Planer or sander for dimensioning

[Van Huskey]

If you ask me this yesterday I would have said that every shop needs a planer long before a drum/wide belt sander, the latter being a time saver mainly.

I was watching a Charles Neil video I had gotten in a lot of WWing DVDs about a year ago on eBay, this was a fundamentals video so I never watched it but was bored this AM and popped it in. Charles states that if you can only have one he would choose the sander since it can be used for dimensioning (and he uses it for that) as well as "finish" sanding. He apparently puts his money where his mouth is because he had a PM 24" double drum and a 37" Performax single drum while as I understood him his only planer was a 12 1/2" Dewalt.

I see his point but still would choose the planer, what say you?

[Shawn Morley]

Hands down I go with the sander. If need be for dimensioning purposes I can put on a 36g belt and sand it down relatively quickly. I also have the option of ordering my material the dimension I want for about 8cents a foot.

[Steve Griffin]

Add up the cost and time of replacing the sanders coarse grit. Unless you are an occasional woodworking making tiny jewery boxes or something, you will soon have spent enough effort to justify purchasing a separate planer.

It's a nice idea though. I'd still think if I could have only one it would be a planer with a nice 6" ROS.

-Steve

[J.R. Rutter]

I do agree that a sander is great for dealing with difficult grain or very thin stock. But a planer is faster and so much more efficient for dimensioning. If you look at the energy:material removal ratio (kW/mm or similar) it becomes obvious. So what? The waste heat generated by a sander can cause problems with wood movement. It also shortens the life span of the abrasives. A sander costs more to run, especially if you factor in your time. I would also argue that a planer is more accurate, with the solid bed as opposed to a moving feed belt. I have seen in industry both abrasive planers that require 50 HP motors per head, and planer/sander combo machines that break down the two functions into their most efficient uses: a planer head for dimensioning and a sanding head for finishing.

[John Thompson]

I would love to have a sander for re-sawn veneer but it could never replace my 20" planer outside that isolated arena. Rough coming into my shop at 4/4.. 6/4.. 8/4.. 12/4 would take forever to take down to dimension. And.. cost a fortune in paper.. time replacment of paper..etc.

Light-weight vs Heavy-weight IMO.. no contest as I see it with the planer being the heavy-weight.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I first bought a Performax sander. Yes, you can dimension with it, but it takes a LONG time. And as mentioned above, the paper is not cheap. Recently scored the 735 on clearance, and it is way faster. BUT, a planer will not plane down highly figured woods without tearout. It also is risky to plane down to 1/8" if you're working with figured wood. They sometimes blow up and make the planer sound like a chipper/shredder. Needless to say, your highly figured wood is now toast.

It depends on what you're doing. If you have lots of time and work with figured woods, then I'd go with the sander. If you're working largely with "regular" wood, and dimensioning stuff greater than 1/4" I'd go with the planer.

Just my $0.02.

[Bruce Page]

I use my Woodmaster DS a lot more than my PM15.

[Cary Falk]

I love my drum sander but I would give it up before I gave up my planer. A drum sander is just too slow to dimension wood

[Nathan Palenski]

The right tool for the right job. If I could only have one it would depend on what kind of wood I was working with mostly. Highly figured wood, drum. Pretty much anything else planer.

[Van Huskey]

It seems there is some difference of opinion in the matter, I am still a planer first sorta guy but don't want to live without either. Then again anyone, like Charles, who can actually make a living with this hobby especially when your product is limited to furniture certainly has my respect! I still think in the end that bit of advice from him seemed odd and I do wonder if he would follow it if he was starting over.

[Nathan Palenski]

I started going sander-planer-sander. If I have dirty or uneven wood I need to change the thickness of I run it through the sander a couple times until I have fresh wood exposed and then plane that to the right size. Then afterward sand it again if there is tear out. Does anyone else do this? Seems to have improved my planer blade life since I've gone double the amount of board feet without excessive tearout.

