Are large drum sanders useful?

[Warren Lake]

the door above is a door from your cabinet if I looked you up correctly question is based on that door. Panel if it expands will push the door apart. the panel is tight to the style where it raises, it cant expand if it tries to, realize it depends on the moisture content when you build and where is spends its life

[Kevin Jenness]

Warren,

I looked at Casey's website http://beautyandbreadwoodshop.com and did not see the mitered door you posted. Are you sure you have the right site, or did I miss something?

[Warren Lake]

I posted the door above doesnt it show up? try again and the piece of furniture its from

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[Kevin Jenness]

Warren,

Yes, the photo you posted is what it is, and I agree the construction seems problematic, but I still do not see it on the beauty and bread website. Are we looking at the same site?

[Warren Lake]

you are right I looked at a page that had his work and some others and its all similar work and materials so thought it was all the same person. apologies for that so what now I have to question someone else agree, it has the potential to self destruct

[Robin Frierson]

I have owned a 26 and 38 inch woodmaster and loved them. If you have the space get the 50in and put two different grits on the drum. A widebelt would be better but that 50in has a 10hp motor and 6in steel drum. The woodmaster turns slower than most other drums which is good. I used mine to sand everything to final dimension and spent very little time with the handsander.

[Van Huskey]

A widebelt is undeniably better than the best drum sander but if one does not have the money or power to run a widebelt a good drum sander is better than hand sanding, it will save time and ultimately money just not as much as a widebelt. The Woodmaster sanders are the top end of drum sanders and I love my 50". They also have more HP per inch than most of the other DS and don't have to be babied as much and you can put different grits on each side of the drum if you don't need more than about 24" of width.

[Warren Lake]

Used this for one job in particular and later tried it on solid but didnt see the point, Belt would be maybe 80- 90" long by 14" or so wide, have to look it up, its better than a drum sander, it is a drum sander but not with the paper wrapped around the drum, maybe its a wide belt sander or more likely a not so wide belt sander.

Memory has it it could not come close to what you can do on a stroke sander, yes it could thickness stuff, finish wise not the quality of the stroke sander, it has one point of contact, you use a pad on the stroke, i hardly ever used the arm just a pad with graphite, made hard and soft pads grit wise it can go to 600. Mostly used it about 120 - 220 probably or maybe 150 and 220 depended what was being sanded. stuff off the planer was pretty clean you are only taking out any machine marks for the most part. Its great on panel stock you do half and then spin the panel and do the other half always working closest to your body not reaching way in.

At some point ill hook this thing up again and see what it can do but sure I let it go cause it just wasnt good enough quality.



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[Sam Blasco]

I'm very happy with my 38" drum sander. I knew what I was getting and use it accordingly. I do one project at a time with little or no production needs. I really wanted the SCM Sandya 1 widebelt sander, but it was $13K more at that time, I simply had better ways to allocate those funds in the shop. A drum sander requires more patience and less aggression, but it gets the job done very nicely. Keep the paper clean, which I do with every 5th pass or so, and it does a great job. Years ago I discovered spent silicone tubes were the best for this task. Let them dry out, and the solidified cylinder is awesome on sandpaper for removing the debris, and they last longer than those crepe blocks, at half the cost.

[Jim Andrew]

I have the small Grizzly 15" open end widebelt, and sand wider panels by reversing them, it is only 5hp single phase. Not ready to go back to a drum sander. If you are wishing for a widebelt, best to go that way in the first place, rather than having to sell your drumsander for half price, and buy a new widebelt.