wide belt sander with planer head

[Albert Lee]

Does anyone have experience with planer head in a wide belt sander?

I have sold my SCM Sandya 5 wide belt sander, will be replacing it with something modern, only looking at SCM SD30 or SD60 - I am very happy with SCM service here in NZ. Sandya 5 has been replaced with SD60, with SD60 you can replace one of the head with HPL planer head.

Just wondering how effective it is with planer head in a WBS? I know there are limitation such as you can't take off more than 3mm or 1/8 inch, and will need very good extraction (I have updated my extractor from 4kw baghouse to 7.5kw baghouse)

Again, typical SCM, there isnt a lot of info online about this feature.
scm_hpl_2017.jpg


scm_hpl_2004.jpg

[Rick Fisher]

Hello Albert, I'm not aware of the SCM but had a friend who had a Timesavers with a planer head, 43 " if my memory serves. he said it was extremely capable, but required lots and lots of dust collection. More than a normal planer. My thoughts where that the conveyor would more likely be susceptible to damage from Planing than as a normal sander.

[Joe Calhoon]

Albert, no personal experience with one of these but I looked at them 18 years ago when upgrading from a single head wbs. My take was if doing a lot of laminated products like table tops, butcher blocks, a lot of solid wood door panels or live edge tops it could be worthwhile. At the time we were doing doors, windows and millwork, mostly frame products that would not utilize the planer head for finish sanding. I ended up going with a 3 head wbs. This was before we upgraded from straight knife planers and jointers to All Tersa head machines. In hindsight because the Tersa was more accurate and tear out free a 2 head single motor would have been a more cost effective sander.
also as Rick mentioned the dust collection will have to be up to it.

[Jim Becker]

A maker I follow on the 'Tube takes his big slab tables to a larger shop who uses a combined planer/sander to surface material. It's pretty impressive, but I couldn't speak to the specifications.

[Albert Lee]

Hello Albert, I'm not aware of the SCM but had a friend who had a Timesavers with a planer head, 43 " if my memory serves. he said it was extremely capable, but required lots and lots of dust collection. More than a normal planer. My thoughts where that the conveyor would more likely be susceptible to damage from Planing than as a normal sander.

Thanks Rick, I had that thought too...

[Albert Lee]

Albert, no personal experience with one of these but I looked at them 18 years ago when upgrading from a single head wbs. My take was if doing a lot of laminated products like table tops, butcher blocks, a lot of solid wood door panels or live edge tops it could be worthwhile. At the time we were doing doors, windows and millwork, mostly frame products that would not utilize the planer head for finish sanding. I ended up going with a 3 head wbs. This was before we upgraded from straight knife planers and jointers to All Tersa head machines. In hindsight because the Tersa was more accurate and tear out free a 2 head single motor would have been a more cost effective sander.
also as Rick mentioned the dust collection will have to be up to it.

thanks Joe. valid points as always!
I am going to pickup my new extractor this week. I am hoping the 7.5kw upgrade from 4kw will have significant improvement of the extraction...

I will see how my SCM agent comes back to me, sounds like 2 belt system with first roller being larger diameter will suffice.

[Rick Fisher]

I have a 24" wide planer.. its actually 24.8" .. its a T-45 .. 2 days ago I was asked to plane a 24" wide D-Fir slab about 8 feet long. My DC is a Felder 4hp RL-160. I had hoped to take extremely shallow passes, not because the planer won't cut it but because of the chip volume. Anyway.. I clogged the 6" Norfab 50 % of the way to the DC. i'm guessing that to operate the planer at Capacity i would actually need 7.5 hp of DC. Maybe I'm still low.. My norm is to plane little stuff, I never have a DC problem but this is not the first time I've done this. I thought of this post when I was cleaning out the ducting last night.

[Rick Fisher]

Albert if my memory serves, don't you have a huge Felder RL-250 or RL 300 ? I seem to remember a post some years ago. I'm betting that would work with a really wide planer. Not to Hijack, I have my DC in the basement with an elevator used to lift the bags up to the main floor. The ceiling height is only 8 feet. I would upgrade the DC but don't have the height for a cyclone and the elevator isn't big enough for anything wider than an RL160.

These are first world problems .. lol.

[Albert Lee]

Albert if my memory serves, don't you have a huge Felder RL-250 or RL 300 ? I seem to remember a post some years ago. I'm betting that would work with a really wide planer. Not to Hijack, I have my DC in the basement with an elevator used to lift the bags up to the main floor. The ceiling height is only 8 feet. I would upgrade the DC but don't have the height for a cyclone and the elevator isn't big enough for anything wider than an RL160.

These are first world problems .. lol.

Rick I almost got myself a Felder RL300/350 unit but couldnt justify the cost of them over other baghouse unit. I recently upgraded to a Nederman S750. It is a baghouse unit with 7.5kw motor, made in Denmark, cost is 1/4 of RL350, more chip volume, 7000m3/hr at 2800 pa at 20m/s. area of the filter is only 23m2 therefore the air to cloth ratio is quite high compare to RL350 (filter area 71m2). I think its ok as I dont operate my extractor constantly.

[Rick Fisher]

Rick I almost got myself a Felder RL300/350 unit but couldnt justify the cost of them over other baghouse unit. I recently upgraded to a Nederman S750. It is a baghouse unit with 7.5kw motor, made in Denmark, cost is 1/4 of RL350, more chip volume, 7000m3/hr at 2800 pa at 20m/s. area of the filter is only 23m2 therefore the air to cloth ratio is quite high compare to RL350 (filter area 71m2). I think its ok as I dont operate my extractor constantly.

i've seen the Neiderman Bag house dust collectors .. I love them. If I could find a short one I would buy one .. lol

[Joe Calhoon]

We used the S500 at woodworking shows for Soukup window machines. Very capable dust collector. Picked up the tenoner very well running large disks. That’s always a tell. I think the 500 would handle a sander planer and for sure the 750 would.

[Albert Lee]

I picked up my unit today, they also gave me a number of used ducting - I have these in my shop already and they are not cheap if buy new.

Note the size of the 7.5kw motor..

S750.jpg

[Jonathan Jung]

It would seem that a planer head in a WBS would only supplement another planer or S4S, rather than replace it. Anyone know of anyone getting rid of their planer when getting a WBS with a planer head? For my 2 person shop, having some 40 or 50 grit heavy cloth belts on hand is a better use of my cash than a new WBS/planer combo. 40 grit can easily remove 1mm per pass.

[Jim Becker]

Jonathan, my impression is that the combo thicknesser/sander machines are a specialty item, such as for surfacing large and wide slabs.

[Dan Friedrichs]

That's quite a dust collector! Their website says they are "silent" - any idea what's special about them compared to any other bagger? Slower motor?