Planer or Wide Belt sander to create 1/4" stock?

[dirk martin]

my local mill charges $1.80 per min. to sand. Sounds high.

[dirk martin]

also, if i decide to go with a WBS, I'd sell my 16/32 Performax drum sander, so that'll certainly offset the cost of the WB. I've had the Performax about a year, and it's not seen a whole lot of use.

[Kevin Groenke]

I'm gonna have to go against the grain on this one.

It sounds like your talking about A LOT of material and you want to do it as efficiently as possible.

It's not a widebelt, but we've got a supermax 37x2 and it takes FOREVER to surface material that was resawn. Even when the 2 drums are wrapped w/60G and 120G we can't take off more than 1/64" in a pass. Exotics like bloodwood and purpleheart are gonna gum up the abrasives and burn before you run 50'.

With the PM 209HH (byrd spiral) we can go from the resaw to finished in a single pass. The helical head doesn't care about grain, figure or much else. We regularly plane stock to 1/4" and less. With a 1" mdf auxiliary bed we've successfully thicknessed 12" maple and similar (clear, straight grain) to 3/32".

If you're looking for an excuse to upgrade equipment, it sounds like your planer needs it more than your sander.

G'luck.

kg

[Doug Shepard]

Doug, not sure why you're asking about how many pieces i'll get out of my rough stock. I'm happy getting 2 pieces out of the rough stock, so anything above that is even more profit.

I mis-read your post. Thought you mentioned re-sawing in half, then re-sawing those in half once again. I would think you could consistently get 3 though unless you have to joint/plane a lot initially. If that beast you have cant cut straight and smooth, I dont know what will, especially with the power feeder.

[Kevin Groenke]

I'm gonna have to go against the grain on this one.

It sounds like your talking about A LOT of material and you want to do it as efficiently as possible.

It's not a widebelt, but we've got a supermax 37x2 and it takes FOREVER to surface material that was resawn. Even when the 2 drums are wrapped w/60G and 120G we can't take off more than 1/64" in a pass. Exotics like bloodwood and purpleheart are gonna gum up the abrasives and burn before you run 50'.

With the PM 209HH (byrd spiral) we can go from the resaw to finished in a single pass. The helical head doesn't care about grain, figure or much else. We regularly plane stock to 1/4" and less. With a 1" mdf auxiliary bed we've successfully thicknessed 12" maple and similar (clear, straight grain) to 3/32".

If you're looking for an excuse to upgrade equipment, it sounds like your planer needs it more than your sander.

G'luck.

kg

[Eddie Darby]

Have you waxed the surfaces of your planer?
Dewalt 12.5" planer, what model?

[dirk martin]

Yes, I've got an ideal bandsaw....I just can't figure out whether to use a wide belt sander, or simply plane the pieces to get my final thickness.

[Alison Gray]

I think the ideal would be to get 3 pieces from the board so that when you plane you have much less to take off. I find that waxing the planer more often helps when working with the harder wood. I also agree with Kevin regarding sanding the exotics, really gums it up and that makes sanding seem like more work than planing.