Burning Drum Sanding Cherry

[George Bokros]

I was running some cherry through my drum sander. I was not taking a very big cut and was not running it fast so as to kick out the overload on my Performax 16-32 drums sander. I did get some burning but was only sanding two pieces.

Question, what can I do to avoid the burning? Run a faster feed rate, barely taking a cut at all? I was only running one piece so was it heat building up from from the passes in quick succession?

I was able to remove the burning with the ROS so the piece was not lost.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Chris Stephenson]

George,

I have the same sander and experienced the same issue, I found that running a lower grit paper and taking a smaller cut resolved the issue. Additionally I had to re-level the drum to ensure it was parallel to the bed. I no longer run over a 100 grit paper

[George Bokros]

I no longer run over a 100 grit paper

I assume your mean you no longer run a coarser paper than 100 grit. I was running 120 I believe. Next time I will run a faster feed rate and take a very light cut.

[John TenEyck]

Fresh sanding paper makes a world of difference. That said, I too often have trouble with cherry using 120 grit. The best I could do with it was to take minimal cuts, a couple of thou, and turn up the speed, just as you suggested. As said, coarser grit allows a lot better productivity with much lower probability of problems. For problem woods I look at the drum sander as a means to eliminate planer chipout and knife marks. Cosmetic sanding is better done with the ROS.

John

[George Bokros]

John, I was looking for level up a slight out of flush on a glue up. The panel was just slightly too wide for my 13" planer.

[glenn bradley]

Higher grit, faster speed, lighter cut. One (or a combination of these) is what works for me.

[Jim Morgan]

John, I was looking for level up a slight out of flush on a glue up. The panel was just slightly too wide for my 13" planer.

Personally, I would use card scraper + ROS for this. Cherry is always prone to burning while being machined.

[Mike Wilkins]

My 25" dual drum sander will do the same thing on harder wood species such as cherry. I only use the drum sander to remove planer marks or smooth a rough cut board. I vote for stopping at 100 grit and finish with hand-held random orbit machines.

[Art Mann]

I have 2 drum sanders and I don't have many problems. The burns I have experienced were caused by trying to remove too much material. I try to shoot for 0.015" or less material removal per trip (less than a quarter turn). If you are trying to flatten or thickness sand a board, that will require a lot of trips through the machine. I used to get pine pitch on the paper when I sanded heart pine salvage lumber but I seldom do that any more.

By the way, cherry is notorious for burning whether you are using a drum sander or a table saw.