drum sander as planer

Take a picture of it so we can see how loud it is.

Yes

good and it seems to be much quieter than a planer

even spiral cut planers

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.

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

It is, the necessary dust collector isn't.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.