drum sander as planer

mostly use my planer as a surface treatment and once complete requires only a little sanding but i look at a drum sander and think that might do the job too

with some coarse grit i would expect they could remove a lot of material

anyone have or use a drum sander

could a rough board maybe with paint and dents be quickly taken down

the open drum sander would be great since it allows much wider pieces to be sanded

almost a doubling of capacity

know they are not silent but they have to be quieter than a planer

Reply to
Electric Comet
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Take a picture of it so we can see how loud it is.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Yes

Reply to
dadiOH

good and it seems to be much quieter than a planer

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even spiral cut planers

Reply to
Electric Comet

A drum sander and a planer functionally overlap, but while there are tasks suitable to both, many tasks are only suitable for one or the other.

One cannot reasonably replace a planer with a drum sander, particularly for surfacing roughsawn lumber in any significant amount.

Nor would one use the planer for fine surface prep.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

Precisely on all counts. I have both and both do their jobs but not the others jobs.

Reply to
Leon

It is, the necessary dust collector isn't.

Reply to
dadiOH

What is a "significant amount"? I've done at least 1000+ board feet with mine. Not all at once, just whatever I needed for the current project.

Reply to
dadiOH

Do you have both a drum sander and planer/thicknesses to compare ? I have a 15" stationary thicknesses and a 22/44" drum sander. The thicknesses removes material about 15 times faster than the drum sander, but the surface has to be sanded for final prep. It takes about 4 passes to remove

1/16" with my drum sander and each pass take 2-4 times longer than with the thicknesses.
Reply to
Leon

No to planer and I am sure it is faster. As to how much I can remove per pass with the sander, depends on what wood and how wide. Using 40 grit abrasive, I could easily take off 1/16" at full speed on a 4" wide piece of butternut in one pass. To do the same on 12" oak would take 2, maybe 3, passes at around half speed.

Reply to
dadiOH

And how many times can you do this before the sandpaper is just paper?

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

I'd also take into consideration the wear on the sanding sleeves or belts or whatever they're called. You can removed exponentially more material per blade change than you can per sleeve change.

Reply to
-MIKE-

Dozens and dozens. BTW, the abrasives are on cloth, "J" weight IIRC.

Reply to
dadiOH

Actually, 100s and 100s would be more accurate.

Reply to
dadiOH

1/16th isn't very much when your surfacing roughsawn number.

Slow, indeed.

Like Leon, I have both a 15" planer (Jet) and the Performax 22-44 sander. Even a 36-grit sandpaper strip can't remove the same amount of material that the planer can in a single pass, and time is money.

Sure, the sander will work, but it's not particuarly efficient.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

I've not had that experience with my performax, but then I typically use it for finish (150->180->220) sanding and cleaning up the scallops from the jointer/planer. The 220 strips don't last long before the grit is ineffective/inefficient. Certainly not 100s of times. YMMV.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

The heavier grits on the drum sander do last quite a long time if you are not taking deep passes. I can easily, like dadiOH, get hundreds of passes. As you well know, the trick is to not get the paper too hot in a spot. If you take light passes the paper will last quite a long time. The finest that I use is 120 however.

Reply to
Leon

Exactly, I buy my sander rolls in bulk and cut to length my self. I think I have the paper down to about $5~$6 each.

Reply to
Leon

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