Thickness planer vs thickness sander

[Bill Huber]

The way I see it they are not interchangeable.

The sander is going to take off thousands of an inch at a time and the planer will take off fractions of an inch at a time.

It is no different then using sand paper and using a plan, the sand paper will take off a little bit but with the plan it will take off a lot more.

I have a planner and of the 2, sander and planner to me the planner is the most useful for my work because I have the time to do the sanding myself but to take a 4/4 board down to 3/4 of an inch is a different thing.

[Jay Allen]

They are doing "essentially" the same thing, it's more a matter of scale. As Bill said above the planer can take off quite a bit more per pass..... but, if that is not the goal, the sander can be more delicate. The sander (drum or belt) will not have the tear-out issues that are possible in more figured wood. Plus the sander can deal with much thinner pieces of wood. I use my drum sander to smooth shop made veneer after resawing, a planer can't do that.
So, they really aren't interchangable, but they are "sort-of" doing the same thing.

I have a drum sander in my home shop, but no planer. If I need that, I can take the stuff to work. For what I do, most of the time, the sander works for me.

[Karl Brogger]

The way I see it they are not interchangeable.

The sander is going to take off thousands of an inch at a time and the planer will take off fractions of an inch at a time.

They aren't really interchangeable, I agree with that.

But even with the cheap piece of junk widebelt that I've got, I can take a 1/8" off in one pass with the right belt.


And a widebelt, or drum sander does leave plenty of machining marks. Neither produces a finished product, even with the finest of grits.

[Prashun Patel]

If one had a giant bandsaw with excellent resaw ability and a wide drum sander, a planer would be unnecessary. A planer is an economical compromise to the two.

Thicknessing thin stock and tear-outy wood is where a drum sander shines.