Drum Sander.....?

Stuart Ablett said:

Thanks everyone!

Jim I know that a drum sander does only one thing, and that is the final sanding flat of panels, it is NOT a planer etc. What I really want it for is when I have some nice figured wood, and I want to resaw it, then use it like a veneer, with the planer I have, any figured wood comes out with all kinds of craters in it, which is a darn shame. The other option is to spring for a spiral head planer, but that will NOT do thin panels, I understand it will blow them up

Click to expand...

Matt Meiser said:

I have the Ryobi, bought second hand pretty cheap from 2 old ladies who taugh painting and bought it to sand paint from a bunch of shelves they acquired before they cut them up for use in class.

I read good and bad reviews. IIRC, the biggest complaint was loading paper which I don't find all that difficult. It seems fine to me and mine is nice and parallel.

Click to expand...

Bill Arnold said:

As others have noted, the drum sander is great for helping to flatten panels, but it isn't final sanding since it leaves straight sanding lines in the wood. Taking the panel to 180 grit helps relieve some of the final sanding to be done with an ROS. I typically keep 80 grit on mine to knock down rough edges from bandsawing, etc. A couple of days ago, I ran the curved apron assembly for the credenza I'm building through the sander to clean up the edges and get it to final width. I did the flat sides with an ROS, of course.

Making veneers with my drum sander is a snap. I've made veneers with several types of wood, taking them down to 1/32" or less.

Click to expand...