How do you incorporate your drum sander?

[redknife]

I have a supermax 19-38 that I haven't used much. I am wondering, for those with a drum sander, how do you wind up using it in your workflow. For example: All or most dimensioned wood projects before assembly and finish? Only special cases like thin pieces or end grain?
thanks for your thoughts

 

[JohnnyR]

Occasionally use it as a planer on otherwise impossible wood that I'm too scared of chip-out, but this takes forever. When building case goods, I put all pieces thru after planeing (sp?) to get rid of mill marks and insure everything is the same thickness. Great for leveling out glue-ups that are too wide for the planner or which end up with reverse grain in some of the pieces. Always needs a final sanding before finishing.

 

[llucas]

Wide glue-ups to level and remove glue, making thin strips as veneer, or splines, thickness for endgrain projects like cutting boards. Would I buy it again? Absolutely!

 

[chris_goris]

Occasionally use it as a planer on otherwise impossible wood that I'm too scared of chip-out, but this takes forever. When building case goods, I put all pieces thru after planeing (sp?) to get rid of mill marks and insure everything is the same thickness. Great for leveling out glue-ups that are too wide for the planner or which end up with reverse grain in some of the pieces. Always needs a final sanding before finishing.

I use mine for pretty much the same purpose. I also like to edge sand stiles and rails to remove sawmarks for cabinetry with it too, you can gang together many pieces of the same width and run them through all at once. It is also awesome for sanding raised panel doors after glue up.

 

[JohnW]

I don't use mine very often, but it does a great job on a couple of things I do.

First, when I resaw lumber to make booked-matched panels for boxes or table tops, I use it to sand out the resaw marks and keep the thinner wood flat without blowing it out.

Second, I use it to thickness instrument parts. The drum sander is slow but gives me very good control of thicknessing and does a great job with certain hard to plane woods and grain patterns.

 

[KenOfCary]

I just finished using my Supermax.

I just built some rail and style doors. The rails were a tad higher than the styles so a couple passes through the drum sander leveled everything up.

I frequently have used it to make perfectly square sticks when needed - run them through - turn 90 degrees run through again. Both sides end up the same height / width.

I recently had a couple of 2-1/2" tall drawers that were a tad too tall. I ran them through the drum sander and took a few fractions of an inch off their height.

If you get a little snipe from your planer, stop a few thousandths of an inch short of your desired thickness and make a couple passes through the drum sander to get to final thickness and remove the snipe in the process.

Lot's of uses for the drum sander. I find mine invaluable.

 

[pviser]

My drum sander plays a role in almost every project and it has been a game changer for me. I use it for face jointing long and wide boards which I couldn't begin to do with my 6-inch jointer. Of course, I have to jig up my work piece by gluing rails to the edges, and this whole process is very time consuming. But, if flatness and zero tearout of beautifully-figured wood are important to you, then it is worth the extra trouble. I could never make a living doing things this way. As a hobbiest, though, I have the luxury of spending three months on a project. I really love the 25" capacity of my drum sander which you simply cannot get with any ordinary jointer or planer.

 

[golfdad]

All of the above. I use it on almost every project

 

[redknife]

Thanks for the descriptions- Sounds like I'd benefit from reworking my workflow. I had set processes before the drum sander and never re-engineered the processes after the addition. Part of what brought this question on is that my J/P has not been finishing as cleanly so I've had to do more sanding (which I hate). I think I also need to rotate the segmented cutters.

 

[Skymaster]

plane to within a heavy 1/16 oversize, run everybody thru sander till to size. this way all is flat,clean,same size and sanded

 

[redknife]

plane to within a heavy 1/16 oversize, run everybody thru sander till to size. this way all is flat,clean,same size and sanded

Perfect

 

[Rwe2156]

I find I don't use it much. When I do, its mostly do flatten a panel glue up when I'm in a hurry.

I mostly use it with a sled to surface when I'm cutting veneer.

 

[joec]

I use mine often, but, as it is not orbital, I have to bear down to sand out the vertical sanding lines that are left by the sandpaper. I did not do this when I first started using it, and would see some lines left, when I put the finished panels up to a light. I would jump up to the next higher grit to finish sand and learned I needed to stay at the same grit as my drum sander to start sanding with my ROS.