It's getting time to make some long overdue purchases and the more I do searches and read threads the more confused I get as to what I want to do.
I've been reading alot on this forum about the glass smooth finishes that people are getting with spiral cutterheads on their planers. I had originally planned on getting a 15" planer and a 26" drum sander mostly for general planing of hardwood and sanding of glue-up hardwood panels.
I do mostly cabinet and casework and will be transitioning into doing some cabinet work as a side income so I need to speed up my process by upgrading my tools.
Does anyone use a large planer (20" or larger) with a spiral head to plane glue-ups and then go straight to the RO sander instead of using a drum sander? If the finish would be good enough with this method I could save myself some money by not getting the drum sander and be able to use that savings to purchase an even better/larger planer.
If the above senerio is not viable then I will just go with a 15" planer with a spiral head. Right now I am looking at the Grizzly planers and the Steel City 26" drum sander. Any suggestions on alternatives to these machines?