Are drum sanders like the Performax 22-44 too aggresive on veneer plywood?

[Scott Leclerc]

I'm considering purchasing a wide drum sander like a Performax 22-44 (or a Woodmaster, Delta or Grizzly comparable machine). I am often making cabinet boxes with veneer plywood and would like to speed the sanding time for early grits like 150 or 180. I figured I would still need to finish sanding at 220 grit with a random orbit sander, but I'm unsure if the drum sander would be too aggressive and burn through the plywood easily. Most of these cases would be painted so slight burn through wouldn't be the end of the world, but complete burn through to the core layers is unacceptable.

Does anyone have any experience that can help my decision. Thanks

[eugene thomas]

I would not send veneer plywood through drum or widebelt sander. Most veneer plywood now days can barley sand with ros wighout fear of burn through.

[John TenEyck]

Agreed. Actually, there's no need to sand veneer plywood with anything besides maybe 320 grit, by hand, if at all. Putting it through a drum sander will just lead to heartache.

John

[Jeff Duncan]

I agree with the others, veneered plywood is not flat enough to drum sand. I do it occasionally on my wide belt for thickness reasons where the finish doesn't matter, and it's never as flat as you may think. I'm confused though by your sanding schedule, why would you sand up to 220 grit for a painted cabinet?

There are ways to greatly decrease your time sanding depending on specific projects. A couple examples....for most of my cabinetry I go with pre-finished maple ply. The finish is more durable than the post-cat I use and there's no sanding or finishing which makes it much, much cheaper than raw veneered ply. For cabinets I do need to paint I use shop grade maple ply. It's already sanded pretty well from the factory so usually I'll hit it with 120 on the ROS briefly followed by a quick hand sanding and it's ready to spray. Lastly for stain grade I'll go up to 150, or depending on the species I may even break out the 180, but that's it. Anything more than that for most cabinetry made with veneer core won't be noticeable to the eye.....at least IMHO

good luck,
JeffD

[Don Selke]

I would say definitely not. As stated, the veneer is too thin for this type of sanding.

[Chris Padilla]

Those drum sanders work best on solid hardwood and work best at the lower grits (100..120), IMO. They can be fussy with drum or table height with the milder grits and can clog easily. You definitely need good dust collection with them to work well. I like to use mine for thicknessing shop-cut veneers. I have a Delta 18/36.

[Loren Woirhaye]

I seldom sand above 150 grit. It's not needed usually. More important than going to fine grits is to make sure you sand out all the coarse scratches at each stage before going to a finer grit and making sure to get any loose grit off the wood because it can catch in the finer sandpaper and make scratches. Normally in woodworking I find grits above 150 most useful in sanding between finish coats. Drum sanders are a tool some people seem to like using and are a real benefit it thicknessing thin stock, but for finish sanding one thing they don't do is save much time over orbital sanding.

[David Kumm]

Agreed that drum sanders are not as good at fine grits due to the heat and burning. I seldom went over 120 as it is easier to random orbit the finer grits and a burn line screws up the stock and always occurs on the final pass. Veneer sanders are very expensive widebelts with special segmented platens. I don't build cabinets for a living but hate veneer ply enough that I will put my own veneer on the most visible cabinets. Dave