Drum Sander question

[Dave Zellers]

It certainly seems like this would be quite possible but I thought I'd run it up the flag pole here.

Would it be possible to taper the thickness of a frame and panel (drawer front in this case) by shimming under it and running it through a drum sander? Only talking about 1/16" at the absolute most- less in most cases. Is the pressure under the roller so great that I would need to make tapered shims to prevent the F&P from deflecting?

I don't own a drum sander but maybe this is the perfect excuse to get one! I almost bought the Jet 22-44 oscillating DS in the last March sale but chickened out. I wish they made a 16-32 oscillating DS. I'm sure some day they will.
I do have a Jet edge sander and I'm considering doing the taper freehand on that but that seems iffy.

These are big drawers- 28"w x 30"d x 5" to 15" h. To correct a slight out of square situation of the drawers, I need to taper the applied frame and panel fronts so they will be inset flush with the face frames.

[doug faist]

Just an observation, Dave. I think you're asking way too much of drum sander here. Given the size of the drawers and the minute taper you're looking for, I think a hand plane would be more appropriate and much safer.

Doug

[Stephen Cherry]

I think that it would work just fine. These machines only take a little material with each pass; nowhere near 1/16 inch. A little double sided tape and a shim one one side would be just the ticket. If it flexes, run it through again.

[Chip Lindley]

...These are big drawers- 28"w x 30"d x 5" to 15" h. To correct a slight out of square situation of the drawers, I need to taper the applied frame and panel fronts so they will be inset flush with the face frames.

Rather than start sanding on your drawer false fronts, how about trimming the offending drawer box fronts to be in plane with the cabinet's faceframe?

I understand these are inset drawers, but bear with me. Lay the cabinet on it's back. With a drawer on it's runners, shim it from behind until the lowest part of the drawer is in the same plane with the FF. The drawer's 1/16"ish out of square will protrude above the FF.

Use a router attached to a ply or MDF "bridge" about twice the height of the drawer opening. With a 1/2" mortising bit set to barely kiss the FF surface, route off the excess of the drawer front. Take care to keep the router bit from cutting into the FF with stop blocks, etc.

[Dave Zellers]

Yes- I've thought about taking it out of the drawer boxes- they are 5/8" baltic birch ply. To be clear, I'm talking about tapering the backs of the F&P fronts.

But I did joke the other day about just installing all the fronts and then taking a belt sander to the entire unit.:D

[Prashun Patel]

You can do it on a planer, so I assume you can do it on a drum sander. If yr panel is thin or long and the shim is thick, then yes, I'd taper it, or at least shim it in a couple spots. Of course, I'd run a test piece of the same size/thickness first to verify. Scribble on it with pencil and if it comes off in a couple passes uniformly from one end to the other, there should be no prob.

[Lee Schierer]

I have no experience with a drum sander, but I've done similar tapers on a planer. Taking light sanding passes would limit the pressure on the board. The 15" width you would be sanding might flex under pressure, but a second shim half the desired thickness could be mounted along the center line if it appears you panel is bowing under the sanding pressure.

[John TenEyck]

I think I'd bevel the front of the drawer box instead, or set the drawer in place at an angle so that the show side is flush with the FF. I recently had a curved drawer that was slightly out of plane with the FF. By sanding the drawer box front at an angle I got the front to line up perfectly with no one the wiser. I set the front in the opening and marked where it was proud of the FF. I then transferred that distance to the corresponding locations on the drawer box front. Using my stationary belt sander I adjusted the angle of the table to match that on the drawer box front, then sanded to the lines. I put on the drawer front and it fit just fine. If you look closely when you open the drawer you can see that the thickness of the drawer box front changes a little but, to me, that's less noticable than if I had tapered the drawer front.

[Dave Zellers]

Yeah, I think I'm leaning that way.

The box being baltic birch, the outer veneer will get completely removed on one side but then taper to normal on the other side. That shouldn't be a problem.

[Steve Ryan]

This is an easy thing to do on a jointer if the infeed and outfeed beds are longer than your drawer fronts. Set the infeed depth of cut to the total depth of taper needed. In your case 1/16? With the power off, lay the draf down with the leading edge just touching the outfeed table and clamp a stop to the in table at the trailing edge. This stop will prevent a kick back so get it good and solid. Lift the piece and power up. Gently lay the piece down and feed it through. You will end up with a tapered piece with a small bit of snipe at the leading edge that will sand out. You could even set the infeed at 1/32 and make two passes for the same result.
Can you do this with a 6 foot piece? Sure. Mark the center of the piece and set depth to half of the total, and start at the center for 1st pass, then at the leading edge for second pass. As long as the first pass is shorter than the infeed table this works very well. I have even done this with much longer boards in three passes by dividing the piece into thirds.
Be sure to count your fingers after each pass, and good luck.

[John TenEyck]

This is an easy thing to do on a jointer if the infeed and outfeed beds are longer than your drawer fronts. Set the infeed depth of cut to the total depth of taper needed. In your case 1/16? With the power off, lay the draf down with the leading edge just touching the outfeed table and clamp a stop to the in table at the trailing edge. This stop will prevent a kick back so get it good and solid. Lift the piece and power up. Gently lay the piece down and feed it through. You will end up with a tapered piece with a small bit of snipe at the leading edge that will sand out. You could even set the infeed at 1/32 and make two passes for the same result.
Can you do this with a 6 foot piece? Sure. Mark the center of the piece and set depth to half of the total, and start at the center for 1st pass, then at the leading edge for second pass. As long as the first pass is shorter than the infeed table this works very well. I have even done this with much longer boards in three passes by dividing the piece into thirds.
Be sure to count your fingers after each pass, and good luck.

This is a clever if scarey sounding approach, but I don't think I'd do it on a frame and panel drawer. Wouldn't it grab the cross grain rails, or at least make a mess out of their trailing edges?

[Dave Zellers]

This is a clever if scarey sounding approach, but I don't think I'd do it on a frame and panel drawer. Wouldn't it grab the cross grain rails, or at least make a mess out of their trailing edges?

Yeah it would but the trick is very clever and has been logged into my memory bank* for future use.



*as long as I need it in the next 4 weeks, I'm good.:o