drum sander question

[waynelang2001]

Hi guys,

I just finished setting up my JET 22-44 OCL drumsander. I just wanted to find out from anyone who has any kind of drum sander, is it normal for the drum itself to spin at a low speed?? not slow as in snail slow, but i thought it would turn at a high rate of speed?? Not sure about that.

 

[chrisrosenb]

The drum on mine turns at slow speed.
You want the drum to turn at slow speed so it does not get hot & burn the paper or wood..

 

[CharlesWilson]

The drum is directly connected to the motor shaft, and spins at the same speed as the motor, which is rated at 1720 RPM.

Charles

 

[Neill]

Wayne,

I have a drum sander made by Ryobi that is about 10-11 years old.  I think it was discontinued shortly after I bought it if that tells you anything.

It still works pretty well when I can manage to get the paper wrapped properly around the drum.

Anyway, the drum on mine does seem to turn pretty fast but again maybe that's the reason they apparently did not work well enough for Ryobi to keep selling them.

I wish you well with yours.

Neill

 

[nickao]

What do you mean slow, how slow? I would say my 22/44 spins fast. I guess what I call fast you could call slow.

Try the sander, does it work well?

 

[waynelang2001]

What do you mean slow, how slow? I would say my 22/44 spins fast. I guess what I call fast you could call slow.

Try the sander, does it work well?

Hi Nickao,

By slow i mean not as fast as a thicknesser, but ive looked at a few videos now and see that it should be alot slower then a thicknesser. I would imagine if it spun to fast it would kill the sandpaper pretty fast. Its the first time I have ever seen a drumsander up close and working so I guess i didnt really know what to expect from it.

It works great though, I just need to get some higher grit paper. It only comes with 35, 80, 100 and 120. I would think that i would not need to go higher then say 180???......expecially with the occilating feature.

 

[nickao]

No, it spins nowhere near as fast as my planer. If it's sanding, it's fine. Have you experimented with the oscillation much yet?

I never go above 80 and don't even own anything higher than 120 for it, but that's me. The 180 is just going to burn in my opinion and I find that after a week the 80 acts like a new 120 anyway. I use it a lot though.

 

[DavidCBaker]

Nick, what's the primary purpose of one--sort of a thickness sander vs. thickness planer? I'm new to that piece of equipment.

 

[nickao]

That's a huge topic. Generally:

The main difference is in the operation of how the tool works which allows a drum sander to take a cup or twist out of the board. A planer will not take the cup or twist out of a board(maybe a very SMALL amount). A planer does not replace a drum sander and vice versa. A good shop almost always has both.

In addition:

A planer is much faster at getting to a thickness

A drum sander is much slower at getting to a thickness

A planer can not handle figured woods very well without tear out(though new heads have improved that)

A drum sander can handle any figured wood

A planer really can't handle super small pieces without a sled

A drum sander can handle super small pieces without a sled

A planer can leave a surface so shiny that finishing can be problematic

A drum sander can leave the surface in better shape to receive some finishes.

A planer NEVER go across grain - this is key, you can put a raised panel framed door in a drum sander, NEVER a planer  - this is one of the best uses of the drum sander.

A drum sander you can safely go across the grain(just put it through again with the grain to get the lines out, depending on what you are putting through.)

A planer does not leave lines in the surface

A drum sander tends to leave lines in the surface

It goes on and on and each point I made some will agree with or disagree with.

The main thing is I need both, period. I need a machine that takes the cup out of wood. This point is one that is the main point. People that dxo not agree just do not understand how the tools work or may have had the planer appear to take the cup out, but it really doesn't other than a very very small amount. People that buy lumber already dressed are usually the ones that argue that point. Most that get rough lumber know that a drum sander is the tool for cupping and twisting lumber... Usually its through the planer and then immediately through the drum sander for my stuff.

Overall a planner is more meant to dimension lumber, the sander to finish it and or make it all flat

I guess if you can only have one you have to go Planer.

I have a good link for you I will dig out out and post it:

 

[Neill]

Nick, what's the primary purpose of one--sort of a thickness sander vs. thickness planer? I'm new to that piece of equipment.

David,

Nick did a great job but I think there a few things he did not mention.

One of the obvious things is that a planer uses spinning blades while the drum sander uses a strip of sandpaper that you wind around the drum.

With a planer you cannot regulate the finish it leaves.  With a drum sander you can vary the grits to get the finish you want.

With most planers you are limited to about 13" in width and 6" in height.  You can go bigger at costs that are usually higher in proportion to the increase in capacity.

