Drum Sander or Shelix head for my planer

[Barry wines]

I have recently gotten the ok for a helical head for my 15" Grizzly Planer and was all set to order it but after reading several reviews I am not sure. To some reviewers the ridges that the helical head left were objectionable because of the additional sanding time that was required. I have a fair amount of curly maple and was interested in the helical head because it is less prone to tear out. Or would I be better off taking the thickness down to a certain point and then finish with a drum sander Thanks for any thoughts or experience you may have regarding this. Barry

[Joe Shinall]

Barry I wish I could tell you which one is better. I got lucky and was buying my shelix head and found a drum sander cheap and bought both. I also have a lot of curly maple and was worried about the tearout. I plane as little as possible and drum sand the rest and it works great. It's more time consuming but beats hand sanding. If I had to choose one of the two, I probably would get the shelix. It left the maple really smooth by itself and I probably could have went down to the final thickness using it with no problems.

[Matt Day]

Great question Barry - I'll be in this same situation soon and look forward to what others have to say.

[Erik Christensen]

I find I do not use my drum sander near as much as I thought I would given the helix head in my 15" griz planer. I take it to final thickness on the planer and normal hand sanding is all that I have to do after that - if there are ridges in a planed surface they are not something I have ever noticed but than again I usually don't look at boards in a low angle light for surface quality check until after hand sanding or scraping anyway.

I do use my drum sander to flatten boards - I got in the habit of using it for that purpose after a batch of boards too wide to use my 8" jointer and now find it the convenient/safe way to do it. I pick the show/best side of a board, which usually has some tearout from the mill, run it through the drum sander till flat and all tearout is gone then plane the other side to final thickness.

[David Kumm]

Chicken or the egg? tough call. I also use my sander much less since changing to byrd head but the sander does some important things, wider boards, slight bowing and cupping , even twist can be handled well. Quarter sawn mahogany, curly maple etc still go through the sander. I really like my performax for raised panels. Sometimes the best match opposes the grain so sanding works better. I generally glue up panels with polyuerethane glue so as not to screw up the paper which works well. I might go the sander route if you think you might be upgrading your planer someday. You won't get paid enough extra on the used market to recover your byrd costs. Dave

[Philip Rodriquez]

I have SC's on my 10" jointer and my 15" planer... so I almost never have to turn to my Performax 16/32. If I had to pick... the planer is a better buy unless you regularly work with quilted crazy woods. Curly/tiger maple will mill just fine on the planer.

IMHO, the thickness sander will require more cleanup than a planed board. Plus, they are sooooooo slow (+/- 1/64" to 1/128" per pass)... and all the dust will really slow down your DC and then you'll also want to upgrade to a cyclone :0)

[Peter Quinn]

Well I for one haven't found the Byrd head to leave objectionable ridges. It leaves a very good machined surface ready for further sanding. But so does the drum sander! Neither is the last stop in my Sanding schedule. Main difference is my planer will remove 1/8" per pass, the drum sander takes .010" per pass +-. so if I need to drop 1/4"' it's not happening on the drum sander. The planer does 15" widths, the sander up to 44", so the sander gets used for panels at wont fit in the planer and very thin material that the planer would eat up. I have also used the sander pretty regular to take a few thousands off 1/4" BB for flat panel doors, I would never do that in the planer! They both have their purpose and neither will really replace the other.

But I will say that I found the random chunks the straight knives I used to run took out of my wood highly objectionable and I don't miss those.

[Paul McGaha]

I would say take care of the planer first. To me the jointer, planer, and table saw are the main tools in the shop.

I got a Delta 18/36 Drum Sander last year. I like it a lot. I now spend far less time with a random orbit sander, all but the last grit or two.

Just my $.02.

PHM

[John TenEyck]

I see these options as more complimentary to each other than as alternatives. You plane to get close, and drum sand to final thickness. This is my standard regimen since I bought a drum sander about 18 months ago. This has almost eliminated any other power sanding, and I can move to final hand sanding. The time I have to spend with the drum sander is more than made up for by not having to do much follow up work. One thing no one has yet mentioned about the drum sander is it's ability to sand very thin stock, right down to veneer thickness, without destroying the piece. With a planer you have to go through gymnastics to go below about 1/4" w/o the wood exploding. So, which option? I love my drum sander, and it gets my vote.

[David Kumm]

Really good point about the veneer. Putting my own skin on BB plywood for exposed work has been a major improvement to me. The piece finishes exactly like the wood parts. You don't have to worry about finding the inevitable crease in the plywood face after the glue is dry.etc. If you plan much case work and are fussy- and not expecting someone to notice it other than yourself, sander is great. Dave

[Robert Chapman]

Do the Shelix first. I have both and the Shelix is great but still requires sanding before finishing. There is much less tear out in curly and birdseye maple. The remaining sanding can be done with a ROS but a drum sander reduces the amount of ROS required.

[Barry wines]

Thanks for all the input. Based on the speed of the feed and the fact that some of you have had good experience with the Shelix on Curly Maple I think I'll go with the Shelix and then go with the drum sander the next time I catch comtroller in a weak moment. Now I have to deside wether to buy just the head and install it myself or buy the gearbox and head already put together for a couple dollars more. you all have been a great help

[glenn bradley]

I have spiral heads on a couple of machines and am not aware of the ridges you mention. Poor machine setup or technique can cause scalloping (with spirals or knoves); is that what you have heard about? The serrated rollers on larger planers will leave ridges if not properly setup. Fortunately most of these machines are designed to have these settings changed based on the stock to be run and are therefor quite simple to change.

If your current planer will mill curly stock without tearout I would lean toward the sander. If you are using the sander to fix tearout from your planer, just solve the issue with a spiral head and skip the sanding. Most of my parts go from planer to card scraper or a few strokes with a hand sanding block if that. In my limited experience, floor machines are not "finish" planers so you will get close to lunchbox surfaces with proper setup but questionable results if you take shortcuts.

[Rob Holcomb]

I just recently installed Grizzly's Spiral Cutterhead on my 15" planer. Every time I use my planer now I tell myself I should have gotten one sooner. Absolutely no complaints at all!