For those that make tables and don't have a drum sander, what is your technique

[Scott Brandstetter]

I have a 16 - 32 drum sander and it works good....i do a final sanding with my orbital sander. For those that don't have a wide belt or drum sander, just wonder what your process is. I seem to never be able to join multiple boards well enough without a little raise in some of the edges that causes major sanding. I finally got the 16-32 to minimize all of the sanding and now thinking about a larger dual drum closed sander so I don't have to make adjustments that are needed for something larger than 16 inches. I would love to go straight to a wide belt but cannot afford it.

[Mike Schuch]

I use a lot of dowels that I drill with my horizontal boring machine. The dowels keep the boards aligned and the horizontal boring machine makes drilling dowel holes fast so I don't mind using a lot of them. The horizontal boring machine also keeps the dowels at a constant height. After scraping any squeeze out I start sanding with 80grit on my right angle 6" random orbit sander. After a few grits with the random orbit sander I switch to my Porter Cable 505 half sheet sanders.

The dowels do a pretty good job of keeping the boards aligned and cleats keeps the whole glueup flat.

[mreza Salav]

If you use a precise doweling jig (like Jessem) the joint come out absolutely flush, maybe a few strokes of hand sand and done.

[Andrew Hughes]

I use my Lie nielson Foreplane and then a smoother plane.I don't even remember the last time I bought sand paper.I also have machines to get the wood prepared for a hassle free glue up. No sticks ,biskets or dowles needed.

[pat warner]

Careful but not crazy QC. Joint, plane, & joint the edges after the rip.
Then use T&G, splines or glue joints for registration.
Always hand sanded , no need for re-thicknessing or power sanding.

[Frank Drackman]

I spend a lot of time on the prep and dry fitting. If I have more than two boards to glue up I only do one joint at a time. This allows me to take my time to make sure that everything is flat as possible. When I started using this method it greatly reduced the final flattening step.

[Stan Calow]

Like Andrew, I use a foreplane. First time I tried it, I was amazed how easy it was to flatten a top. Much easier than a belt sander.

[glenn bradley]

I agree with Pat and use a similar method. Splines or T&G for alignment can help but, careful stock prep and assembly should get you within a card scraper of done. If alignment is proving really difficult I would:
- double check your stock prep, are things flat and square?
- glue up in sections instead of trying to align everything at once
- fall back on an alignment joint, spline is my preferred but, dowels or T&G will do. Biscuits only help with rough alignment and you want something pretty darn close.
- Use cauls across the grain for 30 minutes and clean up squeeze out with a chisel or scraper once skinned over. My least preferred because it can lead to finishing issues.
Of all these things, better stock prep, greater care and gluing up in sections would be my preferred method.

[Joe Cowan]

I use a Domino to keep the edges together and rarely use my drum sander anymore for panels.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Scott, I line up the boards by hand when gluing, and then use a cabinet scraper for leveling, although there's almost none required.

I've certainly not needed a drum sander for any of my panels or table tops............Rod.

[Scott Brandstetter]

Thanks everyone. I think my problem in the past is that I used bisquits and they aren't accurate enough. I own the Jessem Dowel Jig so I think I'm going to give that a try along with not gluing up 4 boards at once. Will glue up two at a time and then one final glue up. I think I'm also going to combine the process with a Festool Sander and dust collector (another thread by me)

Really appreciate the input, hope to help you all at some point.

[Rod Sheridan]

Scott, why are you using any mechanical alignment devices instead of simply gluing the boards together?

Regards, Rod.

[David Eisenhauer]

As said above: thickness plane to a consistent thickness for all materials, joint the edges, use cauls to help achieve "flatness" during glue up and a scraper (the simplest of all hand tools) over the individual board joints after the glues skins over does the trick for me. I don't use biscuits, dowels, domino, etc, as the cauls do the trick if I insist on using slightly bowed material. We all use that material due to it costs too much to buy plenty more to avoid using it. I do stay away from serious bowing though. In my opinion, the use of cauls when gluing up a wide, flat surface is one of the very best practices to embrace and, perhaps, generally not employed enough by the typical woodworker.

[Erik Christensen]

I have used both biscuits & dominos in the past and have decided it is unnecessary work. Joint edges till they are perfect, have some solid FLAT cauls (I make mine from 3 pieces of 3/4" ply scrap in a vacuum bag then rip/joint to a flat edge), plenty of PVA glue, loosely clamp flat with cauls top/bottom, clamp together tightly (don't worry about squeeze out) then tighten clamps on cauls.

leave for at least an hour - cleanup squeeze out with scraper/plane - same for any edge irregularities - have yet to have a glue failure or unfix-able joint with this process

[Ian Moone]

Door sander/stroke sander.



Using one tales a little learning effectively you have to be able to do 2 different tings at once - (pat your head while rubbing your tummy).

Once mastered it's easy peasy.

Finnish off with random orbit sander.