[Stephen Cherry]

Planer-- I think sanding spoils the surface for edge tools. It's just a theory, but it seems that a sanded surface dulls and scratches planes, chisels, etc.

[Van Huskey]

Planer-- I think sanding spoils the surface for edge tools. It's just a theory, but it seems that a sanded surface dulls and scratches planes, chisels, etc.


Hmmm, never heard that one. I am guessing you are a neader? I ask this since most powertool guys don't spend much time thinking about the subtleties of planed vs sanded surfaces effect on tooling. In any event that is a very intersting theory!

[Chip Lindley]

A shop needs BOTH! The planer and sander are not in competition with each other, but compliment each other. Anyone who works with rough-sawed hardwood would shake their head at the prospects of thicknessing with a DS. Just as any straight-knife planer is "iffy" at the prospects of thicknessing fancy stock with wild grain.

It would be interesting to hear how close owners of spiral insert-head planers have come to negating the need for a drum sander. Very close, I bet, but probably not close enough to forego a DS and rely only on a ROS.

[Fred Voorhees]

I have given serious thought to adding a Performax wide belt sander to my shop as the next obvious machine and basically, I would be interested in it for its dimensioning abilities. I say that in regards to my experiences with getting strips of walnut down to thicknesses of around 1/8 inch. I have found that once down in that area of thickness, walnut tends to chip quite easily and I occasionally want to to get it down to that dimension for inlay work.

[Brian Peters]

Both, they have intended uses for each. I thickness planer is for removing material, a wide belt/drum sander is for sanding it. I think a lot of people abuse sanders and use them as thickness planers and then wonder why they wear out so quick or the heads become offset/uneven.

[Mike Cruz]

I'm a planer guy. For a bunch of reasons. But right now, mainly space. I don't have enough for both. And I DON'T have the patience for dimensioning with a sander. So, for me, a planer wins out.

[Rick Markham]

I personally wish I had room for a big planer and a big drum sander, my life would be so much easier. I have to be satisfied with a lunchbox planer, but the prospect of the Byrd shelix head is weighing heavily on my mind for a lot of the highly figured woods, I get to use.

I have quite an investment in good handplanes and am very careful not to sand before using them. The idea of embedded abrasive grit after sanding makes my hands hurt with thoughts of re-beveling my joiner plane's 2 3/8" inch blade. I have never had it happen to me personally, but at the same time, don't want to find out. My personal experience being if something bad can happen, I am "that guy" that it happens to.

I'm hoping in the future I will get an opportunity to get a shelix head and test this out. The drum sander is out for me, I simply cannot dedicate the room or expense for it. Especially if I plan on getting a lathe, there is a nice spot left for one of those, and it has been consuming a lot of my woodworking thoughts recently :rolleyes:

[Paul Ryan]

I own both and use my planer and hand planes a heck of a lot more than my sander. If you buy stock already thicknessed, than I can see getting by with the sander. But most of the stock I have been buying lately is "hit or miss" planed to 15/16 and 1 7/16 (he doesn't cut 5/4). Taking off that much material would take forever with a sander. In the past I bought stock from a mill only 5 miles away and that was all demensioned for me but it ran considerably more than what I am paying now. If you buy S3S stock why would you really need a planer then?

[Van Huskey]

If you buy S3S stock why would you really need a planer then?

I'll by skim planed wood but not S2S etc. I always figure I will need to do some more dimensioning ones the wood settles into the shop and no point in spending extra when I will need to mill it anyway.

[Joe Chritz]

I first bought a Performax sander. Yes, you can dimension with it, but it takes a LONG time. And as mentioned above, the paper is not cheap. .

Look around and purchase stroke sander belts and cut your own.

Way cheaper than pre-cut rolls and a much more durable belt.

It is still a pain to change grits so my drum lives with 80 / 120 or 100 / 120 all the time. Almost everything gets run through it at some point.

Joe