How about the Sand-Flee?

[pviser]

I am looking for a technique to do face jointing (I am limited by a 6" jointer) of wide pieces (~12") of highly-figured wood such as tiger maple. Any planer design is out of the question because of unavoidable uphill tearout on the multi-directional grain. A hand-held belt sander is out because of imperfect technique (e.g. rocking, listing to either side) and the resulting swirl marks. That leaves drum sanders. Using the usual overhead drum sander design, correcting a 1-mm cup in an 8" board may be difficult if the stabilizing rollers simply flatten the slight cup while the workpiece is passing through only to have the cup return on the outfeed side. The below-table design of the Sand-Flee, in theory, would allow its use as an abrasive jointer. Some reviewers say that this tool is overpriced and underpowered. I would appreciate the advice of my NCWW friends.

 

[cliff56]

hi paul,
take a look at stockroom supply out of canada saw them at the charoltte woodworking show last year they have a drum sander simulair to the sand flee that you can buy or build from a kit . really works well want one myself for the same use but the $$$ aint right yet.

hope this helps ,

cliff

 

[Bill Clemmons]

I use a dual drum sander (Performax) w/ the rollers overhead and I haven't seen the deflection you're talking about. I know I get it w/ my planer, so I've watched carefully w/ the drum sander. I think the reason is that the rollers on the infeed and outfeed sides are set just slightly higher than the sanding drums. Also, I'm only taking off less than 1/64" w/ each pass, so it's not pressing the board down like the planer does.

HTH

Bill

 

[Bas]

As Bill said, a drum sander will actually straighten a board, unlike a planer which will simply make a cupped board a thinner cupped board. Of course, sanding any kind of defect out a board is a very slow process. But, assuming we're talking a few millimeters, some 36 or 60 grit will get it done. Or, you can joint the board as normal (perhaps using a planer sled for wide pieces), taking very light passes. Then switch to a drum sander to sand out the tearout. That might be faster than sanding out a big twist or warp.

A couple of alternatives: You could build a router sled, like some people build to flatten large surfaces such as the top of a work bench. A sharp router bit (spiral?) should prevent tearout. Or find a fellow woodworker with a jointer and planer that have helical heads with carbide cutters. My JET J/P does very well even with the wildest grain (and even end grain!, let me know if I can help you out.