Drum Sander...Any Thoughts?

[owen bowen]

Hello All...Been thinking of getting a small drum sander (Grizzly 0459 12'' baby drum). Anyone have any good or bad info. on this sander?
Space is a concern , so the size does make a difference. Mostly do small box work. Would this work on truing and evening segmented rings?
Thanks...

[DOUG ANGEL]

I use a Grizzly G0716, 10 in. drum sander for small projects such as boxes and knife scales. I re-saw small pieces of local or exotic lumber to less than 1/4 in. and then, using a plywood platen and double sided tape, dimension to desired thickness. The sandpaper drum is not hook and loop, and changing paper can be a pain. Having said that, IF all you need to do is thickness small pieces I would recommend the G0716, hefty well built and small footprint.

[Scott Brandstetter]

Since you haven't received many replies, I thought I would give you what I have learned so far on drum sanders because I am looking to buy as well. Hopefully someone will correct me where I'm wrong.

Basically, what I understand, is that the drum sander is meant as an almost final sander. Meaning, seems that you still have to hit the wood with a high grit sand paper to get the "lines or marks" cause by the drum sander. Seems odd to me, if you are using a high grit paper on the drum, why this would be, but what I hear. The drum sander will absolutely not smooth rough sawn lumber, or anything close, again, what I hear and read and makes sense.

On a personal note based on my past, I have bought tools for the "now" and found myself upgrading in the future. This may not be the case for you (you mention only small boxes) but I have over the last year replaced a table saw, jointer, planer and lathe. Now granted, I started with these tools many many years ago and the funds were not available back then, but you get my point. If you have any inclination that you may do larger work in the future, and your funds allow, may consider larger.

Lastly, I have had fantastic success with Grizzly. (table saw, jointer, lathe) I have no doubt that this tool will be a keeper. Let us know what you end up with and by all means give a review with pictures

[Roy Harding]

A couple of things I'd like to contribute to the conversation. I have a drum sander - but it's much larger than what you envisage (mine is a 24" dual drum), but I think the principles of a smaller sander would be the same. I also make small boxes, plus blanket chests - so glued up panels are a daily reality for me.

Someone above has pointed out that drum sanders are a "near finish" sander - that is true. I use mine to sand my panels to 120 grit, then the ROS, or cabinet scrapers, get used to bring the piece to "finish ready". I suppose one could use a drum sander to sand all the way to "finish ready", but the necessity of constantly changing out grits would be counter productive, time-wise. Perhaps someone else has a different opinion.

Another person has pointed out that drum sanders are not a replacement for a planer - also true. However - if I'm looking for a near-finish ready surface on something 3/4" thick, I'll go down to .76" in the planer, and then run it through the drum sander (again - at 80/120 grit) to bring it to final thickness.

The BIGGEST advantage (for me) to my drum sander is for levelling glued up panels. If I need a 1/2" thick panel, I'll go to .55" or .6" (depending upon a lot of factors) in the planer (or the band saw, or the table saw) for the individual pieces, do the glue up, and then finish the panel to final thickness in the drum sander. This allows me to be somewhat "sloppy" when doing the glue up - I don't need to be "anal" about aligning the individual pieces which comprise the glue up, as any slight mis-alignment will be corrected on the sander when bring the piece down to final thickness. It has proved a HUGE time saver for me.

Given what you state your intended purpose is, I think a small drum sander such as you're envisioning may well be a valuable addition to your tool arsenal. Don't forget that you'll want really good dust collection for your machine.

[Ted Reischl]

I do use my panel sander to "plane" occasionally. It is actually called "Abrasive Planing" and is done typically with 35 grit paper.

Does it flatten boards? You betchya. One thing I like about it is that a cupped board is not squooshed down so hard that it springs back into a cup on exiting.

I have done quite a few segmented bowls and it works great for flattening them out. But, like any other small pieces you need a small scrap piece after a piece to keep from getting a slight "snipe". One other thing, if you are using a program to calculate your segments, be sure to adjust the material thickness to account for segment sanding.

My sander is Ryobi 16-32 that I bought at least 15 years ago. Works like a champ! I got it from a dealer as they were closing out some of the Ryobi machines for a steal: $400. Since then, I bought and sold a DeWalt 735 because it was way more of a pain to use than the drum sander. Keep in mind that I do not do very much furniture these days, if I did, I might get another planer.