Best combination - or required tools

[Chris Barnett]

For general hobby but serious woodworking, what would be a better setup: a 15 inch spiral head planer and 16 inch (or larger) drum sander, or 20 inch spiral head planer and no sander. [I can put up with shavings but hate sawdust:D]. Can one get by with only hand power sanding tools and no large powered sanders since spiral headed planers provide such nice surfaces?

[Jim Kountz]

You're gunna get alot of different opinions on this since everyone works a little different but my particular vote would be for the 15" planer and the 16" sander thus giving you both worlds in one shop. The 20" planer would be nice but Id rather have both planer and sander if given a choice.

[Don Bullock]

I'd have to agree with Jim,but it really all depends on what type of work you do. If some of the projects you need to plane is over 15" then a larger planer will make sense. Remenmer, if the sander is "open end" it will do up to 32" widths.

[Mike Heidrick]

I am going to vote 20" planer. That way - after time passes and the pain of the expense is gone and the right deal comes up on a sander (22/44 or 26" dual drum) you will have some of the best of both hobbiest worlds.

[Al Killian]

For me, I have a 25" woodmaster 3in1 works great. I need to get the electric setup so I can bring it home. A planer is good for rapid stock removal and bringing the board parrel to the other face. The saner is better to smooth out the panel and get it ready for finishing. One will not replace the other or atleast do the job as well as the other.

[Phil Harding]

I recommend the 15" planer and the 16" (or larger) drum sander. This is essentially what I have, along with an 8" jointer. I haven't yet had a need for a wider planer, but I have at times wished for a wider sander. Even though the Performax is open ended and can handle up to a 32" panel, this doesn't work as well as I would like. In fact, I am replacing my Performax 16-32 with a 22-44 Performax Pro.

If you can swing it, get the spiral cutter head with the planer - you won't regret it.:)

-- Phil

[Dave Tinley]

Chris-
One thing to concider is that the spiral head planer will leave small ridges in the wood you plane. It will not be surface ready. You will have to do some hand sanding.
Also, What is the width of the majority stuff you are going to run thru the planer??
I ask this because I went down this same road. I ended up with a bridgewood 15inch planer and installed the spiral head. In the last four years, I think I have had one, maybe two times I wished I had a bigger planer. I buy most of my lumber rough, or skipped planed and this Planer is great for dimensioning the lumber.
I also purchased the Fox 25" double drum sander, and it is great for large panels, and taking the planed lumber down to final size.
I really think you have to analyze what will be the large majority of use these machines will get.
Good luck on your choices.

Dave





For general hobby but serious woodworking, what would be a better setup: a 15 inch spiral head planer and 16 inch (or larger) drum sander, or 20 inch spiral head planer and no sander. [I can put up with shavings but hate sawdust:D]. Can one get by with only hand power sanding tools and no large powered sanders since spiral headed planers provide such nice surfaces?

[keith ouellette]

I have both. A twenty in. planer (not the best model) but works fine and a 16/32 performax open end sander. The 20 in planer is nice but if i couldn't have both I would only have the sander as long as it had at least 32" cap. (There is no sawdust left with even a small dust collector. sawdust is easy to pull.)
I use the sander to thickness plane a lot of different things. It is especially useful if you only need to take small amounts. You can sneak up on a thickness. I did just put a twenty in. wide panel through my planner because it was a bad glue up and it wood have taken longer to do on the sander (I only had used 80 grit on it and the planner is a one pass deal) but I wouldn't want to be without the sander. My only complaint is I don't have a 22/44.

Short version:
I love my sander and would chose the smaller planer and sander option.

[George Bregar]

Another planer/sander vote. There are many uses for the drum sander that a planer just would do. And a 15" planer is more than enough for any hobbyist.

[Jim Becker]

If you don't have a wide jointer, consider a J/P combo rather than a big planer and a sander. The latter only gets very occasional use in my shop, but the wide jointer is a primary tool. If you already have a wide jointer, then the planer + sander makes better sense to me than a wider planer.

[Louis Rucci]

I have a Powermatic 15" spiral planer and a 38" woodmaster drum sander. Plenty of capacity for my future woodworking (shop not ready yet <frown>).

[Thom Sturgill]

Question guys, what is the minimum thickness you can plane versus what you can sand? I don't have either a larger planer or sander, but used to use a large drum sander to work guitar tops. I would not even want to think about trying to put a piece like that through a planer.

[Jim Becker]

Question guys, what is the minimum thickness you can plane versus what you can sand? I don't have either a larger planer or sander, but used to use a large drum sander to work guitar tops. I would not even want to think about trying to put a piece like that through a planer.

Depends on the specific planer...many of the so-called "stationary" planers don't prefer to go under 1/4" thickness, although you can certainly do it with a sled. The portables are a little more forgiving and some can go to 1/8". I know I'm not thrilled to go much below 1/4" on my J/P as the drive system is a bit aggressive. I have used my drum sander to get things down lower a few times, but rarely need material that thin. (I buy my veneer)

[Kevin Groenke]

I'd start with a big planer (and jointer to match). Unless you're doing lots of stile and rail doors or faceframes you may find the sander less useful.

We have the PM209 20" planer with the Byrd Shelix head. Architectural modeling is a big part of our work, so we've made an auxilary bed (1" mdf with a cleat) for planing thinner stock. We've gotten straight grain stock down to 1/32" without any problem. It seems to help to back off the feed roller pressures and take thinner passes as the stock gets thinner. If there's significant waviness to the grain, thin stock has a tendency to blow-up when you go less than 1/8".

Since we got the spiral planer I haven't used the Performax 37X2 much. (the students still use it to make 1/2" mdf into 1/8" mdf though).

kg

[Ken Lutes]

I have a PM 209 20 inch and a 24 inch woodmaster. I would do without the sander first. I am wanting to buy a larger jointer when I can. I love the 20 inch planer. I dont know what I would do with out it.

[Jack Camillo]

what Mike Heidrick said.