" that pushes inline that will work. You should be able to run quite a few boards at once this way.
Or you could just used a hand screw clamp at the front and back of a group of boards to accomplish the same thing, it would just be fussier to get them aligned together.
-Leuf
Tweak your fence on the TS
How thick and wide are the parts? I run 3/4" thick on up through my planer all the time.
Are you talking about the long, ripped, edges of the board? If so, grab a hand plane and take one pass. That can't take much longer that rigging something on your drum sander.
Mitch
I might post some pictures over at alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking.
The boards are 6"W x 3/4 H x 9' L pine. The 6" top was sanded in the drum sander, one side with a routered edge was sanded by hand and the other exposed edge still has saw marks.
Yesterday I purchased a Rigid 10" 80 tooth blade and tried to take 1/32 or less of of each board, it still left some marks, maybe I'm to picky. The whoel reason for this thread is because it's my wife job to do the finish sanding and she's finding it way to much work to use a palm sander to remove the blade marks and make it ready for sanding. I'll try to post some pictures in the other group.
This is a great excuse to go on a road trip :-)
A few thoughts:
1) You don't want to be ripping with an 80-tooth blade. Try a rip blade with 24-30 teeth.2) Check fence alignment. If the back is closer to the blade, the back side of the blade could be touching the workpiece. Some folks use a VERY SLIGHT toe out on the fence to avoid this problem.
3) A blade stabilizer may help if you are getting blade wobble, particularly if using a thin-kerf blade.4)I'd second the plane suggestion, but frankly, if you are not used to reading the grain, sharpening, and setting a plane, this approach will probably be frustrating. And there is no reason your saw should leave marks that a palm sander with 180 or 220 grit will not quickly remove.
Okay 9' is a little long for a sled :) But you can still clamp a group of them together. I suggested handscrews for this because the handles stay inline and if they were to come loose they won't destroy anything being mostly wood themselves. In case you aren't familiar with them, a cheap source:
-Leuf
Are you using featherboards to keep the piece tight against the fence, and down on the saw table?
You should only be cross cutting with that blade. Switch to a good General, Combo, or Rip blade with about half as many teeth.
I'm currently using two featherboards, one just before the piece and one after and I've worked my way from a 28, 40 to 80 tooth blade and can't say that there has been a huge difference. I'll need to check the toe in/out on the fence and see if that might be the problem. I may try clamping a bunch together if all else fails.
I don't own a drum sander hence, I would use what I've got. I'd probably whip out the No. 7 plane and have at em. I'm not sure how many boards you have but I would bet they'd be done faster than it's taken to go buy a new blade, post the question, etc.... A couple of light passes will do the trick. Otherwise, a block and sand paper would work just fine albeit a bit longer to work through the various grits. Sorry, I know this wasn't much help. It's just that the more woodworking I do, I'm finding the Neander tools to be more efficient for a number of jobs. Cheers, cc
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