For years I've read people talking about the struggles with figured hardwoods and I thought they just didn't know how to sharpen things maybe or didn't have a jointer and planer with carbide inserts like me. Of course as a tool and lumber collector I've wanted a drum sander but I didn't really think I needed one.
So I was over at Hobby Hardwood Saturday and picked up a few things. Amongst which was a short 0.7 bf of curly hickory I thought would make an interesting box.
There was some tearout on it. I figured it was in a long run of lumber and didn't get the sharpest planer. By the way, they have a one pass planer jointer over there that's a real beast. They bought a generator from a hospital to power it. I'm sure it's carbide but I didn't ask.
So I took my little piece of curly hickory and just for fun stroked it with one of my recently sharpened hand planes and I got nice curlies but the tearout never went away. So I fired up the G0490x jointer. Same story. I'm going to rotate the inserts next I hope I end up with enough thickness to make a box.
I need a drum sander.
It's a really cool looking little board and I would have bought more shorts like that if I had found any. But it's a lesson for sure!
There's a Performax 10/20 on CL for $500. It's the smallest drum sander I've seen. I think list is 1100. Still, I'm not sure it's worth the drive to look at it. Its about 2 hours away, I think.
Lacking the wide sander, which does get it done BTW, you may consider lightly wetting the surface, and running it through cutterheads, or even with hand planes at an angle, it skew cuts better than blunt head on. The moisture helps keep the surface fibers from lifting. once they are headed upward it's all over until it's a mess.
Like Dad used to say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
i have the jet 16/32 and love it.id think twice about a 10/20 unless all you do is small stuff,you'll probably regret it later. i wish now that i had gone even bigger but it works fine.
There is a big jump in capability (power and durability being tops) when stepping up from the "entry level" 10" sanders. They are fine for small stuff, but once you need to do wider boards (like > 6") the extra power starts to become a necessity.
The 16" class are a good upgrade and I've been more than happy with my 16/32 Performax. I may go bigger at some point but the capacity increase comes with an exponential price increase.
I did skew my handplane and I had heard about wetting the wood, but I ddn't try it (yet). I don't have plumbing in my shop and didn't want to walk to the house at that moment, which leaves dipping a paper towel in the cat's water bowl, which I would have done if I had thought of it.
I think I need to rotate the inserts in my jointer anyway (planer too, probably). So I'l try that plus water.
I hear you guys about the larger drum sanders. If I could get the 10/20 for $350 though, I might dip my toe in at that level before I go spend a lot more on a bigger one. I see the jJet 10/20 is only $900 at Home Depot and the shop fox 18/36 is $1075 with free shipping to store. That's an easy choice upgrade and $600 cheaper than on grizzly's site. Hmmm. I can probably cancel the order if I need to.
Jet and performax are much more expensive and it seems that at least some people are pretty happy with the shop fox, so we'll see. I can still cancel if there's a good reason to.
I think the trick is to use relatively coarse grit and take very light passes. From what I've read. And there is some trick with the paper clamps on all of these beasts.
80 has always been my first go-to grit when leveling an otherwise clean board. If I need to remove significant material or correct a big twist/warp, I'll dip into the 60.
I usually wet with MS if it's going into a machine. It flashes off so fast it's not "wet" long enough to be a problem.
I have a 19/38 SuperMax from before Laguna, Love it. I bought thinking of the old adage, you can put a small piece of wood into a big machine, but not the other way. Now that boxes are more of what I do than Cabinets it's largely unused, but moving work side to side, Don't those sanding rolls last a LONG time.
Speaking of sanding rolls,. DO NOT buy the prepacked ones for whatever brand sander you buy. Instead buy large rolls of whatever grit/grits you like to use.
I go to Supergrit great selection of paper, cloth backing, and a few different media, and a lot of grits. Talk about Pennies on the Dollar….Cheaper, and far better quality so longer life. I like the 4" AO cloth backed X weight which they sell for $18.00 for 10 yards, which gives me 4 rolls, and a lot of scrap to mount for cleaning up chisels, and plane blades, general you lay here, and let me rub stuff against you sanding in kinda long strips. I do have to cut an angled slice across the end to get my tapered tip. Takes a really long time to get it right too, maybe 30 seconds of seriously NON precision work.
3 rolls of the XYZ brand is $27.95 no extra, and shipping costs mo $$$$$. Don't even look at the packaged "Brand name" stuff, you'll have to take a second mortgage.
Don't be surprised if you end up spending the same amount on consumables, depends on how much you use it in conjunction with what you build.
its a sander not a thicknesser so if you remember that you will enjoy many hours of its support.
The clamps, yeah well unless they have been changed you need to be a bit of a dark prostrate examiner in disguise!.. or hold your tongue right working them!
Well, now I am envious. And your wife not only approved but said ..don't cancel it. She is a keeper. Enjoy the Drum Sander…Looking forward to your project.
Thanks for the recommendations on sandpaper. I have a shopping cart on Klingspor's woodworkingshop.com with a couple of rolls in it. It looks like I can get 8 wraps out of an 18m roll of 3" paper which is about $36 on Klingspor site. That makes it cheap enough for me. Your place might be cheaper. I'll look.
Rob,
I have very nice jointer and planer, so I figure I would use the jointer for flattening most everyting and the planer for most thicknessing and only use the drum sander when it's needed to avoid tearout or for end-grain or for actual sanding.
Hal,
I wasn't trying to make anybody envious. Ship me anything you want me to sand and I'll ship it back sanded.
-Paul
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