Drum Sander Question

[Andrew Kertesz]

I have a 16/32 Performax sander. If you have this style of sander I'm curious how often you change the paper and do you use it as a finish sander? What is the finest grit sandpaper you put on it?

[William C Rogers]

Andrew

I have the Supermax 19-38 similar to the 16-32. I use mine to get the wood flat and a final thickness and not really finish sanding. I still go through the 80, 100, 150, 220 ROS for finishing. I have tried 220 grit, but still need to ROS, so mainly I keep 120 grit on the sander. The 80 grit seems to be too rough and to me is harder to wrap tight to prevent burning. I am usually only taking a max of 0.050 to get to the size I want. I am building cabinets and using it for getting my face frames flat and a consistent thickness. I also build my doors up oversize thickness and sand them flat and final thickness. I have not use the sander to get panel glue ups flat yet, but will do so in the future. I suspect I will try 80 grit initially when I do. As far as changing the paper, I don't have a good rule of thumb, keeping it on until it doesn't seem be be effective (unless I burn it by being too aggressive).

Bill

[Cary Falk]

I have a Grizzly 18/36 model. I use 120 on it. 80 and 100 seem to leave too many lines to sand out. Anything over 120 tends to burn for me. I still have to sand wit a ROS no matter what grit I use.

[David Kumm]

I had Performax 25x2 and 37x2 for years. I found 150 was as fine as i liked to go. Finer increases the odds of burning and wrecking the paper and since the final finish need a ROS there is little benefit for the extra rime spent on the drum. Generally I'm 60-120 or 80-120. Dave

[Tony Zaffuto]

Performax 16/32 and I keep 120 on it all the time. If you watch the speed, paper lasts quite a while. If I go finer, as others have said, odds of burning increase rapidly.

[Jeff Monson]

22-44 owner, I run 150 on mine most of the time. Paper lasts a long time for me, just dont push the limits. Light passes with a moderate feed rate.

[John TenEyck]

I have a Delta 18x36 and pretty much 120 grit on it all the time. Coarser leaves grooves too difficult to remove in hardwood, finer doesn't offer much advantage since you still have to sand afterwards anyway. The key to using this type of drum sander effectively is to take light cuts. 0.010" would be a huge bite with one of these machines. I usually plane about 0.020 - 0.030" over and then take 3 or 4 very light passes on each side. Do the math and that means no more than 0.005" per pass. If I am using anything finer than 120 grit, the passes are down in the 0.002 - 0.003" per pass. I don't get burning if I stick to those guidelines, although I do get bored ! But it's worth it, because nothing makes a board flatter and smoother, except maybe a hand plane and I'm not about to do a whole project that way.

John

[Mike Wilkins]

I had a 16/32 before I got a dual-drum sander, but the principle is the same for these type machines. It can be considered a finish sander due to the parallel sanding marks that all these machines leave. I always considered this step the last step before the use of a random orbit sander to smooth the board. My method was to use the drum sander after planing to remove any planer marks, then on to the ROS.
I am not sure about the oscillating drum sanders on the market; they may give you a smooth enough finish to go directly to assembly and finishing, but I have my doubts.