Is a drum sander a replacement for a jointer

[Alan Lightstone]

Think I know the answer to this, but got conflicting data when picking up some hardwood today.

Can a drum sander straighten wood like a jointer can to get a perfectly flat face, then flip it and get two flat parallel faces? In other words, can a large industrial drum sander replace the steps of jointing and planing wood? Is it a partial solution, or do you get the same effect as taking non-jointed wood and running it through a planer (parallel, but not necessarily straight.)

If not, what is the basic purpose of a drum sander (to reduce the work of using power orbital sanders to surface the wood?)

[glenn bradley]

No. Like a planer a drum sander relies on a good reference surface to make the not-good side parallel to. It has no way to make a surface opposite to a bad surface, good. With a planer sled you could eventually get a flat surface but, sandpaper is expensive and this is not what the tool is designed for.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

It also cannot make a 90 degree reference. It will guarentee you have a parallelogram.

The drum sander main forte is it's ability to make the 2 faces flat and parallel. It does is without chipout you may get with a planer. You can also use some fine grits to get a semi nice finish. Depending on the model you get, you can also make very thin stock for instruments or inlays. I routinely sand down to .080" thick. 1/8" is the limit on most planers. If you routinely work with highly figured woods, it will be a worthy investment. I does not replace a planer, unless you are willing to spend many hours in a dusty shop..... Speaking of which, get a dust collector first. There is no machine that makes more dust than this does. It clogs up a shop vac filter pretty quickly.

[Alan Lightstone]

Isn't on my purchase list (yet). I was just picking up some lumber, and had to talk the guy into face jointing it first. He was just going to get it to final depth with the drum sander. Didn't strike me as the right approach, so I had him joint it first. Happy that I did it, as it's quite straight now.

[Chip Lindley]

A drum sander is "in addition to" other machines. It does not replace any in my mind. Closest would be a thickness planer, but the planer can remove great amounts of wood to smooth rough-sawn lumber; the drum sander only minute amounts to remove surface imperfections.

That said, a planer with spiral insert head may come close to replacing the DS, since argueably, the main use of a DS is to smooth out imperfections left by the planer.

Perhaps there was a miscommunication? I can't imagine your lumber provider choosing to use a DS to thickness rough-sawn boards. The planer does that. But, before the planer thicknesses stock, the jointer flattens one side for reference. IMO, that is how it should be done, but some have their own ideas.

[Alan Lightstone]

A drum sander is "in addition to" other machines. It does not replace any in my mind. Closest would be a thickness planer, but the planer can remove great amounts of wood to smooth rough-sawn lumber; the drum sander only minute amounts to remove surface imperfections.

That said, a planer with spiral insert head may come close to replacing the DS, since argueably, the main use of a DS is to smooth out imperfections left by the planer.

Perhaps there was a miscommunication? I can't imagine your lumber provider choosing to use a DS to thickness rough-sawn boards. The planer does that. But, before the planer thicknesses stock, the jointer flattens one side for reference. IMO, that is how it should be done, but some have their own ideas.

That's certainly how I thought it should be done. It was an odd interaction. I'm glad I stuck to my guns. But he was planning to use the DS to thickness the boards. Go figure.

[Myk Rian]

A drum sander could be used as a jointer, the same way a planer could, by using a sled. It just isn't the intended use for it.

[Karl Card]

I tell ya I just invested in a performax 16/32 and absolutely love it... It does not take the place of my planer but instead enhances it. The planer sort of so to speak sets up the wood then the drum sander finishes it off.
I am new to woodworking and I just today made a jig to start making boxes with finger joints and this is the first time I really dug into using my drum sander and it is great. I can make several boxes at once, first by cutting close to size, planing them, sanding them glue up then finish... actually faster to make more boxes than just one...

I am usually not a bragging kind of person and I guess you could say that I am not bragging I am just very happy and humble how I got mine.
Ebay had it, the sander. infeed and out feed tables, 2 full boxes of sanding paper plus a third box of different odd grit rolls and a stand on wheels for 500 bucks....
I can already see how much easier this is going to make sanding when I do get to larger items though...

[Butch Edwards]

a close friend of mine,who is a cabinet/furniture maker, sizes all his material with his sander,albeit, it's a double-roller machine. He doesn't use his planer much at all naymore, he says' it eliminates a step in the process...but that's him. shoot, I don't even USE my DS much, since I've adjusted my planer to where it requires little sanding for finish. it also helps to keep razor sharp blades in it,too(which can be a bit time consuming).