Drum sanders are usually open at one end.  The "arm" that contains the drum is cantilevered over the conveyor belt that moves the material along.  Because of this open end you can run material that is twice the size of the drum.  So if your sander is 22" wide, you can run 44" wide boards through simply by turning it around and reinserting it.  The maximum height is usually only a few inches.

There is a possibility that either machine can leave some snipe, no matter how careful you are.  The drum sander is less likely to do so and what it does leave is usually shallower.

If you work with reclaimed lumber, unless you carefully scan the material with a metal detector, you could miss some nails or other bits of metal.  This will ruin the blades of your planer.  With a drum sander it will only ruin the sanding strip and maybe scratch the drum.

Hope this helps.

Neill

 

[woodguy7]

Wow, i want one  [big grin]  Then again, i have had my new bandsaw a week & its still not out the crate yet  [embarassed]

 

[Mac]

What did you go for, Woodguy?

 

[nickao]

Yep, all good Neill and everything you stated is great info. I kind off took for granted people know about knives vs sandpaper, but heck maybe some don't!

I am sure more people can chime in as well.

Get to using that band saw! What did you get?

 

[nclemmons]

I have an older Performax 16/32 and love it.  Like many it is a direct motor drive at 1750 RPM I believe.  I never go finer than 120 grit.  I run most pieces through it and then to random orbit sanding with a Rotex or 150/3 in my workflow.  It is slower than a planer but more controllable.  You do need a dust collector however as it will turn out some very fine dust.  And you have to watch feed rate and any glue lines or squeeze out or you can clog the belt and create a burn mark stripe.  But for flattening a glued up panel I find it to be an excellent tool.

Neil

 

[Neill]

Yep, all good Neill and everything you stated is great info. I kind off took for granted people know about knives vs sandpaper, but heck maybe some don't!

I am sure more people can chime in as well.

Get to using that band saw! What did you get?

Nick,

Thanks, and you are absolutely correct.  You never quite know how completely to answer someone when you have no prior knowledge of their background.

You brought up many things, especially regarding grain pattern considerations, that I knew, but would not have thought about mentioning.

I think between the two of us we pretty much got it covered but I am sure that somebody else will have something valuable to add.

Neill

 

[DavidCBaker]

Thanks to both of you for the education!

I'm in line for a bandsaw, first, and then I may consider a drum sander.

Thanks again for taking the time.

 

[windmill man]

Nick,

I am missing something . Are you talking about a thicknesser or a planer thicknesser here? Might be getting confused with terminology . A planer thicknesser (surface planer/thicknesser) will take both twist and cup out of a board. That`s its purpose to prepare timber into straight, square,parallel faced and dimensioned sections.

John

 

[nickao]

A planer will not take the cup or twist out of a board. I am not getting into that argument, just research and google and take it from someone that planes 100's of bd ft a week. A planer simply will not do it.

A planer does nothing more than making a thinner version of the exact same piece of wood. Put in a twisted piece it comes out twisted. With a drum sandier it will eat away one side until the wood is flat and many times that leave the wood 1/8" thick.

Just think of a piece that is severely twisted the only way to get it flat is to take some of the wood away and leave other parts intact. A planer takes the same amount leaving a constant thickness throughout the piece. Which in itself makes it impossible to remove twisting and severe cupping.  A planer will make the opposite side  parallel so how could it ever take the twist out? You can take a very small amount of cupping and twisting out with a planer, but only a very small amount.

If you want to get the items flat with a planer you need  to prop up one side of the material shimmed on a sled.

I guess I could take the time to draw some pics and explain it and I am positive the light bulb will come on for those that can't wrap their head around it.

I knew it was a matter of time before someone would bring it up.

Here is one way a guy on wood web used to get a planer to get his boards flat:

"I had some 5/4 maple that had quite a bit of twist that I was able to flatten without having to resort to a hand plane on the opposite corners. I made "running boards", say 1 x 3, out of pine. I then propped the maple up on the bench so the maple was higher than the 1x3 on edge and the maple was approximately even in the amount of twist in all directions. I then screwed the running boards to the maple and then could run the whole works through the planer for as many passes as needed. One disadvantage is that all the finished maple boards had screw holes on the edges, but in my case they hadn't been jointed anyway, so it wasn't a problem for the most part."

You have to do something like this with a planer, not with a drum sander.

 

[woodguy7]

[off topic]

I got the Jet JWBS-18Q

Seemed to get really good reviews on some Australian forums but now someone will probably jump in & tell me it is a crappy saw  [blink]

Be interested to hear if anyone here has one.

Sorry for the hi jack, just answering the question,

Woodguy.

 

[nickao]

No that's a nice saw!