Which is better a 20" planer with spiral heads or 20" with flat AND a 26" drum sander

[Bob Feeser]

So here is the deal. I just ordered a 20" Shop Fox planer and I ordered it with the flat knives which is $1,000 cheaper than the spiral knives model. I have the option of upgrading the knives since this model is EXACTLY like the spiral model except the knives. BUT I was thinking wouldn't it be better to pick up a 26" drum sander for $2,000 instead of spending that extra $1,000 on the spiral knives?

Some considerations;
1) The Fox 1754 20" planer has published noise levels at 82 db. I saw the demo on You Tube of the spiral blades and it brought another mfr noise level from 93db down to 88db. The reviewer on Amazon for the Fox 20" planer said it was quieter than his old 13" planer.
2) Although there is a LOT less tear out with the spiral the forum here has taught me that there is some tearout unless you take very small bites. With the sander there is NO tearout at all.
3) With a sander you have a sander.
4) On the Shop Fox 20" sander 5hp you can place two different belts on it, one medium let's say for the first one, and one fine for the second one, and only need to make one pass.
5) Shelling out the extra grand over the spiral knife price to get the sander.
6) According to the review on Amazon on the sander you still need to go over the piece with a random orbit sander even after using the sander. He also said the same holds true with the oscillating drum sanders as well, you need to random orbit afterwards.

Finally how cool is it to have both of those superb pieces of equipment on your shop floor.
Even with all of this I certainly do realize that the ultimate is to have the spiral head planer, and a wide belt sander instead of the drum because it not only sands belt style it also oscillates. (Those are tons of money way more than what we are talking about here)
So do any of you have any experience with the wide drum sanders. What kind of finish does it leave, or problems does it create? And what do you think about the trade off between the two options, flat blade or spiral vs flat blade and sander?
See photo below of the two pieces of equipment I am referring to in the Fox lineup.
Agree? Disagree? Don't give a damn?

[Don Wacker]

My vote is for the double drum sander if its within your budget. Keep in mind we used straight knives for many many years without problems. If I was going to step up it would be for a shelix over a spiral any day. I dont thing spirals are all really worth the extra money. They need to start using tersa's.

Don

[Bob Feeser]

My vote is for the double drum sander if its within your budget. Keep in mind we used straight knives for many many years without problems. If I was going to step up it would be for a shelix over a spiral any day. I dont thing spirals are all really worth the extra money. They need to start using tersa's.

Don

Don,
Thanks for your reply. What is the difference between spiral and shelix? I am new to the planer head options. And what are Tersa's?

[Don Wacker]

Shelix are the little tiny multi face cutters, just un screw and turn cuts real clean but are expensive. Tersa's are used in most euro machines and are slip fit. Slide in a cutter fire up the machine and it seats itself. The nice thing with tersa's is you can get a different grind angle for different woods and only takes a minute to change cutters.

Don

[Jerome Stanek]

It looks like the sander is $5600.00 thats a little more than the $1000 that you save.

[Don Wacker]

It looks like the sander is $5600.00 thats a little more than the $1000 that you save.

I think your a little off on the price. The shop fox should be 26" and for that price you can nearly get three of them.

[glenn bradley]

I would find it very difficult to go back to a knifed machine. Do you really plane material wider than 15" often enough to require a 20" machine? It is quite possible you do. I just use the "most of the time, or just now and then" decision mechanism to keep myself from getting over-focused and putting all my tool dollars in one place. On the other hand I held of buying an oscillating edge sander until the price got to a point where I may never buy one. Cry once and all that.

[Don Wacker]

I would find it very difficult to go back to a knifed machine. Do you really plane material wider than 15" often enough to require a 20" machine?

IMO he made a good decision. The pressure bar in the 20" makes enough difference even if you never use the full width.

[Richard Wolf]

I have the same set, except I have the grizzly 20" planer. I know the spiral heads are better, but I think you need the different equipment in you shop first.
I am always amazed how many people spend an extra $1,000 on a cutter head instead of get more machines. The sander work great, but you do need a good dust collector.

[Clint Olver]

I have a 20" straight knife planer (steel city) and a 24" drum sander (General International). I wouldn't trade my sander for a spiral head, so I guess that answers the question. A spiral head would be nice, to eliminate tear-out. But, you can take light passes on the planer to minimize tear-out, then drum sand down from there. You can't sand with a spiral head. Either way, sounds like your shop is about to step up a notch!

C

[Chris Tsutsui]

I would take the drum sander option because it adds more versatility than adding a spiral head.

[Bob Feeser]

It looks like the sander is $5600.00 thats a little more than the $1000 that you save.

Shop Fox 20" 5hp Planer straight blades: http://www.amazon.com/W1754-20-Inch-...1404178&sr=8-3 ($1853 It's only $650 more than the 15.)
Shop Fox 26" 5hp Drum Sander http://www.amazon.com/SHOP-W1678-26-...1404247&sr=1-1 ($2020)

[Bob Feeser]

Glenn I'm with you in my initial decision. I bought a 15 and it arrived defective and the more I thought about it, having the flexibility of the 20 seemed like a good way to go for only another $650. I started thinking for example that I could run my rough stock through the left side and get it down to the final pass, and then make the final pass on the right side thereby keeping the right side blade pristine for a long period of time. Also as someone else suggested you find times when you wish you had a larger planer to run glued up pieces through instead of just roughing it with a hand held sander, although I like the feel of that as well giving for example a raised panel more of a hand made look instead of some machine making it. Oh yeah that's right we are talking about a machine making it. :-)

[Matt Mackinnon]

I don't know how you conclude that a 20" sander is going to add that much more versatility? Just like there are those who say that light cuts eliminates tare out.

I recently had an order for multiple cutting boards for a customer. I used some nice maple and you would think it wouldn't have any problems. I had an older cast iron 15" planer, and you had a choice. If you make a light enough cut to eliminate the tare out, but it wouldn't remove the indentations from the infeed roller, or live the with tare out.

I ended up removing the tare out on my 12" jointer that has a byrd head. No issues no matter how deep the cut.

To address the comment/question. A byrd head is a spiral helix cutter pattern, but the blades are oriented inline with the helix around the cutter head. This is in comparison to a standard spiral head, that has multiple cutters arranged in a spiral around the cutter head, but the cutting surface of each of the cutters is parallel to the cutter head.

Does it make a difference between the two. Not really. I have yet to see any time where one cutter worked better than the other. And yes I have both.

[Cary Falk]

I have a 15" grizzly with a spiral head adn a 18/36 drum sander. I love them both. If I had to do without one it would have to be the drum sander. I bought the spiral head for 2 reasons: noise and I hate, hate, hate , hate setting knives. Did I mention how much I hate setting knives? I hated doing it on my 6" jointer and would rather remove my eyeball with a spoon then do it on a 15" let alone a 20" planer. I loved the quick set knives in my lunchbox planer. Both planers and the sander need a ROS. The sander shines for very thin material. It was a blessing when I made an acoustic guitar. I occasionally sand a panel larger than 15". I intially looked at a 20" planer with straight knives because it was that same price as the 15" with the spiral. It wasn't worth it to me. My sander was only $450 on CL. So I guess my point is that I made sacrifices(smaller tools) to be able to have both.